3 Summer Cocktails Perfect For Chilling Out
Ah summer. It’s time to pack away your boozy cold-weather whisky drinks and bust out the crisp and refreshing summer cocktails. While many simply stop at the easy and obvious (sometimes it’s hard to beat the basic combination of gin and tonic), a little effort can…
Sipping With Stogies: What Whisky to Pair With Your Cigars
Whisky and cigars have a long and glamorous history together. You’ll be hard pressed to watch an old movie featuring high society without a scene where dinner jacket-clad men repair to an opulent room to sip scotch and puff on a stogie. It’s something many…
The Cult (and Critics) Behind the Pappy Van Winkle Hype Machine
Is there ever such a thing as too much good publicity? For producers and fans of Pappy Van Winkle, the luxury, premium line produced at Buffalo Trace Distillery, the answer is simply a resounding “yes.” It would be hard to think of a brand in…
Big Change Announced at the 2017 Ontario Brewing Awards
As the Ontario craft beer industry continues its unprecedented ascent, the Ontario Brewing Awards have grown in kind. In previous years, it was held at more modest venues, which didn’t accommodate quite the audience the Ontario Brewing Awards was attracting. Starting last year and continuing…
Lamarca Prosecco is the Perfect Bubbly to Ring in Spring
Everyone knows that I’m a huge fan of Prosecco. But I tend to stick with what I like, and rarely venture away from old favourites (like the sublime Foss Marai). But when I got a chance to try the excellent Lamarca Prosecco, I was anything but…
Forty Creek Barrel Select Whisky is Worth Rediscovering
I had forgotten about Forty Creek Barrel Select. Sure, I’d occasionally still go in for the quite-good Copper Pot (when it was on sale), but I can’t even recall the last time I picked up a bottle of Forty Creek’s flagship. It’s not that I don’t…
Does the “No Age Statement” Trend Mean Bad News for Your Bourbon?
To your average consumer, the age of a whisky is often viewed as synonymous with its quality. Older = better was an easy gauge of value, especially since it almost always corresponded with a price increase. This was true for every dram from Scotches to…
Canadian Rye is Surging onto the North American Whiskey Scene
Just like Scotch is an essential part of Scottish culture and bourbon an icon of Americana, rye whiskey is a distinctive part of Canadian heritage. Canadian whiskey has a several hundred year history, and its distinctive light taste has made it popular in mixed drinks…
Ransack the Universe Restores my Faith in IPAs
It’s been a long time since I had a “go-to” beer. By that I mean, when you get in the habit of trying to fluff your Untappd with unique beers, you get in a cycle of trying different brews constantly without ever returning to your favorites….
O’leary Cabernet Merlot: More Palatable than its Namesake (if only slightly)
Kevin O’Leary is a man of many titles — businessman, millionaire, conservative leadership candidate and utter douchebag to name a few. And I suppose he felt it was high time to add wine maker (or, more accurately I’m sure, wine investor) to the list. Naturally,…