Reviews
Reviews of spirits, wine, and beer (and various errata like mixers and garnishes) comprise more than 80% of the content at Drinkhacker, and here you’ll find the entire Drinkhacker review archive in one place. Products are rated on a letter-grade scale that should be familiar to most, with F as our lowest, “failing” grade and the very rare A+ as our top score.
Top Reviews Posts:
Notes on Grading
How to Analyze, Score, and Review Whiskey
Admiral Imports, which is bringing the incredibly controversial (based on the comments on this review, at least) Koruna Absinthe to the U.S. market, isn’t just quitting with one. It’s also bringing these two absinthes — Djabel and Green Fairy, both also from the Czech Republic — to the States. I’m lumping these two reviews together…
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Like this. San Francisco’s Waterbar serves this $20 “Ultimate” Bloody Mary, which largely speaks for itself. The garnishes — bacon and two jumbo boiled shrimp — steal the show, but the Bloody itself is darn good, too. Belevedere Vodka — not my favorite on its own — works fine with this superb blend of tomato…
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What an amazing disappointment this wine was, as Brotte has a solid reputation in the Rhone valley of France. Weedy, gamy, and redolent of Port-like character, I had immense trouble drinking Brotte’s Chateauneuf-du-Pape (primarily a grenache-based wine), either on its own or with a big, traditional French meal. Nothing could cut through this Chateauneuf’s funk.…
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Don’t laugh. Canadian Mist may not be a top-shelf name in the Canadian whisky world, but the spirit’s been picking up some surprising awards, including a Double Gold Medal at the San Francisco Spirits Competition this year — the only Canadian to win one in 2009. Not bad for whisky that costs 10 bucks a…
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One way to sell your product is to tout its ancient recipe, artisan craftsmanship, and so on. Another way is to tell the world how long it took you devise the concoction. In the case of Love Potion #9, the company notes that “almost 1,800 trial-and-error formulations [were experimented with] before its blend of 20…
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Vintage tequila? You betcha. Tequila Ocho produces tequilas in individually numbered bottles and dated to the vintage of the agave harvest from the estate in question. It’s said to be the first single-estate tequila to be released in the U.S. — bringing to the tequila world what has worked (and worked well) for wine. We…
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If we strictly reviewed packaging here, well, we’d have some choice words about the bottle for Spirit of Liberty, which is mostly comprised of a plastic Statue of Liberty atop a small vial of bourbon cream liqueur. I’m not sure what those words might be yet, but I will note that it’s available in larger…
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As promised, we’re back with another ridiculously expensive, very rare Scotch whisky — Laphroaig’s 25-year-old limited edition, weighing in at $500 even. I have to say, I’ve always wondered what old Laphroaig would taste like, and my curiosity is now sated: It’s amazing. With this 25-year Islay whisky, all that harsh, oil-fire phenol that’s part…
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Does one really “slay” a trout? I’m not much of a fisherman (and it turns out “Trout Slayer” has a long history which I’m not going to begin to go into), but this is indeed as close to a “gone fishin’” brew as I can fathom. It’s a very light wheat ale, starting out with…
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Judging by the amount of malbec that rolls in here, it really is the fastest growing wine varietal in the U.S. Oftentimes, malbec is weedy, green, and super-tannic, but sometimes a really nice bottle rolls around, like High Note’s 2007, which also happens to bear a rock-bottom price This Argentinian wine from Mendoza is lightly…
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