School of Wine & Spirits
All Reviews
1665 curated reviews
Mount Gay 1703 Master Select
Mount Gay
A masterclass in Bajan blending — refined, contemplative, and built for slow sipping. The 1703 honors Mount Gay's deep heritage while showing that age and patience still define rum's most elegant edges.
Plantation Fiji Islands 2017 Single Cask
Plantation
This Fiji single cask bottling from Plantation delivers the transparency that the series is designed to showcase—a specific distillery, a specific year, a single cask's personality on display. The double aging in Fiji and then in Ferrand cognac casks in France adds structural complexity while preserving the distillery's characteristically lush tropical profile.
Gran Centenario Plata Tequila
Gran Centenario
Gran Centenario Plata demonstrates that entry-level tequila need not sacrifice character. The selección suave process—a brief rest in new American oak—adds a whisper of complexity without masking the agave. This is an honest blanco that works beautifully in cocktails but merits straight sipping on its own.
New Riff Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whiskey Bottled in Bond
New Riff
New Riff's BiB is proof that transparency in production translates to transparency in the glass. The non-chill-filtered, sour mash approach with a high-rye mash bill produces a bourbon of clarity and conviction. At this price point, it overdelivers consistently.
Death's Door Gin
Death's Door
Death's Door proves that a short botanical bill—just three botanicals—can produce a gin of remarkable depth. The base spirit, made from hard red winter wheat and malted barley grown on Washington Island, Wisconsin, provides a creamy foundation. This is a gin that trusts its ingredients rather than hiding behind complexity.
Glendalough Double Barrel Single Grain Irish Whiskey
Glendalough
Glendalough's Double Barrel single grain challenges the assumption that grain whiskey is inherently less interesting than malt or pot still. The double maturation—first in bourbon barrels, then in oloroso sherry casks—adds layers that the grain base delivers with transparency. An excellent introduction to Irish grain whiskey.
Domaine de la Garrelière Touraine Sauvignon Blanc Cendrillon 2023
Domaine de la Garrelière
This biodynamic Sauvignon Blanc from the southern Loire offers a study in transparency. François Plouzeau's estate, certified biodynamic since 2006, produces wines that taste like the soil they come from. The Cendrillon bottling is all tension and minerality—Sauvignon Blanc stripped to its essentials, with nothing to hide and nothing wasted.
Domaine Roulot Monthelie Rouge 2021
Domaine Roulot
Jean-Marc Roulot is rightly famous for his whites, but this Monthelie Rouge demonstrates his sensitivity to Pinot Noir as well. The 2021 vintage gives bright fruit and good acidity, and Roulot's light hand in the cellar allows the terroir to speak. A Burgundy red that offers genuine transparency of place at a fraction of premier cru pricing.
Tomatin 18 Year Old Highland Single Malt Scotch Whisky
Tomatin
Tomatin 18 is one of the Highlands' most underrated age-statement malts. The combination of first-fill oloroso sherry casks and refill bourbon barrels creates a layered, elegant whisky that never shouts. It rewards careful attention with steady, deepening complexity.
Mount Gay Black Barrel
Mount Gay
An underappreciated workhorse that punches well above its price — pot-still character and aggressive cask charring give it backbone where many entry-level aged rums go soft.
Four Pillars Navy Strength Gin
Four Pillars
Four Pillars takes their acclaimed Rare Dry recipe and dials it up to navy strength without losing balance—a harder trick than it sounds. The extra proof amplifies the Asian-influenced botanical profile, making the Tasmanian pepperberry and star anise sing alongside classic juniper. This is a gin that wants to be in a cocktail, but it stands on its own with ice and a squeeze of lime.
Dingle Single Malt Cask Strength Batch No. 5 Irish Whiskey
Dingle
Dingle's cask-strength releases showcase what happens when a small distillery refuses to rush. The heat here is real—58.2% ABV—but it is productive heat, pushing out flavors that a lower proof would hide. This is a whiskey that demands water and rewards patience, revealing new layers over the course of 30 minutes in the glass.
Domaine Josmeyer Riesling Les Pierrets 2023
Domaine Josmeyer
Josmeyer's Les Pierrets vineyard produces a Riesling of crystalline purity, the kind of white wine that makes you reconsider everything you thought about Alsatian richness. The 2023 vintage brings a taut, energetic acidity that will carry this wine for several years, but it drinks beautifully now with its bright fruit and stony backbone. A textbook warm-vintage Alsatian Riesling.
Château Peyrassol Commanderie de Peyrassol Rouge Côtes de Provence 2021
Château Peyrassol
Provence is better known for rosé, which makes this red from a 13th-century Templar estate all the more compelling. The Syrah-Cabernet blend captures the warmth of the Provençal sun without excess, delivering a red that is structured enough to pair with grilled meats but fresh enough for a summer evening. Excellent value.
Ardmore 12 Year Old Port Wood Finish Highland Single Malt Scotch Whisky
Ardmore
Ardmore often goes overlooked among Highland malts, but this 12-year-old demonstrates why peat works differently north of the Highland Line. The port wood finishing adds depth without obscuring the distillery's signature lightly peated character. At 46% and non-chill-filtered, it has the weight and texture to reward patient sipping.
Fuenteseca Cosecha 2020 Blanco
Fuenteseca
Enrique Fonseca's Cosecha series is built on the idea that agave harvested in a specific year has a unique terroir signature worth preserving. The 2020 Cosecha is bright and precise, showcasing how slow-roasted highland agave can produce a blanco of uncommon depth. No additives, no shortcuts—just agave, time, and fire.
Wilderness Trail Bottled in Bond Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whiskey (High Rye)
Wilderness Trail
Wilderness Trail's fermentation science background shows in the grain-forward clarity of this bourbon. The high-rye mash bill provides structure and spice, while the bottled-in-bond proof lets the barrel's heat signature come through without overwhelming. A serious craft bourbon punching well above its price.
Domaine Trimbach Gewürztraminer Alsace 2022
Trimbach
Trimbach's house style brings rigor to one of Alsace's most exuberant varieties. This Gewürztraminer has the aromatic intensity the grape demands, but the bone-dry finish and taut acidity keep it firmly on the food-friendly side. A benchmark for the varietal at an accessible price.
Vulcão Grogue de Cabo Verde
Vulcão
A rugged, terroir-driven cane spirit that rewards adventurous drinkers. Less polished than agricole, more elemental — and all the better for it.
Beefeater Burrough's Reserve
Beefeater
A contemplative, neat-sipping gin that proves restraint and small-still distillation can produce something genuinely elegant rather than gimmicky.
Jefferson's Ocean Aged at Sea Voyage 30
Jefferson's
A bourbon transformed by motion — the constant pitch and pressure of the open ocean accelerates barrel interaction in ways no rickhouse can replicate, yielding a whiskey that is darker, brinier, and more deeply oaked than its years on land would suggest.
Jameson Caskmates Stout Edition Irish Whiskey
Jameson
The Caskmates Stout Edition demonstrates how a finishing cask can rewrite a whiskey's personality without erasing its identity. It's approachable and affordable, but the stout barrel influence adds a genuine dimension of roasted complexity that rewards exploration.
ArteNOM Selección de 1549 Blanco
ArteNOM
ArteNOM's 1549 expression captures the highlands terroir in a way that feels unmanipulated and direct. This is agave-forward blanco with no need for embellishment, demonstrating what additive-free production and careful distillation can achieve at a fair price.
Cantine Ferrandes Ferrandes Rosso Cerasuolo di Vittoria DOCG 2021
Planeta
Planeta's Cerasuolo di Vittoria is a masterclass in Sicilian restraint. The Nero d'Avola and Frappato blend achieves a balance between richness and freshness that makes it endlessly drinkable. A serious wine that doesn't take itself too seriously.