Drinkhacker

Review: Penelope Barrel Strength Bourbon 7 Years Old (2026) Since being acquired by MGP in 2023, Penelope has been steadily expanding its lineup of American whiskeys, including blends of stock sourced from across Indiana and Kentucky. Some of the brand’s most prominent releases include novel finishes, from the rum-kissed Havana to the (excellent) Omega, which gave 11 year old Kentucky bourbon a secondary maturation in French oak. Apparently, Penelope isn’t content to just expand the lineup; founders Danny Polise and Michael Paladini, who both stuck around post-acquisition, seem set on giving existing skus an up-market refresh.

Review: Penelope Barrel Strength Bourbon 7 Years Old (2026)

Review: Sazerac de Forge Cognac – XO, Vintage 2000, and 50 Years Old Back in 2022, Sazerac launched a Cognac and named it for itself: Sazerac de Forge. Well, actually the brand had been launched about 250 years prior, so this was bringing the OG Sazerac back to life. Unfortunately, the 2022 "Finest Original" Sazerac de Forge was a bit lackluster, a clearly youthful blend with eaux de vie as young as 7 years of age in the mix -- essentially a VSOP, but priced in line with some of the most expensive bottles on the general market.

Review: Sazerac de Forge Cognac - XO, Vintage 2000, and 50 Years Old

Review: Wynk THC Seltzers and Lemonades Wynk is a new brand of canned THC beverages, each simply constructed and designed for easy approachability. The company offers both sparkling waters/seltzers and a collection of lemonades, all packaged in 12 oz cans. Note that the THC dosage varies between the two lines: Seltzers each have 5mg each of THC and CBD. Lemonades each have 10mg of THC only.

Review: Wynk THC Seltzers and Lemonades

Review: Elijah Craig Barrel Proof Rye Batch A126 (January 2026) The inevitable second batch of Elijah Craig Barrel Proof Rye is upon us, dropping for early 2026. It's slightly younger than A925 at 11 years, 11 months old, but considerably hotter at 60.2% abv. Let's dig in. You can also read up on every ECBP (bourbon and rye) release to date at our complete guide to the Elijah Craig Barrel Proof series.

Review: Elijah Craig Barrel Proof Rye Batch A126 (January 2026)

Review: Columbia Creek Tennessee Whiskey When settlers pushed into central Tennessee during the late 18th century, they required a powerhouse capable of conquering rocky soil and hauling heavy timber across punishing ridges. The mule, a cross between a male donkey and a female horse, became the backbone of this expansion. These animals offered more strength per pound than horses, remained steady on treacherous slopes, and tolerated the sweltering Southern heat with ease.

Review: Columbia Creek Tennessee Whiskey

Growing Up Islay: An Interview with Ardbeg’s New Distillery Manager Bryony McNiven You may have missed the news that Colin Gordon left Ardbeg Distillery last year to return to his roots in malting on the mainland. Succeeding him in his role as Distillery Manager is Bryony McNiven, a daughter of the island with a very Ardbeg-heavy resume. Her father was a longtime stillman, and she has spent her entire career with the distillery in a variety of roles.

Growing Up Islay: An Interview with Ardbeg's New Distillery Manager Bryony McNiven

Review: El Tesoro Mundial Collection: Yamazaki Edition El Tesoro's Mundial Collection continues with this fourth version, the tequila distillery's first collaboration with the House of Suntory. El Tesoro Mundial: Yamazaki Edition brings together three masters of distilling: Carlos and Jenny Camarena, the former and newly appointed Master Distillers of El Tesoro, and Shinji Fukuyo, The House of Suntory’s fifth-generation Chief Blender. Known for their expertise in deciphering peak conditions and flavor profiles among their storied warehouses, this extraordinary tequila delicately expresses the notes that Yamazaki, The House of Suntory’s iconic single malt, is known for.

Review: El Tesoro Mundial Collection: Yamazaki Edition

Review: Buzzard’s Roost Four Grain Bourbon Buzzard's Roost Whiskey arrived on the scene in 2019 under the guidance of founders Judy Hollis Jones and Jason Brauner. From the outset, the brand created a clear identity through secondary maturation in custom toasted barrels coopered by Independent Stave Company. These 53-gallon new American white oak casks feature staves seasoned outdoors for at least 18 months, followed by a #1 char and a proprietary toast.

Review: Buzzard's Roost Four Grain Bourbon

Review: Isle of Harris Gin Founded in 2015, Isle of Harris Distillery is one of the UK’s most remote distilling operations. And with a total island population under 2,000, it’s also a business of note, at max capacity employing about 1 out of 40 people on the island. While the distillery has several whiskies in distribution both in the UK and US, like many upstarts, they bolstered early sales with clear spirits.

Review: Isle of Harris Gin

Review: Tincup Bourbon 10 Years Old Tincup continues to confuse with dueling releases of its American Whiskey and Bourbon lines -- both with and without age statements, including releases at 6 and 10 years old. Today we're looking at an additional link in that collection of whiskeys, Tincup Bourbon at 10 years of age. Like the NAS Tincup bourbon, this is Indiana distillate from MGP, though details on mashbill or mashbills are limited with this expression.

Review: Tincup Bourbon 10 Years Old

Review: Woodford Reserve Barrel Strength Rye I don't expect a lot of confusion over the genesis of this product -- it's a full proof version of Woodford's winning rye, which is bottled at the brand's standard 90.4 proof. Literally nothing else has changed with this release except it isn't watered down from the 125.1 proof it reaches in the barrel (or rather, the collective proof of all the barrels used to make this limited edition release).

Review: Woodford Reserve Barrel Strength Rye

Review: Southern Star Bourbon Finished in Zinfandel Casks In the mid-19th century, a map of American "liquid gold" would have looked inverted to the modern eye. Before the Civil War, North Carolina stood as the undisputed titan of American viticulture, leading the nation in wine production and hosting the country’s first commercial winery. This reputation largely revolved around the Scuppernong grape, a native bronze-green variety of the Muscadine family.

Review: Southern Star Bourbon Finished in Zinfandel Casks

Review: High Wire Jimmy Red Bourbon Finished in Cabernet Casks South Carolina’s High Wire Distilling is known for various brandies and Revival Rye, but its biggest claim to fame is undoubtedly Jimmy Red Bourbon. The house style whiskey is distilled from 100% Jimmy Red corn, an heirloom grain with kernels the shade of ripe pomegranate seeds. Over the years, High Wire has expanded the Jimmy Red line to include bottled-in-bond and…

Review: High Wire Jimmy Red Bourbon Finished in Cabernet Casks

Review: Marcado 28 Blanco Tequila Review We’ve encountered plenty of movie and rock star-backed tequila brands, from George Clooney’s Casamigos, arguably the tequila that lit the fire for the Hollywood obsession, to Matthew McConaughey’s more recent Pantalones, among so, so many others. What we don’t see as much are celebrity chefs throwing their weight behind a tequila brand. Which, well, is somewhat surprising. The only example I can think of offhand is Guy Fieri and his…

Review: Marcado 28 Blanco Tequila Review

Review: Sihhenge Pineapple Rum How do you tame a monstrous rum like South Africa's Mhoba, an ester-laden powerhouse that can overwhelm with the tiniest of sips? Easy: Drop some pineapple into it. Sihhenge (roughly pronounced see-heng-eh) features a simple formula of rum made from fresh cane juice (fermented with wild yeast and pot distilled) which is infused with juice from fresh, low acidity Natal Queen pineapples for two weeks before bottling at 43% abv.

Review: Sihhenge Pineapple Rum

Review: Ardbeg 10 Years Old Cask Strength Ardbeg Committee releases are usually very involved whiskies showcasing unique production methods and exotic maturations paired with an elaborate backstory. For this latest limited edition, however, the iconic Islay distillery is getting back to basics, delivering a cask strength version of their classic 10-year-old single malt. And, apparently, it’s not for the first time. After a very limited release in 2003 (available in Japan only), long-time Ardbeg fans have been clamoring for another round, and the distillery higher ups finally obliged.

Review: Ardbeg 10 Years Old Cask Strength

Review: Fuji Single Malt Japanese Whisky Japan's Fuji, well known for its single grain whisky collection, has made a rather natural expansion of late, moving into malted barley -- a style for which Japan (and Scotland, of course) is much better known. The 100% Japanese malt whiskey is produced at Gotemba Distillery where it is distilled using a variety of still styles -- "Scottish copper pot stills, Canadian-style multi-column distillation, and American bourbon techniques" -- before being aged in "a range of casks, including American white oak and French oak red wine barrels" and proofed with meltwater from the slopes of Mt.

Review: Fuji Single Malt Japanese Whisky

Review: Yellowstone Recollection Series Bourbon Yellowstone's new Recollection Series Bourbon was inspired not by a recipe or a person, but by a bottle. This striking decanter is a recreation of one that Yellowstone head honcho Steve Beam discovered on eBay. These incredibly lovely bottle designs were used in pre-Prohibition days back in the time when saloons would purchase whiskey by the barrel and have to refill a single, decorative bottle that sat on the back bar and served as a point of sale marketing piece.

Review: Yellowstone Recollection Series Bourbon

Review: Rampur Barrel Blush Indian Single Malt Whisky It's been almost a decade since Rampur distillery first began exporting Indian Single Malt Whisky, and they are now starting to expand their range of whiskies. The non-chill filtered Single Malt we are trying today was made entirely with Indian Barley produced by the distillery. Interestingly, after this whisky was aged in ex-bourbon barrels, it was finished in Shiraz wine casks from Australia.

Review: Rampur Barrel Blush Indian Single Malt Whisky

It's been almost a decade since Rampur distillery first began exporting Indian Single Malt Whisky, and they are now starting to expand their range of whiskies. The non-chill filtered Single Malt we are trying today was made entirely with Indian…

Review: Big Dick’s Banana Whiskey Listen, I love innuendo as much -- or more than -- anyone. But Big Dick's Banana Whiskey? Now we're really pushing things, no? Big Dick's Banana Whiskey comes from ISCO, best known for selling a pizza vodka and oyster flavored vodka, It's sold only in 100ml pocket bottles, and virtually no information about the product is available, except that it is built on top of a bourbon base, is all natural, and is bottled in…

Review: Big Dick's Banana Whiskey

Review: Baker’s Single Barrel High Rye Bourbon 7 Years Old (2025) In 2024, Jim Beam's Baker's Bourbon brand launched a spin-off of its classic 7 year old bottling, called Baker's Single Barrel High Rye Bourbon 7 Years Old made with twice the amount of rye in the mash (26% vs. 13%). It's now a roughly annual affair -- and still a single barrel release. Oddly, this late 2025 sample was distilled just 2 months after our 2024 expression was -- and it was turned out at an age of 7 years, 6 months.

Review: Baker's Single Barrel High Rye Bourbon 7 Years Old (2025)

Review: Silverthorn Reserve Single Barrel Bourbon 13 Years Old Serving as CEO and CFO, Drew Thorn spent a decade shaping Sagamore Spirit into a nationally recognized name. In February 2026, he stepped away from that platform to pursue something intentionally smaller and more hands-on: Silverthorn Reserve. The new venture focuses on single barrel curation, custom finishing, and nano-blending projects ranging from 2 to 10 barrels, an approach built on precision rather than scale.

Review: Silverthorn Reserve Single Barrel Bourbon 13 Years Old

Review: Castle & Key Small Batch Bourbon – 4 Years Old vs. 6 Years Old, 2025 Castle & Key has been cranking out all manner of spirits for years, but it's only in the last few that its bourbon program has really ramped up. Recently the company sent us two samples of its Small Batch offering, which has been evolving since its launch in 2022. What we're tasting today is the first batch of Castle & Key Bourbon Small Batch Bourbon, 2022 Batch 1, bottled at 4 years old, and a newer release from somewhere in 2025, bottled at 6 years old.

Review: Castle & Key Small Batch Bourbon - 4 Years Old vs. 6 Years Old, 2026

Review: 2022 Archimedes Cabernet Sauvignon Alexander Valley An under-the-radar flagship wine from the Francis Ford Coppola Winery, Archimedes is a luxe cabernet with special occasion vibes all over it. Somehow the 2022 vintage of this wine is exceptionally rich and full of coffee and chocolate notes -- without becoming overly dense or cloying. Bright notes of raspberry are clear and quite fresh, giving the wine an immediate vibrancy.

Review: 2022 Archimedes Cabernet Sauvignon Alexander Valley

The Top 10 Gins of 2025 Looks like an early spring any way we size it up, and while we're sad to see the chilly air vanish (though not the freakin' ice), we're happy for the opportunity to break out the shakers and dig into warmer weather cocktails. Gin is a standby for springtime sipping, and 2025 brought us a bounty of new products to experiment with in the category.

The Top 10 Gins of 2025

Review: Barrell Bourbon Cask Finish Series: Armagnac Barrell Bourbon is back on our radar with the latest Cask Finish Series. As a reminder, this is a limited-edition line of specialty finished bourbons that has included some pretty adventurous offerings like Ice Wine. We named that whiskey the best of 2024 and, to our knowledge, something like it has yet to be replicated by any other American whiskey makers.

Review: Barrell Bourbon Cask Finish Series: Armagnac

Tasting Report: Wines of Decoy and Greenwing, 2026 Releases Duckhorn. Decoy. Migration. Paraduxx. Canvasback. Calera. Chances are, if your wine preferences migrate toward west coast of the United States, you’ve crossed paths with one or more from this well-known flock of award-winning wines. Now there’s Featherweight, a low-calorie, low-alcohol entry into the Decoy family, looking to keep taste afloat. Christopher reviewed a few Decoys earlier in 2025, and rarely did they run afoul of expectation.

Tasting Report: Wines of Decoy and Greenwing (2026)

Review: Mijenta Tequila Blanco Maestra Selection No. 2 Last year, Mijenta Tequila launched the first in a series of new special editions called Maestra Selection, each intended to explore a rare facet of tequila and agave production. Selction No. 1 was a high-proof blanco make only from agaves grown from seed. Selection No. 2 is not about how agave plants are grown but where, made using agave sourced from one estate in each of the five states where tequila can be legally produced -- Guanajuato, Jalisco, Michoacan, Nayarit, and Tamaulipas.

Review: Mijenta Tequila Blanco Maestra Selection No. 2

Review: Hera the Dog Vodka Launched in 2019, Hera the Dog Vodka is made with 100% organic non-GMO Italian wheat, distilled 7 times, and filtered through coconut charcoal. It is distilled in Nashville, Tennessee and includes no sugar, no preservatives, and no additives. But I’m smitten by the vodka’s name, Hera the Dog, and the cute pup that appears on the bottle. Happily, it is more than just good advertising.

Review: Hera the Dog Vodka

Review: Elkwood Reserve Cask Strength Bourbon 9 Years Old Bluegrass Distillers was established in Lexington, Kentucky, in 2012 by Ben Franzini and Sam Rock. The following year, the distillery began production on a 250-gallon Hoga copper pot still fired by open flame, frequently working with heirloom corn varieties and placing a particular emphasis on blue corn. In 2020, Bluegrass Distillers acquired the historic Elkwood Farm in Midway, Kentucky, relocating operations to the 62-acre property.

Review: Elkwood Reserve Cask Strength Bourbon 9 Years Old