Rated A-
Reviews of spirits, wine, and beer (and various errata like mixers and garnishes) comprise more than 80% of the content at Drinkhacker, and the A- rating is used for very good to exceptional products. On a five-star scale, these products would score 4 stars. On the traditional 100-point scale popular with many wine and spirits graders, these products would merit scores of 90 to 93 points.
Starting in 2025, Barrell Craft Spirits began introducing several lineup rebrands. To kick off 2026, we’ve got the latest in their “Red Label Series”: a 12 year, age-stated blend of straight bourbons, finished in toasted American oak. The release is the most immediate followup to last year’s (fantastic) French Oak bottling, which cracked our Top…
Violet Crown Spirits in Bastrop, Texas, produces a variety of obscure liqueurs and other spirits, including multiple absinthes and amari, the latter of which we turn our attention to today. We’re looking at three of them, each decidedly different. Violet Crown Spirits Midnight Marigold Bitter Cordial Review This herbaceous amaro was created in collaboration with…
Limerick Lane Cellars is a boutique winemaking operation in Sonoma with a distinct focus on zinfandel, where some of the state’s most-prized expressions of the grape are broken. Its owner, Karen Francis DeGolia, took an unusual route to Limerick’s current stewardship: She was the original life partner of the original founder of the winery, but…
Redbreast’s Iberian Series — now featuring five whiskeys finished in different types of Spanish sherry casks (and one in Port) — continues its journey with this exotic expression, finished in Moscatel wine casks. Crafted by Master Blender David McCabe, this limited-edition honors both Redbreast’s heritage and innovation by using Moscatel Wine casks from the historic…
The Hakushu is a whisky at ease in its own lightness, but ends up bearing a bit of weight via metaphors. It has been dragooned into service as a forest in a glass, a meditation, a mountain breeze from the Japanese Alps miraculously bottled and sold at luxury elite prices. However, what arrives is far…
Rabbit Hole‘s latest limited edition is called Amrûlé, the latter part of the name a reference to the maple brûlé barrels in which Boxergrail four year old sour mash rye whiskey is finished. What is maple brûlé? I had to look that one up: It’s a maple syrup barrel that’s been emptied and torched, creme…
Jameson is one of the big darlings of the whiskey world right now — Irish is currently the fastest growing spirits category, and Jameson is at the top of the sales charts. We’ve long loved Jameson’s various incarnations, and now it’s out with a new one. Jameson Black Barrel is mostly pot still malted and…
Since 2016, NBA Hall of Famer Isaiah Thomas has been the sole importer and front man of Cheurlin Champagne in the U.S. In today’s celebrity-led wine culture, the association of French champagne and an American basketball superstar isn’t terribly unusual except for the fact that it started when the trend was fairly new. Thomas mentions…
The thing about Catena Zapata and the narrative the winery prefers to tell about itself is that it is both a perfect distillation of Argentina and also incomplete. Yes, there are the high-altitude viticultural breakthroughs, the almost comically idyllic backdrops of Mendoza, and a Malbec portfolio insisting people stop thinking of Argentina as a punchline…
Being one of the iconic Saint Julien Left Bank estates, Château Ducru-Beaucaillou isn’t the least bit shy about its reputation and bona fides. But its Madame de Beaucaillou offering is where the estate can let its hair down for a good time and kick back in the garden, rather than the fifty-foot dining room table.…