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
As in years past, Family Winemakers of California proves itself to be a vast and nearly unmanageable monster of a wine show. Now in its 20th year, this San Francisco event featured a whopping 340 wineries and thousands of wines being sampled. While I’m not entirely sure how the likes of Kendall-Jackson, here for the…
With the popularity (and quality) of rum rising, the Ministry of Rum continues its mission of exposing the world to great rums and rum cocktails. Recently I had the opportunity to sample numerous hard-to-find, new, and very old rums at the Ministry’s event in Alameda. Ratings and some brief thoughts on everything tasted follow. Bear…
Anne-Laure Helfrich isn’t your typical European winemaker. At 23 years old, she’s probably the youngest person I’ve ever encountered in this business, yet she’s known the wine trade all her life. A third generation beverage-maker (grandpa started with Kirsch and dad moved the family into wine), Helfrich spends much of her time on the road,…
Tasting through a smaller selection of wines at the trade portion of this year’s Pinot Days event in San Francisco, the printed matter on what Pinot Noir wines was being offered was scarce (OK, there was none), but the wines were plentiful. Here’s a selection of what I considered to be the best wines being…
To call Madeira poorly understood would be charitable. This truly ancient fortified wine from an eponymous island off the coast of (and part of) Portugal dates back to the 1400s and comes in infinite varieties. Sadly, the only one most drinkers are likely to have ever encountered is the cheap bottle carried by the local…
Try this experiment: Next time you have a fine meal in front of you, open up a bottle of tequila and see how well it goes with dinner. I had the chance to do this, courtesy of an event put on at San Francisco’s Jardiniere restaurant, thrown by Partida Tequila and Folio Fine Wine Partners,…
I had the pleasure to be led through Wild Turkey‘s six whiskeys, courtesy of an online tasting with Jimmy Russell (of “Russell’s Reserve” fame) and his son Eddie Russell, the two men responsible for distilling Wild Turkey today at Austin Nichols distillery. Both of the new Russell’s Reserve whiskeys have been re-released in new packaging…
Riesling remains underrated and largely under-consumed in the U.S., and recently two dozen German Riesling producers and importers descended on San Francisco to offer tastes of (primarily) their 2008 and 2009 vintages. One of the reasons why German Riesling is so ignored here is likely due to its complicated categorization system, which puts wines into…
The first previews of California’s 2009 cabernet sauvignon vintage were held last week, and in the battle of man vs. wine, man won. Below you’ll find notes and early ratings on 71 wines, mostly barrel samples from the upcoming ’09 vintage. Overall, I found these wines to be restrained, with a similar consistency, herbal, rich…
South Africa. What’s better than the accent? The wine. Well, sometimes. At a recent tasting of South African wines I wound my way through plenty of sauvignon blanc, chenin blanc, and pinotage (something of a national grape in these parts), but found the best wines to be something else entirely, namely exotic blends of various…