Review: Corbin Vodka
You can make vodka out of anything, they say. Potato’s a common base starch. How about the sweet potato, then? Corbin Vodka, made in Atwater, California, is column distilled from the gold old sweet potato. (Don’t call it a yam!) The nose is fairly neutral, sharp with a moderately medicinal character, but balanced by some…
Book Review: Beer for All Seasons
A cynical beer drinker would say the concept of the new book Beer for All Seasons: A Through-the-Year Guide to What do Drink and When to Drink It is absurd. Beer should be drunk every day, amirite beer guys? Well, author Randy Mosher of course has more sophisticated aims here: Pairing certain beer styles to certain…
Review: 2012 Veglio Michelino & Figlia Barbera d’Alba and Dolcetto d’Alba
Here’s something you don’t see every day: Italian wines with reduced histamines. Why histamines? Some say these are responsible for “red wine headaches?” How does a wine turn out with its histamines taken away? Let’s take a look. 2012 Veglio Michelino & Figlia Barbera d’Alba DOC – Slightly sweet, atypical of barbera, with notes of…
Review: VOCO Vodka Coconut Water
The VO is for vodka. The CO is for coconut. Together they’re VOCO, the world’s first luxury beverage to blend pure coconut water with premium vodka, or so the label tells us. Sold in single-serve 12 oz. aluminum bottles, it’s an alternative to Smirnoff Ice or Mike’s Hard Lemonade, I suppose. The overall impact is…
Review: High West Bourye (2015) and American Prairie (2015)
Utah-based High West is a fun distillery to try to keep up with. Blink and they’ve got a new product. Blink again and it’s gone, replaced with something else. It’s been a year since we last visited with High West and already things are evolving. Bourye — the bourbon and rye blend — was off…
Review: Wines of Ehlers Estate, 2015 Releases
St. Helena-based Ehlers is a high-end Napa winery producing a modest number of red-centric wines. Today we’re looking at a total of four 2015 releases, including 2014 whites/roses and 2012 reds. The fun starts below… 2014 Ehlers Estate Sauvignon Blanc St. Helena – Crisp and loaded with citrus, florals, and mineral notes, all wrapped up…
Review: Q Soda, Q Ginger Beer, and Q Grapefruit
Q Drinks is well known for its tonic, but like Fever-Tree, the company makes a wide range of cocktail mixers, all high-end products made with legitimate ingredients and botanicals. (You’ll notice the solids settling out in the ginger and grapefruit products, so be sure to gently mix them up a bit before serving.) Thoughts on three of…
Review: Pura Vida Silver Tequila
This 100% agave tequila is not to be confused with Vida or Dulce Vida, Pura Vida is a small brand with a focus on flavored tequilas. The company also makes straight tequila, including this unaged blanco. Pura Vida is in the process of moving to its own distillery; this sample is still produced at NOM 1414.…
