Book Review: At Home in The Wine Country
First, a bit of minor housekeeping: there are no wineries or wine to be found within the 240 pages of At Home In The Wine Country. Those would be found in the excellent companion volume The New Architecture of Wine: 25 Spectacular California Wineries which co-author Heather Sandy Herbert published back in 2019. So if…
Review: Diageo Orphan Barrel Project Copper Tongue Bourbon 16 Years Old
The latest round of Diageo’s Orphan Barrel releases is Copper Tongue, a 16 year old cast strength bourbon made at George Dickel’s Cascade Hollow Distilling Company. The whiskey is immediately unusual in that it spent those years in a single-story rickhouse in the Tullahoma, Tennessee facility, which likely explains the surprisingly low abv considering this…
Review: Pastis Henri Bardouin
For those requiring a brief overview: Pastis is an anise-flavored liqueur usually served as an aperitif and served with cold water. Pastis Henri Bardouin arrives from Distilleries et Domaines de Provence and features a secret proprietary blend of 65 herbs and spices. It is not an absinthe but could be considered close kin. The label…
Review: Meukow Cognac VSOP
Meukow is the Cognac with the panther on the bottle. Or rather, in the bottle, part of the bottle. There’s more to it than that, I’m sure, but I don’t know a whole lot more about it than that — except that the house dates back to 1862. This VSOP is reportedly aged for five…
Review: Whitehouse Sicilian Bitter Wine
Created in the Marsala region of Sicily, bitter wine shares some familial ties with amaro: both feature gentian root and cinchona bark as core ingredients. But that’s really where the parallels end. This blend of marsala wine and botanicals is crafted by winemaker Nicola Centonze, who also creates an amaro (called Reset) that’s worth seeking…
Review: A Trio of 2020 Provence Roses
It’s wonderful that rosé has graduated from a seasonal wine to one that can be enjoyed any day. And while it can be enjoyed any time, it is most often appreciated in the heat or alongside outdoor activities. There was a point, back when I thought I knew something about wine, that if I was…
Review: George Dickel Bourbon 8 Years Old
This new bottling from Dickel flew a bit under the radar when it was released this summer, but it merits discussion, as it’s a new permanent member of the George Dickel lineup, carrying an age statement of 8 years old. At first it may seem there’s not a whole lot to the story — it’s…
Review: Distilleria Varnelli l’Anice Secco Speciale
You know those recipe blogs that always start off with some long-winded anecdote about family traditions or a trip the author took to someplace magical, and all you want to know about is the recipe or how the product rates? I hate those too. Which is why I’m absolutely not going to tell you the…
