A surprising example of when hate turns to love in the spirits world. Not everything makes a good first impression, but I’m as pleased as punch I stuck with it.
Overall Rating: ★★☆
There's a lot to be said about knowing where the goalposts are and then kicking the ball through them without much screwing around or having aspirations of anything flashier. The EC Small Batch is this philosophy in liquid form.
Overall Rating: ★★★
An Austrian Vodka masquerading as a Russian product? Boy, you're just full of surprises, aren't you, NEFT?
Overall Rating: ★☆☆
Everything’s bigger in Texas! No surprise, then, that the Lone Star State would produce such a delightful ass-kicker.
Overall Rating: ★★★
I’m not going to say that you can safely ignore anything calling itself a “luxury vodka,” and it’s not like people won’t enjoy this, but in a saturated market being good enough isn’t enough.
Overall Rating: ★☆☆
Underpromise, overdeliver. It's an old axiom any business owner would do well to internalize, and Arshak II is a shining example of how this works in a niche category of spirits.
Overall Rating: ★★☆
Maybe it’s better if you never watched Game of Thrones. If so, you can fully enjoy the value of a heavily-discounted whisky without ever having to know the details of why the price fell like a rock.
Overall Rating: ★★☆
Maybe just about the worst whiskey you could buy. I argue it’s so bad, it’s actually instructive of what makes a bad whiskey in general.
Overall Rating: ⦸
Perhaps the first true “cask strength” bourbon I’ve written about here, and certainly one worthy of mentioning to adventurous drinkers.
Overall Rating: ★★☆
A “supermarket” gin if there ever was one, true. But it’s also true that there might not be any better example of the London Dry gin style.
Overall Rating: ★★☆
If you ask me, Johnnie Walker Black label is a “good enough” whisky that's made just the slightest bit better by the fact that it's available everywhere. It's interesting enough as a product to take a critical look at.
Overall Rating: ★★☆
Now I know about the bird. I still don't know if the bird is the word.
Overall Rating: ★☆☆
Not the most expensive Irish, nor the fanciest, but it’s permanently on my mind when it comes to gifting for several good reasons.
Overall Rating: ★★★
It’s been some time since we saw a Vodka around these parts. Time to dig into one that turned out to be surprisingly good!
Overall Rating: ★★★
Being basic should be easy as we head into the season of pumpkin spice everything, but Captain Morgan turns it into challenging work.
Overall Rating: ⦸
It’s always a challenge to get people to pay big bucks for a Scotch without an age statement, and if you do it wrong people will remember. Here’s a good case study of when things go right.
Overall Rating: ★★☆
I thought I could handle it, I really did. In this review, I climb back on an old horse older and wiser only to be thrown off once again.
Overall Rating: ⃠
I’d argue it’s a great whisky, but Springbank 12 is a study in how great whiskies can sometimes be challenging or outright baffling if you don’t know what you’re getting into. I hope you decide to take the plunge!
Overall Rating: ★★★
About as close as a gin distillery can get to the phrase “reinventing the wheel.” Not bad, but I’m not sold on the results of the extra labor (or price).
Overall Rating: ★☆☆
It’s sophisticated, it’s doing something new, and it’s Japanese. But at easily twice the price of a “premium” gin, it doesn’t rise to the high standards it sets for itself.
Overall Rating: ★☆☆