Rated B
Reviews of spirits, wine, and beer (and various errata like mixers and garnishes) comprise more than 80% of the content at Drinkhacker, and the B rating is used for products that are good but which we don’t exactly love — and which we can provide with a qualified recommendation. On a five-star scale, these products would score 3 stars. On the traditional 100-point scale popular with many wine and spirits graders, these products would merit scores of 83 to 86 points.
The designation “farm-to-table” will always receive a Bourdainian side-eye from me. It’s one of those oft-used, food-adjacent phrases like “craft,” “handmade,” and “gourmet” that are intended to evoke a specific feeling while not necessarily meaning much of anything at all. And so, here we have Beattie’s Distillers, whose slogan prominently displayed on the front…
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Four Roses is famous for its 10 bourbon recipes — but outside of the single barrel releases, it’s impossible to actually taste them on their own, as they’re variously blended into all of Four Roses’ other products. Even the single barrel releases aren’t all that instructive into what the recipes bring to the table, as…
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Plantation Rum has just dropped six new expressions in its Plantation Rum Vintage Collection, all rare, small batch collections of just a few dozen barrels each, all sourced from single distilleries and none younger than nine years of age. Dubbed the “Under the Sea” collection, we were fortunate to try all six for review. Plantation…
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Now in its second year, the Virginia Spirits Expo is expanding to include four different events across the state. I attended the first of these in Charlottesville over the summer where more than two dozen Virginia distillers were on hand to share their labors of love. It was unseasonably warm at Ix Art Park that…
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While the 3 Star expression might be the most readily available rum from Puerto Rico’s Ron del Barrilito, the brand actually offers impressively aged 4 and 5 Star offerings, as well as this bottle, the entry level 2 Star. Per Ron del Barrilito, this introductory expression has been aged “at least 3 to 5 years”…
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Our friends at La Maison & Velier recently dropped a new line of small-production, single vintage, single cask Armagnacs, all being sold under its new Version Francaise line. At the time, we mentioned that French whisky was also coming out under the Version Francaise label, and that is precisely where we’re headed today. While some…
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The Familia Fernández Rivera can be found in Spain’s Ribera del Duero, where the weather is hot and the tempranillo grapes grow ripe, developing an unmistakable intensity of flavor. The family harvested its first vintage in 1975. Today it farms 200 hectares of tempranillo, all sustainably, bottling the resulting wines under four different brands. Today…
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Ten years after its launch, the Papa’s Pilar rum brand continues to explode with the addition of a fourth permanent expression to the lineup. It’s probably the oddest rum in the lineup, finishing the brand’s Dark Rum (a solera blend of rums from Barbados, Dominican Republic, Panama, Venezuela, and Florida) with once-used straight rye whiskey barrels…
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Israeli distillery Milk & Honey continues to churn out unique and innovative single malts. Case in point: a pair of recent arrivals on the Drinkhacker review desk. One is from the Elements Series, several of which we’ve covered in the past, and another is from a new line of rare releases dubbed Art & Craft.…
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Fever-Tree is famous for its carbonated mixers, and now it’s turning its attention to an obvious counterpart: cocktail mixers in the form of margarita (two types) and Bloody Mary mixes. The trio are available in 750ml bottles and, like most Fever Tree products, are made from high-grade ingredients. All prices below are for 750ml bottles.…
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