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
On January 25, 1759, the great Scottish bard Robert Burns was born. I am slightly ashamed to admit that I was entirely unfamiliar with Burns, but I am now well acquainted as the folks at Aberlour distillery invited Drinkhacker to a traditional and relaxed Burns Supper at Palo Alto’s MacArthur Park restaurant. According to our…
So apparently biblical amounts of rain and an outdoor world-class bourbon festival just don’t mix. You may have heard that the much anticipated, weekend whiskey and music extravaganza that should have been Bourbon & Beyond last October didn’t even make it 24 hours before the powers that be in Louisville deemed Champions Park unsafe to…
Spring Mountain can be found on the northern tip of California’s Napa Valley, and today it’s home to some of the county’s most prized vineyards. Established as an AVA in 1993, it’s not a particularly high mountain (ranging up to only 2600 feet), though the terrain can be quite rugged. Visiting here often feels like…
Another WhiskyFest is in the books, and although the lines for iconic bottles like Pappy van Winkle, Macallan No. 3 and No. 4, and Glenfiddich 30 Years Old (which those in the queue were surprised to find was not actually on hand when they got to the front of the line) were long, on the…
It’s been two years since we took a deep dive into Madeira, but recently representatives from this unique, fortified, island-grown wine style arrived in San Francisco with their latest wares in tow. This includes some classic brands and one new one — a cooperative of all-female winemakers called CAF being the first new winemaking operation…
For our latest installment of Drinkhacker Asks we sit down with best-selling author and bourbon authority Fred Minnick. If you’re a spirits nerd, like me, chances are you’ve got one or two of his books on your shelf like Whiskey Women, Bourbon Curious, Bourbon: The Rise, Fall, and Rebirth of America’s Native Spirit, or Rum…
As with each of DC’s past three WhiskyFests, everyone in the room looked like they could use a few drinks. Thankfully, there was no shortage of unique whiskey options, from Knob Creek Single Barrel samples that were pulled directly from the barrel(!) to a young Tennessee whiskey whose distillery still doesn’t have a name. I…
For the first time since 2011, a Vintage Port year is being widely declared for 2016. (A smattering of 2015 vintage wines were also released in limited rotation.) 2016 was a hot, hot year for the Douro — I know, because it’s the summer we were touring there — but numerous producers, who visited San…
If you need a crowd-pleasing wine — generally a white wine — it never hurts to look to the Loire. These wines are often extremely affordable and usually quite approachable, even though stylistically they can be all over the map. (79 appellations can be found in this region, and 24 grape varieties are grown here…
If wines hitting the market in 2018 are any guide, New Zealand continues its march upmarket, putting out wines of increasingly high quality at a variety of price points. In my tasting of dozens of 2018 releases from NZ, I found that releases of sauvignon blanc are particularly worthwhile, continuing the trend of dialing back that…