Tasting Report: Jack Rose Premier Drams 2023
After a bit of back-and-forth on the date, whiskey mecca Jack Rose Dining Saloon finally landed on October 2nd for this year’s Premier Drams festival. We would have honestly rescheduled a liver transplant to make it, and after the embarrassment of brown water riches on offer this year, we just might have to in 2024.…
Review: 2019 Far Mountain Myrna Chardonnay Sonoma Valley
Iconic Sonoma chardonnay, a straight-up vanilla bomb with backing notes of baked apples, brown butter, and a bit of guava. Things get a little dusky with some earthiness coming into focus, veering toward sharper notes of grapefruit peel, which add some bitterness to the finish. A bit chaotic in the glass, I’m not sure this…
Review: King of Kentucky Straight Bourbon 16 Years Old (2023)
When declaring to be of aristocratic lineage, especially when the word “King” comprises 1/3 of your name, logic generally dictates the excessive pageantry surrounding your arrival becomes the order of the day. So, it is always a pleasant surprise when King of Kentucky lands with minimal fanfare, absent the bloated hype and trumpeting surrounding so…
Review: 2021 Dog Point Sauvignon Blanc Marlborough
A very unusual expression of NZ sauvignon blanc, here we find the more overt tropical notes retreating into a slightly doughy, caramel-laced character that weighs the wine down quite a bit. This is a rare kiwi sauvi that benefits from warming up a bit, which allows some notes of coconut and, yes, actual kiwi fruit…
Review: Highland Park 54 Years Old
There are tasting invites, and then there are tasting invites that get you running to the nearest mode of transportation. A chance to taste Highland Park’s 54 year old expression — the line’s oldest to date, with 225 bottles released and valued at a cool $54,000 — is one of the latter. Recently, the brand…
Review: IPAs of Wicked Weed: Pernicious, Perni-Haze, and Freak of Nature
We’ve tasted a lot of beers from Wicked Weed Brewing, but somehow it seems we’ve avoided some of their most straightforward offerings. Today we’re taking a look at three different India Pale Ales from the brewery, all available year-round. Wicked Weed Pernicious IPA – If there was a flagship IPA among all of Wicked Weed’s…
Review: Michter’s US-1 Toasted Barrel Finish Rye 2023
Did you know: Michter’s pioneered the toasted barrel craze back in 2014, and it’s been at it ever since. This is the first expression of the distillery’s US-1 Toasted Barrel Rye we’ve seen since 2020, and again it undergoes the operation’s unique aging process, which we’ll remind you about here: Michter’s Master of Maturation Andrea…
Review: Angostura Rum – 7 Years Old and 1919 (2023)
We recently caught up with Angostura‘s rum-making operation in Trinidad & Tobago, seven years since reviewing their nearly complete lineup. This time out we’re only examining two of the rums — both in the middle of the collection — to see how things have (or haven’t) changed over time. Both are 80 proof. Angostura Caribbean…