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
When you eat sushi, Chinese food, or pad thai, what’s your drink of choice? If you’re like most: Beer, maybe sake, if you’re feeling adventurous. Why not wine? The general dearth of wine options on most Asian food beverage lists is a good reason, but a more common one is that consumers just have no…
Sangiovese is the king of all Italian grapes, so much so that if you’re drinking a wine from Italy but aren’t sure what it’s made from, there’s a good chance it’s Sangiovese, usually 100%. Three of Italy’s big names in wine are all based on Sangiovese: Brunello, Chianti, and Montepulciano. I was excited by this…
Guy Sarton du Jonchay has been the winemaker at the Rhone Valley’s Vidal-Fleury since 2008, but his roots in the wine business run deep. For decades he’s been making wine in France and in Argentina. Happenstance has brought him home to France where he’s overseeing 80,000 cases of wine from Vidal-Fleury’s 19 AOCs each year.…
The infamous ZAP festival of Zinfandel descended on San Francisco recently, and this year I skipped the cattle call grand tasting in favor of something a little quieter, and more education. The “Flights” event, hosted by Ravenswood’s Joel Peterson, took Zin enthusiasts through three sets of wines, 16 bottlings in all. The conceit: Split the…
The Single Malt & Scotch Whisky Extravaganza is the smallest of the whisky shows, but that doesn’t mean it has something to prove. With fewer crowds and more thoughtful selections — no white dog here, folks — you can find quality whisky (overwhelmingly Scotch) at every table in the room. This year the Extravaganza seemed…
This recent wine event featured a collection of all-over-the-map Italian wines, from well-known brands like Antinori and Donnafugata to obscurities (and lots of cheap stuff) seeking an importer on our shores. No guarantee that you’ll find any of these for sale, including, tragically, the perfectly-formed 2007 Tenuta Carretta Cannubi Barolo, perhaps the best Italian wine…
WhiskyFest remains the whiskey enthusiast’s festival to beat. With hundreds of whiskeys, it is a mad dash for all sorts of great stuff — if only you can find it in the scattered auditorium and muscle your way to the front of the line. Don’t worry, you can do it, and even though the 2011…
Last year’s Ministry of Rum event was a tasty yet tiny look at the growing world of rum, and most of the same faces — with a few new ones — were back again in 2011. I focused on unfamiliar brands at this walk-around event… but made it a point to retry a few rums…
Grappa, something of a national spirit in Italy, doesn’t have to come from the famous country. Anyone can make the stuff — and, arguably, it’s far easier for a grape-grower in, say, Virginia, to produce good grappa than good wine. Recently I gathered with friends to sample and compare a host of grappas from all…
“Is this your first Classic?” It was a question I’d hear more than once over the three days I spent in Aspen last month at what has become the pre-eminent annual food and wine event in America. Emphasis on food. In a single evening I encountered Mario Batali, Jacques Pepin, Jose Andres (who personally prepared…