School of Wine & Spirits
All Reviews
1654 curated reviews
Bodegas Muga Prado Enea Gran Reserva Rioja 2018
Bodegas Muga
Prado Enea is Muga's flagship, and the 2018 vintage delivers the kind of depth and integration that only extended barrel and bottle aging can achieve. This is traditional Rioja at its most assured — a wine that knows where it's been and where it's going. Drink now through 2038.
Powers Signature Release Single Pot Still Irish Whiskey
Powers
A masterclass in balance — this is single pot still at its most articulate, delivering the creamy weight the style demands while lifting off the palate with bright fruit and spice. An essential pour for understanding what modern Irish whiskey can be.
Domaine de la Mordorée Châteauneuf-du-Pape Rouge 2021
Domaine de la Mordorée
The Delorme family's Châteauneuf benefits from old-vine Grenache across parcels studded with the appellation's famous round stones, which absorb and radiate heat. The 2021 vintage offers a slightly fresher, more lifted expression than the scorching years — weight from the stone, lift from the season. A compelling argument for Châteauneuf as a wine of contradiction.
Wilderness Trail Single Barrel Cask Strength Bourbon Whiskey (Sweet Mash)
Wilderness Trail
Wilderness Trail's sweet-mash process produces a bourbon with unusual clarity and grain-forward purity. This single barrel bottling shows how high proof and careful fermentation science can deliver both power and precision. A serious sipper that rewards patience and a few drops of water.
Habitation Velier Worthy Park 2007 Single Cask
Habitation Velier
Fifteen years in Jamaican tropical aging have concentrated this Worthy Park into something monumental. Velier's non-interventionist bottling philosophy — no added sugar, color, or filtration — lets the estate's signature ester-heavy distillate speak at full volume. Yet for all its power, there is a citrus-lit transparency running through the center.
Tullibardine 20 Year Old Highland Single Malt Scotch Whisky
Tullibardine
Two decades in cask have given this Tullibardine remarkable composure. It balances the weight of extended maturation against a surprising lightness — a highland malt that never becomes ponderous. A fine example of patience rewarded.
Domaine des Roches Neuves Saumur Blanc Clos Romans 2023
Domaine des Roches Neuves
Thierry Germain's biodynamic Chenin Blanc from the Clos Romans parcel is a masterclass in terroir-driven white wine. The tuffeau limestone of Saumur gives this wine its remarkable mineral density, while the Chenin grape provides the lift and acid architecture. This is a white wine of profound weight that feels weightless — quarry and cloud in a single glass.
Partida Añejo
Partida
A textbook example of balanced añejo craftsmanship — oak-mature and richly textured, yet buoyed by agave clarity and citrus brightness. It embodies 'Weight Meets Lift' as cleanly as any tequila on the shelf.
Applewood Gin
Applewood
Applewood sources over twenty native Australian botanicals — from strawberry gum to Tasmanian pepperberry — but the result never reads as gimmick. This is a gin with clear juniper leadership and genuine complexity, where the weight of unusual botanicals meets an airy, distinctly Australian lift. Excellent in a martini or a simple G&T.
Domaine Huet Vouvray Le Mont Sec 2023
Domaine Huet
Huet's Le Mont vineyard — first-growth Vouvray on south-facing tuffeau limestone — produces Chenin Blanc of breathtaking purity. The 2023 sec captures that intersection of ripeness and acidity where the wine seems to hover between lush and austere. This is the threshold of Chenin: generous and strict in the same breath. Best enjoyed young or cellared for a decade.
Calle 23 Añejo Tequila
Calle 23
French biochemist Sophie Decobecq brings a scientist's precision to her tequila, and this añejo reflects that discipline. Two years in ex-bourbon casks add complexity without masking the agave, which remains the driving force from nose to finish. The threshold here is between sweetness and earth — the moment when caramel darkens into soil.
Chalong Bay Double Barrel Aged Rum
Chalong Bay
A quietly compelling rum that rewrites expectations of where fine cane spirits can come from. It sits between French Caribbean agricole and softer aged sipping rums, and does so with genuine identity.
Glencadam 18 Year Old Highland Single Malt Scotch Whisky
Glencadam
Glencadam is often called 'the cooler's malt' for the pure water source that feeds the distillery, and this 18-year expression shows why clarity matters. It's a whisky that never raises its voice but delivers remarkable complexity — peach sliding into cocoa, honey into spice. An underrated Highland gem.
Tinkerman's Curiously Bright Gin
Tinkerman's
Tinkerman's channels the same Philadelphia Distilling lineage that produced Bluecoat but aims for an even more citrus-driven profile. The threshold lives in the juniper — present enough to call it gin, bright enough to feel like something new. An excellent warm-weather gin that works beautifully in a Collins or a simple tonic serve.
Waterford Bannow Island Edition 2.1 Single Malt Irish Whiskey
Waterford
Waterford's terroir-driven approach yields a whiskey that tastes like a specific place. Bannow Island 2.1 captures the maritime, mineral-rich soils of this Wexford peninsula in a spirit that's both intellectual and immediately enjoyable. The threshold here is between grain and geography — you taste both.
Barrell Craft Spirits Dovetail Bourbon Whiskey
Barrell Craft Spirits
Dovetail is a study in how finishing can transform without erasing. The bourbon backbone — corn-sweet and oak-firm — remains intact while the rum and port barrels contribute layers of dried fruit and baking spice that make each sip feel like a new encounter. At cask strength, it rewards patience and a few drops of water.
Domaine de la Côte Pinot Noir La Côte 2021
Domaine de la Côte
Rajat Parr and Sashi Moorman's estate bottling draws from all their Sta. Rita Hills vineyards, and it captures the region's tension between fruit and mineral with remarkable clarity. The threshold in this wine is between fruit-driven California Pinot and something more Burgundian — you feel the tug in both directions. Drink it slightly cool for maximum effect.
Bowmore 18 Year Old Islay Single Malt Scotch Whisky
Bowmore
Bowmore's kiln-dried malt at eighteen years strikes a rare balance between Islay smoke and sherry cask richness. This is peat with polish — not fireplace but hearth. A benchmark for aged Islay whisky.
Method and Madness Single Malt Irish Whiskey Finished in French Chestnut Casks
Method and Madness
Midleton's experimental range finds genuine purpose here. The chestnut cask isn't gimmick — it contributes a tannin structure Irish whiskey rarely achieves, adding backbone without sacrificing the distillery's characteristic smoothness. An inventive and rewarding dram.
Domaine Huet Vouvray Le Mont Demi-Sec 2023
Domaine Huet
Domaine Huet's Le Mont vineyard consistently produces Chenin Blanc of rare transparency. This 2023 demi-sec captures the warmth of a generous vintage while maintaining the electric acidity that defines great Vouvray. Biodynamic viticulture and minimal intervention let the terroir speak without interruption.
Graci Etna Rosso DOC 2021
Graci
Alberto Ferrandes Ferrandes Ferrandes Graci's estate sits on Mount Etna's north face, where centenary ungrafted Nerello Mascalese vines grow in black volcanic sand. This is a wine that tastes like its place — electric, mineral, alive. The heat of the volcano is in every glass.
Kōloa Kaua'i Reserve Aged Hawaiian Rum
Kōloa Rum Company
A well-crafted single-batch pot still rum that demonstrates how a hot, humid tropical climate can shape a distinctly Pacific rum identity — one that stands apart from Caribbean archetypes while remaining approachable and food-friendly.
Beefeater London Garden Gin
Beefeater
This extension of the Beefeater line adds garden botanicals without losing the London Dry backbone that defines the brand. The result is a gin that works equally well in a classic martini or a warm-weather spritz. Solid craftsmanship at an approachable price.
Elijah Craig 18 Year Old Single Barrel Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whiskey
Elijah Craig
This is bourbon as long-term negotiation between spirit and wood. Eighteen Kentucky summers have given more than they've taken, and the result is a whiskey of uncommon poise. A masterclass in patience.