Review 127: Terra d'Oro Moscato

Review 127

12/30/12

Terra d’Oro Moscato

We’re back with Terra d’Oro. This is a California wine maker that does a multitude of different wines. The original Terra d’Oro review was their Zinfandel Port, but now we’re moving to another sweet wine. Their Moscato, as part of the Heritage collection, sits along side their Pinot Grigio, Barbera, and Sangiovese wines. What’s next is naturally a quick lesson on moscatos. 

Moscato comes from a variety of grape known as Muscat, which is grown around the world and wildly grown for table grapes, wine, and raisons. Moscato is generally a lightly “sparkling” wine, with a naturally sweeter type of style. Muscats are a family of grapes, and Moscato Bianco is a member of that family that is used to produce Moscato. 

Terra d’Oro gives us a splendid list of details regarding this wine, so if you are curious about learning more about the winemaking process, there is a place to start. We’re going to tell you about our second wine review. This moscato starts on the nose with a light acidy nose, vanilla, wood, and light grape aromas. There is also pink grapefruit note, anise, slight cream, citrus, and even some strawberry. There is a good balance of fruit and sweetness on the nose, and some minimal spice. 

Once you taste this, you’ll be greeted by...sweetness. This isn’t a shock with a Moscato. The arrival starts sweet and short, with raisons, sugar, and grape. The body comes in not much bigger with white grape, cream and custard, raisons, slight acidity, and grapefruits. Finally, there is a simple finish. It remains to be short, but there is a slight wood note, sweet grape, apple, and slight tartness. The finish is clean and fresh, but simple. 

In general, this is a simple wine. There is no complexity to this, but it does a good job of simply stating the sweetness of a wine. As we get deeper into the world of wines, we’ll start to tell you more about the differences between wines in different areas. For this one, it’s hard to go wrong with a cheap, simple wine. 

Score: 7.5/10

Review 126: Aberlour 12 Year Double Cask

Review 126

12/23/12

Aberlour 12 Year Double Cask: 43% abv

Another review for your liking, and we’re taking a look at another single malt Scotch. This one is done by Aberlour Distillery, in Strathspey, Scotland. They produce a Speyside single malt, and generally have affiliations with making a good “sherried” whisky. Aberlour A’bunadh is a great example of such a whisky. It makes sense that one would consider them to be a producer of sherried single malts, as the 12 and 16 also have very obvious sherry notes in them. Aberlour is currently owned by Pernod Ricard, and was initially founded in 1879 (wikipedia says differently) , so there is some history to the distillery. 

Here’s a little bit about the whisky in question. The most important first fact to note about the Aberlour 12 Year, is that it isn’t alone. If you look around, you can find an Aberlour 12 Year Non-Chill Filtered variant. This individual bottling has a 48% abv and obviously no chill-filtration, but you are paying nearly the same price as the 16 year for that treatment. It seems like a bold move by Aberlour, but let’s focus on our friend here. This will run you around the same price as a Glenlivet 12, Glenfiddich 12, or Macallan 10, plus some change, but it really competes with the likes of Macallan 10, Macallan 12, Glenfarclas 12, Balvenie 12, and others. 

So how does it hold up in the stiff $40 base single malt range? Well we’re here to tell you. The nose gives you a nice blast of oak right off the bat, with the barley malt as a close second. There is a slightly vegetal quality to the nose, and retains a nice mixture of grain, sherry, slight bourbon influence, vanilla, and fruits. There is wheat on the nose, maple, molasses, raisons, light spice, a subtle lemon and grape presence, and just a general fruit sweetness. The nose provides some level of complexity, but you have to reach for it to truly grasp it. 

The arrival provides a decent introduction into the flavor, with barley, slight spice, caramel, and weak wine grape flavors. Not much is added in the body with oak, vanilla, malted barley, white grape, and some grape-like acidity. The body remains quite disappointing, due to the lack of complexity. After a little bit of water, the body becomes more wine-like and there is the addition of small spicy notes. 

The finish begins to introduce a large sherry character to the malt, and both cask influences become evident. There is oak, vanilla, raisons, cinnamon, ginger, molasses, maple, hot pepper, slight cherry, caramel, and powdered sugar. After adding water, the finish becomes more peppery. The finish is probably the most prominent part of the malt, and we didn’t find it mind-blowing by any means. 

This malt is generally an okay buy, but it lacks the overall complexity to shred with the big boys. Perhaps that 12 Year Non-Chill Filtered version might come into play here, but by no means is this a bad whisky. The problem is it doesn’t really spark any sort of excitement. As a casual sipper, though, it sure is a smooth Scotch to enjoy. It seems that Macallan 10 year has more depth, but not quite the same sherry impact as Aberlour presents here. Either way, not one you’ll spit out in disgust, so try it and see if it fits the bill for your taste. 

Score: 7.75/10

Review 125: Founders Bolt Cutter

Review 125

12/19/12

Founders Bolt Cutter: 15% abv

Well, it has been a while, Founders, but we’re back with another review, and hopefully it isn’t a roast. We have high expectations for Founders because they produce a high quality product consistently. This should be no different, and unfortunately for Founders, there has been a lot of hype around this particular beer. Almost to the point of it being annoying, we’ve heard about the 15th anniversary of Founders. We are happy for you, we baked you a cake, but my understanding was that there were TICKETS for buying this beer. TICKETS. This beer is not going to see the London Symphony Orchestra, here. Now it is time to see if Founders did it right for their 15th birthday, or if all the hype was just the usual marketing nonsense. 

Founders Bolt Cutter is a barleywine. As we have said in the past, barleywines are heavy in alcohol content, which gives them the “wine” designation, but they are definitely beers. Most barleywines will sit at about 10-15%, with beers rarely exceeding the 15% limit. This one certainly does its best to be up there at 15%. Don’t be afraid my friends. Just as Devil Dancer could be tamed, so too can the Bolt Cutter. Also, for your information, pouring this over any type of metal will effectively do nothing, despite the name. 

This beer, as soon as you start to smell it, will come off with big fruitiness and sweetness. Notes include honey, grapefruit, cantaloupe, strawberry, kiwi, pineapple, lime, green apple, barley, wheat, green grape, oak, and even some vegetal notes. This is a very sweet, complex nose, and gives us a huge variety of smells that you would expect and enjoy out of a barleywine style ale. 

When you taste the beer, the arrival contains a lot of the same sweet flavors that the nose has. This includes honey, vanilla, barley, molasses, toffee, lemon, melon, and some cream. It’s a relatively satisfactory arrival, which leads into a relatively satisfactory body. The body has more sweetness, with caramel, butterscotch, honey, maple, grain, barley, wheat, cream and melon. Finally, in the finish there is slightly more hoppy, piney bitterness that accompanies the sweetness. There is definitely grapefruit and pine, but there is also cream, honey, caramel, toffee, barley, orange, apple skins, and allspice. The finish is medium in length, but admittedly not totally impressive. 

This is not an unworthy beer. Let’s be honest though: if you don’t have this one by now, you’re probably never getting it. We were very excited to do this review, but paid a hefty price to try this beer. The end result is a good, enjoyable experience that will get you drunk, breaks the bank, and is virtually impossible to procure. We still think it is good quality and we will score it based off of our standard criteria. Nonetheless, if you want a good barleywine, visit some of the standards  first and see if they treat you better. 

Score: 8.75/10

Review 124: El Dorado 12 Year

Review 124

12/18/12

El Dorado 12 Year: 40% abv

“Aged”, “Anejo”, “Old” rums, turns out, sort of carry their own category. The reason I provided several monikers for these kinds of rums is because the term “aged” can be misleading. Although rums don’t have to be aged (some countries require at least 1 year of aging), a lot of them are. This is a different kind of thing from an “aged” rum, you see. This one, in particular, is 12 years old. This sounds like a bottom shelf single malt Scotch age, but don’t think of this anything but very good. And not many rum producers tag an age statement on their bottles, and we really like this practice: it encourages quality. 

On to El Dorado. If you’re looking for a rum producer to provide you with a good variety of rums, this could be the place to look. El Dorado, from Demerara, produce a multitude of rums. Their ranges are the luxury cask aged, fine cask aged, connoisseur range, superior standards and specialty products. We are reviewing the 12 Year Luxury Cask Edition, which means the cask itself owned a Maserati before being filled with rum. The more you know. If you want to go older, El Dorado even has a 25 year old rum but you might need to sell your car to buy it. 

Okay, all this talk about the distiller, and not the rum. But let’s just take ONE more second to discuss the finer details of this rum. The 12 Year is aged in bourbon casks for 12 years, but even more interesting is the blends that make it. There are three stills where this rum hails from and one of them is called the Port Mourant Double Wooden Still. Yes, this rum was distilled from one of the last two remaining original wooden stills in the world. So that is an interesting fact. Let’s move on. 

El Dorado 12 year is a fantastic rum, but let’s find out more about it. On the nose, there is a balanced composition of sweetness and spiciness. There is a fresh sugarcane smell, coupled with sweet molasses, and includes more smells of oak, honey, caramel, apple, cinnamon, vanilla, slight grain, banana and coconut. This is a different, rather complex smelling rum, and if all you have been drinking is Captain Morgan, this will throw you off of your seat. This smell does have a slightly alcohol-like presence to it. There is no doubt to it, although this strikes as some surprise given its mile, if not disappointing alcohol content. 

The arrival begins with a simple, gentle, sweet arrival of vanilla, caramel, molasses and even some melon. It’s probably the most disappointing, eventless part of the rum. But don’t worry, the body comes to the rescue with complexity. There is a big raisony note in the body, with sweetness attributed to honey and agave, and plenty of notes further. These include grapes, mint, fresh herbs, molasses, vanilla, orange, honeydew, and nutmeg. After adding some water, there is an oaky presence adding in mild spices and ginger, with a better blend of flavors.

The finish closes with that same raisony, honey-like flavor, but there is more of a sherry-like presence. There is confectioner’s sugar, grapefruit, ginger, mild pepper, agave, orange, peark skin, citrus, and slight dryness. This changes slightly in balance after water, and there is the addition of enhanced apple and tropical fruits.

So this is a relatively complex spirit. If you are asking if it is worth what it demands in cost, then we’d quickly say without a doubt. The problem is that Appleton Estate 12 Year still exists, and we think Appleton has outdone themselves, and outdone El Dorado. That does not make these two rums the same, and it is easy to tell how one would enjoy them both, or prefer the contrasting flavors. This rum is not overly dominant in any particular fashion and even goes so far to become better balanced after some water. Next time you see it, give it a try and see what we mean. 

Score: 9.0/10

Review 123: Pampero Aniversario

Review 123

12/17/12

Pampero Aniversario Reserva Exclusiva: 40% abv

We are talking another quick look at rums today, and for that we have all the way from Venezuela, Pampero. Now, these marketing folks always like to piss me off with their stupid marketing nonsense, but I guess we’ll start with the facts. Venezuelan rums tend to be rich rums, and this little guy is no exception. This rum was bought purely because it comes in a leather satchel, and we’re always suckers for packaging. Now Pampero might not be a big player in the world of rums, but it certainly is unique, and at a reasonable price, deserves a second look. Unfortunately for it, it is shredding against the big dogs like Appleton Estate, Mount Gay, and El Dorado. 

It appears as if some marketing monkeys have compared this rum to having better complexity as a sipper than Cognac or Scotch, so here’s my five minute rant. Complexity is not defined by what the spirit is, but rather the quality of the spirit and the craftsmanship involved. Pampero does have some things to be said for it, but I can think of a number of Scotches that would leave it to the dust. Therefore, let’s not compare apples to oranges, and stick with the fact that this is indeed a good rum. 

And it is. Let’s look at what we found in it: On the nose, there is a huge creamy molasses note right up front, with cocoa, maple wood, nutmeg, gingerbread, banana, apple, strawberry, caramel, powdered sugar, honey and vanilla all being present. This is a relatively complex nose, but the theme here is sweet. It certainly contrasts the rums we’ve had in the past, so that’s good. 

When you start tasting this thing, you realize that the sweetness in the nose isn’t just made up. And rich it is. This is certainly a sipping rum, because there’s nothing else you could do with it. Interestingly, the arrival is big, and provides you with cinnamon, molasses, caramel, sugar, cream, mint and even some raisons. It is complex and up front, and it doesn’t make you wait. The body contains a big sherry raison taste, and keeps up with the molasses. The dark sweet notes of caramel, nutmeg, maple, and vanilla keep the body full, with additional notes of cherry, cinnamon, black pepper, nutmeg, banana, coconut, and mint. 

The body is busy, but not impossibly complex. The finish is dark, and has the most prominent presence of raisons and sherry, but keeps most of the notes of the body, with some powdered sugar and honey to add. And granted, this is not a bad thing. This rum is different and unique and, if enjoyed slowly, is an easy smooth sipper for anybody who enjoys a sweeter rum. As we reviewed this one, we grew into it a little more. It takes understanding, but even for those who don’t particularly seek the sweeter of rums, this can be enjoyed. 

Score: 8.5/10

Review 122: Dogfish Head Bitches Brew

Review 122

12/16/12

Dogfish Head Miles Davis Bitches Brew: 9% abv

Back with another Dogfish Head review. And this one is one of the more limited edition Dogfish Heads. This is a dark ale brewed with honey and gesho. So you might not know what gesho is like we didn’t, or maybe you’re more intelligent than us. Gesho is formally known as Rhamnus prinoides if you’re going to look it up, and it is used in Ethiopia like hops is used here. The stems are collected from the plant and boiled, and the extract is mixed with honey to make mead. That’s an interesting little fact for us all, and it gives some context to this beer, and maybe the bottle art too. 

So this is a dark ale, but this is a dark ale like Cabin Fever is a brown ale. In other words, it is kind of a stout. The nose confirms this for you with notes of coffee, vanilla, caramel, roasted barley, chocolate, toffee and some wheat. This is a pretty typical nose. The arrival is coffee-like, with some small lemon-lime influence, vanilla, and even soft cream. 

The body contains coffee, toffee, grain, barley, wheat, cream, raisons, and even almonds. This is turning out to be pretty typical of a stout, with a little bit of nuttiness to change things up. The finish is big in the barley flavor, with wheat and chocolate on the back end, coupled with some small hops notes, coffee, toffee, cream, and almonds. The finish is long and big, and very enjoyable. 

So this isn’t really a terribly complex ale, and it is pretty typical for the stout/dark ale character. This doesn’t make it good, but it isn’t cutting edge. And frankly, we like to see our expensive beers in smaller bottles, because drinking a full fifth of a 9% beer in a night doesn’t lead to appreciation, it leads to drooling. None the less, this is a nice beer and we think you’d enjoy it, but I wouldn’t break my legs to get another bottle of it. 

Score: 8.25/10

Review 121: Jolly Pumpkin La Roja

Review 121

12/16/12

Jolly Pumpkin La Roja: 7.2% abv

Jolly Pumpkin is something else. A brewery around several areas in Michigan including Traverse City and Ann Arbor, JP specializes in sour beers. The last time we did a sour beer, the result wasn’t the best in our minds. Despite this, we aren’t going to be deterred and wanted to try another one. Remember, KCM uses three main criteria for scoring their reviews: uniqueness, complexity, and quality. A second tier of qualifiers includes drinkability, price, and personal preference if the panel isn’t decisive enough. I say that because I need to preface this review. The idea of a sour beer is that while the mash is being created, the beer is allowed to be infected by bacteria (science can be gross, folks) and this bacteria produces a sour biproduct. This is the core concept behind a sour mash, for you Jim Beam/Jack Daniels fans. 

La Roja is an amber ale which uses this ideology and barrel aging to give it a distinct flavor. Spoiler alert, we don’t think it worked. The nose is the first encouraging part. The nose contains a decent number of fruity flavors like strawberry daquiri, grape, sweet red wine, pear, floral notes, acidity, lemon, light pine, tangerine, nutmeg and even some subtle raison. We were content with this, and it foreshadowed to a good complex beer. Here ends the encouraging part. 

The arrival contained very concentrated fruit flavors of red grape juice, cranberry, grapefruit, slight oak, and some acidity. We are getting more hardcore with the cran/grape juice as we push into the flavor, with no sign of bitterness, but rather citrus notes like tart lemon and grapefruit. There is a SLIGHT hint of grain here, but you probably won’t notice it unless you’re looking for it. The finish....is the same. There is an addition of slight yeast is all. Okay. So this beer doesn’t taste like beer, and doesn’t taste like there is alcohol in it. If you handed this to a five year old, they probably wouldn’t know you replaced their Juicy Juice. This would be okay if we felt there was a greater complexity to it, but it wasn’t found in this bottle. Jolly Pumpkin may have some great beers, and we have experienced them, but KCM doesn’t recommend this one. 

Score: 5.0/10