Review Date: 7-25-2012

Erste Neue’s Lagrein Rose is quite distinctive. It seems calmer, deeper--a mature, less rambunctious rose, neither frivolous nor self consciously pretty. The floral spice angle contrasts nicely with a crunchy berry notion, something like a compromise between cranberry and cherry. The fruit never dominates, however, and it finishes clean and dry. A compelling alternative to the familiar rose favorites that's well worth checking out.

Review Date: 6-19-2012

Ever notice the way things can seem to recede from you apace with the attention you give to them? What seems a solid, known quantity or concept—a river, say—can be, depending on where you observe it from, both a bubbling spring on down to a many branched, meandering delta, and so is not one thing but many things. And even observing the portion that accords with the more straight forward conception of “river” is, itself, is up for question: where it is can shift drastically, and what it is, too: spring’s rush to fall’s hush, never exactly the same, as the old saw goes, twice. If there is a fault, it owes not so much to our perception and experience as to the limitation inherent in creating an idea of, and a name for, a phenomena or process both varied and fluxional. “What the heck does this all this have to do with orange liqueur!?” I can hear you wondering. Well, where once there was but Cointreau and Grand Marinier at the top, in recent years, the narrow scope of high-quality sweetened spirits flavored with oranges has burst its banks and proliferated considerably. You have at once recreations of historic recipes as well as re-imaginings with different spirit bases, or, as in this case, different oranges, specifically bergamot here. Considering the ongoing popularity of Earl Grey tea, and the ubiquity of bergamot as a component in perfumery, I’d say the Leopold Bros decision to include bergamot in the recipe for their orange liqueur constitutes a very sage twist on the Curacao tradition. While the aroma and flavor is distinctive, it is not so far removed from traditional preparations that it cannot be profitably put to use in cocktail recipes calling for triple sec, etc. If it is not the one orange liqueur everyone must have, I nevertheless heartily recommend it both as a tasty, finely crafted spirit and as a ingenious expansion of the possibilities of the genre’s boundaries, a welcome additional texture to the multiplicity of expressions the concept of orange liqueur is capable of.

Review Date: 5-31-2012

This varietal isn’t always a sure bet for Califonia. Happily, Gundlach Bundschu comes through with a very convincing interpretation here! You get the rose-lychee perfume along with tangerine, Bartlett pear and a hint of mint on the nose, but on the palate, the wine shows restraint. While very pretty, and having a pleasing roundness to the mid palate, it is not flashy. The wine has an airy, translucent, vernal quality to it, as clear as its pale white color, and finishes with a slightly mineral dimension.

Review Date: 5-31-2012

There aren’t a bevy of Cognacs out there built for mixing. This one has two things going for it: 45% abv, and a formulation that is an attempt to recreate the flavor profile of a pre-phylloxera Cognac. So, does it fly? Yes, it does. That little bit extra strength combined with the robust flavor profile gives this the power to really sing out in mixed drinks where other Cognacs might just fade into the background. The flavor is mostly in the dry fruit and new leather vein, with a papery vanilla, and some citron and bergamot, in the background in this plump, round, reasonably sweet brandy. Try a sidecar with it and see for yourself!

Review Date: 4-15-2012

This cask strength bottling of Red Breast certainly ratchets up the drama. There is more oomph, more richness and intensity, on both nose and palate. It remains, however, an Irish pure pot still whiskey foremost, and as such bears closer kinship to its more familiar version lower proof bottling than to the untamed ferocity of something like a George T Stagg. You ain’t toying with no pipsqueak, though; you will want ice or water or a bit of both to round the edge off. You get a wonderful range of baked banana, dried fruits, butterscotch and sweet grain, enlivened by a citric note that keeps things from seeming cloying or fatty. The finish here rolls on like thunder—well, civilized thunder, anyway. I’d note, too, that if you’re mixing a Manhattan-style cocktail with Irish whiskey, this is probably the best one for the job I’ve come across to date. The cask strength really keeps the whiskey from getting lost amidst the other ingredients.

Review Date: 2-27-2012

Seven and a half years old. Seven and a half? I wonder about that. How did they alight on that number? “Seven years was not enough, while eight years, well, that’s just too much.” If it bucks the standard in that regard, I can’t fault ‘em: the brandy is delicious at the age it is bottled. If Laird’s bonded bottling is your point of reference, this is a whole different creature; there is much greater intensity of aroma and flavor, plus a longer finish, in relation to the Bonded bottling. The flavors remains vibrant, however, keeping a transparency of flavor, like a warm spring wind may yet hold a hint of a chill within it. There is a rounded, baked apple character here, accented by vanilla cream and cinnamon nutmeg accents, but feathery, not glycerin and the finish picks up a touch of peel it seems. A-peel? Thoroughly charmed me, anyway!

Review Date: 1-21-2012

This has a meaty, rich, sweet date scented nose with toasted walnut and almond behind it. Once sipped, you recognize immediately that this sherry was none of the fat you might expect. While the flavors have good depth, this is quite devoid of heaviness and has plenty of salty, lip-smacking tang. The finish is lively and bracingly fresh, with a slight chalkiness and a lingering almond character. You can luxuriate in this Amontillado without the flavors ever cloying. With that said, however, you just might have to keep an eye that the 17.5% doesn’t get the better of you…

Review Date: 12-26-2011

What? A new sherry to try? On it. This manzanilla gives up sea breeze, wet gravel, brine, a gentle toasted almond note and a lemon juice-citric tang on the finish, showing all the character you’d expect and at a reasonable price, too. While this certainly shows where it’s from, there is a softness to the middle that can almost fool you into thinking you’re sipping a brisk, dry white that didn’t mature under a veil of flor. There’s a funny piece of twine on the bottle’s front. I gave it a tug and it came unstuck from the labels holding it in place. Alas, it let loose no confetti. I afterwards ascertained that the name “La Guita” came from a favorite quip of the house’s founder, and was a slang word for “money” but also meant “cord.” Now you know. That they also stamp the bottling date on the back is perhaps the more salient, and appreciated, detail with a perishable item like sherry.

Review Date: 11-27-2011

The dominant character here is a subdued toasted nuttiness, not specifically almond or walnut, with undercurrents of dried fruit. The palate is another thing altogether. This is one a wine that succeeds more on texture than nuance of flavor. While it is a sweet wine, it doesn’t put itself across the way a sauterne or even a sweet sherry would. It is as though you’d put the proverbial “spoon full of sugar” in your mouth-though for the purposes of this analogy we’d better make sure you’re visualizing raw sugar-and then sucked a fat wedge of lime. The tremendous acidity doesn’t just balance out the sweetness, but actually overcompensates for it, making it seem to finish much drier than it started and lip-smacking, too. Singular stuff. Works pretty nice with a slice of pumpkin pie and I’d wager you would get good mileage out of it with well-seasoned meaty bites, say dumplings of some sort.

Review Date: 10-31-2011

The Breaking and Entering is a well tailored blend of Bourbons. Nothing is in excess, nor is anything lacking. Texturally, it reasonably rounded, with enough weight to roll around on your tongue, yet without the corpulence of certain other bourbons. The flavors run from peach and toasted coconut to caramel coated popcorn before a warm, woodsy spice takes center stage. The finish moves back to toasted grain and vanilla crème wafer. If this sounds quite sweet, for bourbon it actually presents a far less confectionary profile than most. Enjoy it with your favorite police drama.

Review Date: 7-19-2011

The Elcano Fino has a wonderful mineral driven nose, with a flinty character shading into something reminiscent of petrol, accented by a touch of briny, green olive character(and, yes, as you’d expect it goes great with same) and a slightly yeasty-farinaceous note, like a faint whiff of fresh baked whole wheat bread. There is only a slight trace of nuttiness waaaay in the background. A lively wine, this starts out cool and wet then before finishing with a much drier, almost resinous character. Delicious stuff! I find I keep going back for yet another bottle of this…

Review Date: 7-1-2011

Demerara-rah; that’s the spirit! The El Dorado 15 year certainly shows the benefits of the time that the spirit spent in barrel in the initial intensity of the nose and palate. What is better still is it pulls back a bit towards the finish and finds a little reserve, avoiding the bombast of certain other “too much isn’t nearly enough” long-aged spirits. Toasted chestnuts, antique woodsy vanilla and candied pear, papaya and pineapple ornament a core of lush, sweet sugar cane that switches about between the continuum of sugar-brown sugar-molasses without ever settling on just one, a sort of olfactory iridescence. Pull up an evening and a chair and settle in; you’ll want to linger long—in the same way that the finish does—with this rum.

Review Date: 5-30-2011

This manzanilla plays down the toasted almond dimension of sherry, and offers instead clean, vibrant, salty aromas coupled with golden apple and a little sprinkling of parsley, even. Take a sip, and you’ll find a smooth texture and a pleasantly plump middle palate, finishing with a citric pucker and a lingering evocation of wet stone. Well worth trying where you’d normally reach for muscadet, say.

Review Date: 4-28-2011

This has got to be one of the best values in an aged bourbon that we carry. The 12 years this spent in barrel is amply attested to by the nose: full, heavy, oaky vanilla fudge, a beam of bright maple syrup, peach and loads of spice. The flavors follow in a similar vein, with good richness of body. Relatively smooth, there is only a slight rasp from the oak aging and the finish brings back some of that light, bright vertical maple character. To my taste, it is a little too contumacious to use in a mixed drink; I recommend you sip this one only, but that, of course, in whatever fashion you like.

Review Date: 4-28-2011

The 15 year is a really wonderfully warm, enveloping spirit. Apple, powdery vanilla, light caramel-almond notes build slowly as it warms in the glass until it has an almost palpable presence. The palate takes the apple in a dried dimension that somehow simultaneously has an unexpected juiciness to it, and, along with the caramel, gradually builds to an almost brown-sugary, date like intensity before fading gently to a finish of dried fruit and flowers. While this takes awhile to really strut its stuff, when it does it, it comes on with a vengeance. Be forewarned, this armagnac could definitely be habit forming.