Review: Wines of Victoria, Australia, 2025 Releases
Australia is a country and a continent. It’s big. Really big. Not surprisingly, it has a number of wildly diverse wine regions. So, while lots of people in the U.S. are familiar with Australian wines, particularly Shiraz, there are significant wine regions that remain generally unknown and which are better suited to different grapes. Today…
Review: Chicken Cock Small Batch Bourbon
When Grain and Barrel Spirits launched Chicken Cock Whiskey in 2018, the branding drew plenty of amused chatter. While the name might draw some snickers today, the brand was originally established in Paris, Kentucky back in 1856. To revive Chicken Cock Whiskey, Grain and Barrel and Gregg Snyder worked with Bardstown Bourbon Company’s collaborative distilling…
Review: Conte Camillo Negroni
Mack Brands, purveyor of Finvara Irish Whiskey and Tequila Rosaluz, recently launched a new offering in the States: A bottled Negroni made from authentic ingredients. It’s described as a “meticulous balance of gin, vermouth, and bitters, with each ingredient sourced and treated to ensure authenticity” and boasts the use of “pure, mineral-rich water from the…
Review: Canned Cocktails of Moth
Moth — formally “MOTH:” with a colon — is relatively unknown in the U.S., but it’s actually the UK’s #1 premium ready-to-drink cocktail brand. Short for “Mix of Total Happiness,” Moth has at least 10 different flavors, with four available in the States in the form of a mixed four-pack, one 200ml can of each…
Review: Nearest Green Tennessee Whiskey
I don’t know if there’s a bigger success story in the whiskey world in the last decade than Uncle Nearest, with Nearest Green-descendent Fawn Weaver churning out a range of expressions across the spectrum from the top shelf to, well, further down. Need more proof? Despite its youth, the Uncle Nearest distillery is now the…
Review: 2019 Ceretto Barolo DOCG
Ceretto has been producing wine in Piemonte’s Langhe region for more than 90 years, where it operates more than 400 acres of estate-grown vineyards and a three-Michelin star restaurant. Its latest Barolo from the 2019 vintage is intensely earthy, hailing from a cool, cold year for Piedmont. The resulting restraint on this wine is evident…
Review: 2019 Chateau Malartic-Lagraviere Pessac-Leognan Blanc
There is a whole lot of complicated French in the name of this delightful white Bordeaux, which has been in the family of Alfred and Michele Bonnie for 28 years now. The blend of 76% sauvignon blanc and 24% semillon couldn’t be further removed from overly fruity, weedy, or astringent New World styles, alternately showcasing…
Review: Bozal Mezcal Tobasiche and Cempasuchil
Even if you’re not a mezcal drinker, you’ve probably seen Bozal’s iconic ceramic bottles, painted in understated earth tones, on the back bar more than once. Bozal, which means “wild” or “untamed,” produces a huge range of mezcals, ranging from a simple Ensamble to various single maguey and reserve bottlings. Today we look at two…