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 represents the cream of the crop — excellent products with only minimal flaws. On a five-star scale, these products would score 4.5 stars. On the traditional 100-point scale popular with many wine and spirits graders, these products would merit scores of 94 to 97 points.
Along with Rhum Clement, Rhum J.M (a sister distillery) is one of the biggest names in Martinique’s rhum agricole industry. Distilled from sugar cane juice instead of molasses, agricole has a distinctly different character than most rums you’re probably familiar with. Intense with fuel-like flavors when they’re young, agricoles often develop into remarkably complex, world-class…
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Built atop the underground distilling and bootlegging operation of the gangster Dutch Schultz (and on family land now owned by co-founder Alex Adams), Dutch’s Spirits is a new New York-based distillery that’s attacking the spirits industry with some unexpected products — no gin or whiskey here, be warned! We tasted Dutch’s two inaugural spirits. Thoughts…
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Montesquiou… man, that is a lot of vowels. It is also the producer of a lot of Armagnacs. Formerly part of the Pernod family, it’s now being imported by ImpEx, repackaged, and expanding into broader U.S. distribution. We tasted both the VSOP and XO bottlings. Both are 80 proof and made from eaux de vie…
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How can cult Zinfandel winery Four Vines be putting out a $12 Chardonnay? Because Four Vines sold its name (and some of its wine production) to Purple Wine Corp., which has dived right in to its new brand via its The Naked & The Willing winery in Graton, California. (Four Vines, by the way, is…
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Triple sec or curacao are an essential ingredient in so many cocktails, and stylistically they cover a wide range of focuses. But they all tend to have one thing in common (well, besides tasting like oranges): They’re generally quite sweet. And so it was that cocktial god David Wondrich teamed up with Cognac producer Pierre…
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Brewing out of Atlanta, Georgia, Red Brick offers the Brick Mason series alongside its year-round core brands. This series focuses on higher abv beers with more unique ingredients (such as the smoked vanilla beans in Vanilla Gorilla). This week, I was able to get the chance to review two beers from this series. Red Brick Old…
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South of Paso Robles, north of Santa Maria, even further north of Santa Barbara, Edna Valley is a region near San Luis Obispo, where a handful of Pinot-focused wineries can be found. Here Chamisal, a smaller winery that’s part of the Crimson Wine Group (which owns Pine Ridge and Archery Summit, among others), produces a…
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As lackluster as I found the first Drinkology book to be, I didnât have high expectations for this treatise on all things beer. Much to my surprise, itâs a thorough, engaging, and well-written book about the beer world, especially if (like me) beer is not you normal beverage of choice. Thereâs really no facet of…
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Is “intense” something people normally want from their vodka? Made from single-estate Dankowskie Diamond rye in Poland, Belvedere distills this vodka four times then bottles it unfiltered for your happy consumption. (Note: There is also a Belvedere Intense that is filtered; but this version typically goes by the nickname of “Belvedere Unfiltered,” even though the…
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I say Celina, Solist, and Sankta Thora. What comes to mind? If you said Nordic maritime vessels, you are unfortunately incorrect. The answer: They are all white potato varieties grown in Sweden â and used in the production of Karlssonâs Gold vodka. I reviewed Karlssonâs Gold early in my Drinkhacking career, and found it a…
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