Review: NV Forever Young Rose Cotes de Provence
Forever Young is a new Côtes de Provence rosé clearly built with summer, parties, and bachelorettes all in mind. It’s a nonvintage offering, blended from 40% cinsault, 55% grenache, and 5% syrah and featuring a trendy glass stopper instead of a cork. Let’s give it a whirl. Brutally floral, with a secondary punch of strawberry.…
Review: Angel’s Envy Triple Oak Bourbon
In 2024, American whiskey enthusiasts often take for granted the existence of whiskey featuring a secondary maturation, as such offerings are extremely common. Dating back to 2006, Angel’s Envy served as a pioneer that got the ball rolling on the secondary maturation front, with its bourbon finished in Port wine casks. October 2024 brings Angel’s…
Review: Clear Creek Pear Brandy and Apple Brandy 2 Years Old (2024)
We’ve barely scratched the surface on Oregon-based Clear Creek Distillery’s many brandies and liqueurs, but today we’re taking a look at a pear of them. Ha, see what I did there? Clear Creek’s unaged Pear Brandy was actually the first spirit we tasted from the distillery way back in 2009, but we figured it was…
Review: Larceny Barrel Proof Bourbon Batch B524 (May 2024)
The 2024 halfway mark of Larceny Barrel Proof releases has arrived: B524 coming in at 62.7% abv, but otherwise refusing to mix up this well-worn equation. (Wheated bourbon, cask strength, no age statement.) As a side note, Larceny recently changed up its standard edition, 92-proof label design (see photo, right). Here’s how the brand…
Book Review: In Fine Spirits: A Complete Guide to Distilled Drinks
The pull quote on the back cover of Joel Harrison and Neil Ridley’s In Fine Spirits declares “The culture of enjoying quality spirits and liquors is in a new golden age.” While economic reports from Discus and crisis clickbait headlines from major media outlets would suggest otherwise, the appearance of new distilleries and breweries (macro-…
Review: Bruichladdich Octomore 15.1, 15.2, and 15.3
After 15 years of Octomore, it feels like they must have burned through all the peat in Scotland to produce this ultra-smoky whisky. Apparently that’s not the case, as the Octo-trio is back again with one question on its mind: How much peat are you ready to handle? As usual Octomore has plenty of surprises…
Book Review: One Thousand Vines: A New Way to Understand Wine
This translation of Pascaline Lepeltier’s One Thousand Vines is dense (the original French edition was released in 2022). Every chapter is its own college course part of a larger, self-taught degree in oenology, every sentence is worth re-reading and committing salient details to memory in the event they reappear when explaining concepts deeper into the…
Review: Jack Daniel’s Single Barrel Special Release 2024 – Coy Hill Barrelhouse 8
Jack Daniel’s latest Single Barrel Special Release harkens back to what is arguably its most prized, sought-after release of all time: 2021’s Coy Hill High Proof. That release was famous for being one of the highest-proof bourbons ever commercially released (and was followed by a 2022 re-issue of additional stock). You can’t really follow that…