Review: Rebecca Creek Spirit Whiskey
It’s not just whiskey, this is Fine Texas Spirit Whiskey — produced, blended and bottled in San Antonio. If you’re not familiar with the spirit whiskey category (and why would you be), it has that funny name because the bottle includes 21% grain neutral spirits. The other 79% is “a blend of premium bourbons. The…
Review: Shots Box Subscription Service
There’s an ever-growing number of liquor subscriptions out there, most of which can be broken down into two categories: cocktails or bottles. Cocktail subscriptions periodically supply you with all (or most) of the ingredients needed to make the a selection of craft cocktails at home. Bottle subscriptions provide you with a full or mini-bottle of…
Tasting Report: Bourbon & Beyond 2018
So apparently biblical amounts of rain and an outdoor world-class bourbon festival just don’t mix. You may have heard that the much anticipated, weekend whiskey and music extravaganza that should have been Bourbon & Beyond last October didn’t even make it 24 hours before the powers that be in Louisville deemed Champions Park unsafe to…
Review: Taconic Distillery Dutchess Private Reserve Bourbon Cognac Cask
New York-based Taconic Distillery (formerly known as Millbrook Distillery) was established in 2013, but it’s already winning praise for its homegrown whiskey, including this bourbon, a whiskey (reportedly 70% corn, 25% rye, and 5% barley) that spends 3 1/2 years in its original new oak cask (no size noted), then another 6 months in a…
Review: Victory Java Cask Bourbon Barrel-Aged Blonde Coffee Stout
We’re well into winter, so that means I start gravitating to more barrel-aged beers. While I love the traditional dark, malty stout with a healthy dose of bourbon barrel, I’m always up for something different in the category, and Victory’s Java Cask Gold certainly fits that bill. It’s a blonde coffee stout made with cascade…
Review: Uncle Nearest 1856 Whiskey
It’s often said that to succeed in the whiskey business a product needs to, of course, be good, but it also needs to have a good story. In recent years, with more and more new whiskeys claiming little more than the title of “First Distilled in ___ Since Prohibition,” it’s seemed like all the good…
Review: New Belgium Brut IPA, Voodoo Ranger Imperial Black IPA, and Voodoo Ranger Liquid Paradise IPA
Three new New Belgium brews — all IPAs — including a trendy brut IPA and two additions to the always-rotating Voodoo Ranger brand. New Belgium Brut IPA – Brut IPA is to 2019 what Hazy IPA was to 2018: The next big shift for the style, named thusly because it makes for a very crisp…
Review: Mortlach 12, 16, and 20 Years Old (2019)
In 2014, Diageo gave its storied Mortlach Distillery a big boost, relaunching its whiskies with three new expressions — a NAS release, an 18 year old, and a 25 year old, all beautiful monsters worth of Mortlach’s moniker, “The Beast of Dufftown.” And then they kind of disappeared. The promised increase in production never quite…
