ANVIL’S BUFFALO TRACE PRIVATE BARREL SELECTION
Kevin and I recently visited Kentucky to select a barrel of Buffalo Trace to serve as Anvil’s own private barrel-selection. Yes, I am aware that this makes our jobs at Anvil seem like the cushiest dream jobs ever. Watch yourself there – you’re drooling with envy all over your screen. Well, truth be told, when [...]
THE TEXAS MICRO-DISTILLATION MARKET
Since my return to Houston a couple of years ago, I have anxiously monitored the Texas spirits market. In Chicago, I had the great small-batch spirits from North Shore Distillers, including Distiller’s Gin No.6 and their Aquavit. But, despite the boom of Tito’s Vodka years before, the Texas market remained relatively quiet, adding only Paula’s Texas Spirits until 2007. I was always puzzled [...]
OLD OVERHOLT RYE & THE 30 SECOND STAREDOWN
Old Overholt is arguably the most enduring staple of the American whiskey landscape. The next time you find yourself near a bottle, do me a favor. Grab that dusty bottle of rye and look Mr. Overholt right in the eyes. Now, you have to do this for at least a good thirty seconds, for this [...]
THE EVOLUTION OF AMERICAN WHISKEY
With construction work on Anvil moving ahead at a feverish pace, I have found it next to impossible to sit down and string together a post for months. The blog updating which Bobby and I hoped would continue with one or two posts a week has been traded for refining countless details at Anvil. Thankfully [...]
MEZCAL: A CAN OF WORMS?
American conceptions of mezcal generally involve drunken college escapades south of the border, putrid liquids mistakenly referred to as tequila, and, above all, the legendary worm. It is this mere possibility of contracting some sort of super Mexican West Nile virus from a shot of mezcal that is powerful enough to dissuade most consumers from [...]
JIM BEAM NEW (ri)1 RYE REVIEW
After spending most of the last decade of my life surrounded by shelves of liquor, I have come to the definitive conclusion that different spirits have distinctive personalities. And, up until today, I was pretty sure who rye was. Now, I’m not so sure. There was a day when I knew everyone in the bar, [...]
RATTLESNAKE INFUSED VODKA…SERIOUSLY
Well, it’s official; the flavored vodka plague has gone as far as it can. Last Thursday, the Texas Alcholic Beverage Commission seized over 400 bottles of rattlesnake-infused vodka. Don’t believe me? Just check out the story on Fox News. There are all kinds of crazy things at work here.
First of all, what [...]