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: ★☆☆
Not only does this stuff flat-out suck, it absolutely strains the limits of credulity to call itself Japanese whisky for reasons I can’t wait to let you in on.
Overall Rating: ⃠
Yowza. Like, super fucking yowza. Be warned: maybe this offers up TOO much flavor.
Overall Rating: ★★★
If it were cheaper, it would be mostly fine. But it isn’t, and I feel silly paying so much for a study in restraint.
Overall Rating: ★☆☆
A little pricier than it once was, but it’s still one of the best options a person can consider when it comes to an unquestionably “good” Irish whiskey.
Overall Rating: ★★☆
A sophisticated gin that made a middling first impression. However, it grew on me like a moss once I learned how to make it shine.
Overall Rating: ★★☆
A usually-boring scotch label tries out an exciting concept for a brand extension. Surprise! It’s still boring.
Overall Rating: ★☆☆
A citrus-forward gin by one of the big boys that’s better than it has any right to be. Absolutely stupendous stuff.
Overall Rating: ★★★
Quite honestly, a product in search of a reason to exist. If there’s a niche it fills, I’m not savvy enough to detect it.
Overall Rating: ⃠
Life is hard enough as it is. So when a good thing comes along, why talk yourself out of enjoying it to the fullest?
Overall Rating: ★★★
Often, the very first “good” gin most will have, and thankfully one most will be unlikely to outgrow if they dig deeper into the category.
Overall Rating: ★★★