Dispatch from the 2014 Lake Tahoe Autumn Food and Wine Festival
Autumn wasn’t technically with us in late August, but that didn’t stop the folks at Northstar Resort in Lake Tahoe, California, from putting on a grandiose wine and food festival. Now in its 29th year, the Lake Tahoe Autumn Food and Wine Festival is a multi-day event that combines a walk-around tasting with focused events…
Review: Coppersea New York Raw Rye
Coppersea Distilling is a new upstate New York-based craft distiller that’s doing things the old-fashioned way. Based on a farm in the Hudson Valley, the grains are grown locally, floor malted and milled on the premises, distilled, then blended with on-site well water. With this product, the end result is an unaged rye (75% unmalted rye, 25%…
Review: anCnoc Rutter and Flaughter Single Malts
anCnoc (pronounced a-NOCK) is the whisky produced by the Knockdu distillery, presumably called thus because “Knockdhu” was too easy to spell and pronounce.* anCnoc, a Highland producer right on the edge of Speyside, is known for its unpeated spirits, but now it’s hitting the market with a quartet of peated expressions. These whiskies, all named…
Review: 2011 Faust Cabernet Sauvignon Napa Valley
Faust’s latest Cab is ready to go today. Gentle menthol notes mix with overtones of rhubarb and a touch of vanilla. The body starts off with a touch of vegetal character, but this dissolves into more classic Napa Cab notes: rich currants, chocolate, vanilla, and strawberry on the back end. Long and fruit-forward finish, with…
Review: Wines of Benessere, 2014 Releases
Benessere is a small, family-owned vineyard and winery in St. Helena, where it focuses heavily on estate-grown grapes. Specifically, Italian varietals and Zinfandel dominate the bill. Today we look at a selection of five wines from the company. Thoughts follow. 2013 Benessere Rosato di Sangiovese Estate St. Helena Vineyard – Let this rose warm a bit…
Recipes: Fall Friendly Cocktails, 2014
We’ve been getting hit with several recipe ideas to share for fall, so we figured we’d pass them along as an alternative to all of the pumpkin stuff that seems to be quite the craze this time of year. Enjoy! Spicy Cutty Pear Cooler 1.5 oz. Cutty Sark Prohibition Edition 0.25 oz. Ancho Reyes Chile…
Review: Bruichladdich Bere Barley 2006
I was privileged enough to score a dram of this through a recent trade with another local fellow who enjoys the Laddie just as much as I do, if not more. Lately I’ve been revisiting some of the Bruichladdich I have in the cabinet, just to see if time away has altered my enjoyment of…
Recipes for National Coffee Day, 2014
Monday, September 29th is National Coffee Day; a holiday which all folks in love with the caffeinated bean can most certainly get behind and celebrate. We’ve received a few recipes to celebrate this festive occasion, although we suggest maybe not drinking them around the office (unless your boss is cool with that sort of thing).…
