Review: Wines of Stag’s Leap Wine Cellars, 2024 Releases
Stag’s Leap Wine Cellars (not to be confused with Stags’ Leap Winery) is one of the OGs of the Napa wine world, and it’s always fun to see what the operation is getting up to with its new releases. Today we’re looking at a trio of wines (from three different vintages), only one of which…
The Ultimate Spirits Getaway in Progress: A Revisit to Bhakta-Griswold in Vermont
Back in 2023, David was one of the first journalists to visit Bhakta-Griswold, the brand campus-cum-booze camp owned by the notorious spirit innovator Raj Bhakta. The stories he recounted of this former Vermont college that now houses and showcases one of the largest vintage spirits collections in the country were, in a word, unusual. It…
Review: General Admission Non-Alcoholic Fruit Brews, Complete Lineup
Imagine a fruit-heavy, lightly sour beer, lightened up to be a bit even less funky and fully stripped of alcohol, and you’ve got the basics of General Admission, a new non-alcoholic fruit brew that is a bit like a fruity seltzer water with just a little more oomph to it. Available in four flavors, General…
Review: Woodford Reserve Master’s Collection Batch Proof 2025
Woodford Reserve’s Batch Proof Bourbon is an annual affair, but 2024‘s hit in the early spring — and the next release was announced in December 2024. I’m going to go ahead and call this the 2025 Batch Proof release, but it’s likely you’ll find this bottle labeled sometimes as a 2024 edition alongside the actual…
Review: Humano Tequila – Blanco and Reposado
Humano Tequila lays claim to being one of the few tequila producers “with direct control over their production from field to glass,” producing its spirits from single-estate agave cultivated across 1250 acres of the Jalisco highlands. Here’s a lot more detail, should you desire it: “Our name honors the human touch at each step of…
Review: Town Branch American Single Malt Bottled in Bond 15 Years Old
January 19, 2025, marked the first occasion that distillers had the option to officially classify their whiskey as American single malt whiskey with the Tobacco Tax & Trade Bureau (TTB). While official recognition of the standards of identity for American single malt whiskey is very new, numerous distillers have been self-imposing those same standards for…
Review: Wines of Decoy, 2025 Releases
Decoy is famous as Duckhorn’s second label, and it’s easy to see the connection, as even the Decoy labels stick close to home, complete with duck-themed branding. Recently we received a set of five wines from Decoy’s recent releases, ranging from its entry-level California bottlings to more upscale (though still very affordable) bottlings denoted as…
Review: 13 Whiskeys of Lasso Motel
So there may not be an actual Lasso Motel, but it does serve as a fun moniker for a new operation that’s sourcing, finishing, and bottling whiskey — and lots of it. By my count the company has 13 different whiskeys on the market now — mostly bourbon but also a rye and a few…