Events
Wine, beer, and whiskey are all poured frequently at events held around the globe, and here at Drinkhacker we tend to patronize many of them. This category offers our tasting reports from these events — as well as announcements of upcoming events that you the reader may be interested in attending. Watch especially for discount codes and freebies, which we often cross-post to our Contests section.
Top Events Posts:
Tasting Report: Bourbon & Beyond 2018
Tasting Report: WhiskyFest San Francisco 2018
Tasting Report: Bordeaux and Sauternes, 2015 Vintage
Vintage 2012 Bordeaux is in the cusp of release, and recently I had the opportunity to taste a huge swath of it when some 80 chateaux descended on the U.S. All in all, these wines showed quite well. 2012 white Bordeaux wines are drinking particularly well already, and the reds of Saint-Julien had a strong showing as…
Autumn wasn’t technically with us in late August, but that didn’t stop the folks at Northstar Resort in Lake Tahoe, California, from putting on a grandiose wine and food festival. Now in its 29th year, the Lake Tahoe Autumn Food and Wine Festival is a multi-day event that combines a walk-around tasting with focused events…
New to the Robert Mondavi winemaking team is Nova Cadamatre, who hosted a few dozen writers recently to an exploration of various Robert Mondavi Cabernet releases, all of which hail in total or in part from the famed To Kalon Vineyard, which is adjacent to the Mondavi winery facility. Cadamatre guided us through seven wines…
Who likes beer fests? Sierra Nevada’s got a huge one coming up this summer, a seven-city traveling beer festival that’s called Beer Camp Across America and which will feature more than 700 total breweries in total. As an “invitation” to the festival, we received this 24 oz. monster bottle of Sierra’s Beer Camp West Coast Double IPA. You can’t buy…
Wet weather didn’t stop the masses from crowding onto the San Francisco Belle this year, a rite of passage for Bay Area whisky lovers attending the annual Whiskies of the World Expo. Lots of great stuff on tap this year, particularly from independent Scotch bottlers. Without further ado… Tasting Report: Whiskies of the World San…
WhiskyFest 2013 is now in the books, and my what an embarrassment of riches this show was. While I heard grousing about the show not having as many hits as usual (most of the independent Scotch bottlers like Samaroli were absent), I managed to find a ton of them. Driven this year perhaps by a…
Paso Robles is an interesting and surprisingly varied winegrowing region, and recently I had the opportunity to taste through wines from a number of winemakers based in this mid-California coastal region. From Albarino to Petite Sirah, these wines are all over the map, but they share one thing in common: the toasty environment of Paso…
One of the can’t-miss wine experiences of any year is the roadshow during which the new Vintage Ports are poured. Of course, these don’t happen every year. The last major one was the 2009 vintage, released two years ago. Overall, 2011 is a standout, the first great Vintage Port year since 2003 — which, on…
Our friends at Winebow, a major wine importer, host this event on a fairly annual basis, bringing some of the biggest names in Italian wine (and a little grappa) to the States for tasting and consideration. In addition, some virtually unknown brands, looking for distribution in the U.S., are made available, too. Prices below are…
Another standout Pinot Days this year, still going strong despite some continued economic setbacks and other wine events that seem to be shrinking. Top picks include wines from Bailiwick, Domaine Serene (Oregon), Sequana, Sojourn, and Waits-Mast. Hard though to go wrong with Kosta Browne, pouring here on a rare public showing. Favorite line overheard while…