Review: Michter’s US-1 Barrel Strength Straight Rye 2024
Last year saw the return of a full slate of Michter’s 10-year-old bottlings (bourbon and rye) plus a new Toasted Barrel Finish Rye and some other unicorns we unfortunately didn’t get a chance to sample. Missing from the 2023 release calendar was a Barrel Strength Straight Rye (which seems to happen when a toasted offering…
Review: NON5 Lemon Marmalade & Hibiscus Non-Alcoholic Cocktail
Another NA option from Australia-based NON, NON5 is a blend of hops, lemon verbena, lemongrass, hibiscus, lemon myrtle, licorice root, peppermint, preserved lemon, Murray River salt, verjus, and sugar. That’s a lot of lemon and lemon-adjacent ingredients, but the palate somehow avoids becoming a lemon bomb (and, in fact, the cocktail is a bright shade…
Review: Dragon’s Milk Origin Small Batch Bourbon
New Holland and its flagship Dragon’s Milk bourbon barrel-aged stout is, and was, a beer that always felt a step or two behind its pseudo-mass market, craft contemporaries in Founders’ KBS and Goose Island’s Bourbon County. Despite a mid-2010s distribution deal with Pabst, KBS and Bourbon County won the races in accessibility, visibility, accolades, and…
Review: Wines of Avaline (2024)
A partnership between actress Cameron Diaz and entrepreneur Katherine Power, Avaline is a wine brand positioning itself as a clean, transparent option offering a full range of wines including white wines and rosé, most of which are being re-reviewed here with their slightly updated branding. Throughout their website and marketing campaign, Avaline emphasizes organic farming…
Review: Hunting Creek Rye Whiskey
We’ve been following the evolution of North Carolina’s Southern Distilling Company for a while now. It’s a craft distiller that seems to have achieved the enviable transition from quality sourced whiskey to superior house-made whiskey. That’s not always an easy jump to make, for a variety of reasons. When last we looked in on Southern,…
Review: 2019 Sapaio Toscana IGT
Podere Sapaio’s eponymous Supertuscan is a standout from the moment you open the bottle. (The name comes from Sapaia, a very old Tuscan grape variety.) A blend of 70% cabernet sauvignon, 20% petit verdot, and 10% cabernet franc, the wine spends 18 months in barriques and 12 months in bottle before release. The opulence of…
Review: Freeland Spirits Old Tom Gin
Old Tom gin was popular in the eighteenth century and appears to be making something of a comeback today. That stated, there is no clear definition of what Old Tom gin actually is. It typically describes a gin that has added sugar or sweeteners and can spend time aging in wood. For their version, Freeland…
Review: Tequila Pantalones Blanco
You’ve seen the ads. You know the couple behind it. There’s nothing left to do here but toss out an “está bien, está bien, está bien” for Matthew and Camila McConaughey’s tequila, which is named in honor of the pants you are bound to remove upon cracking open the bottle. This is McConaughey’s second foray…
