Awesome Spirits

Bourbon and chocolate are a brilliant taste pairing, so Woodford Reserve’s Master Distiller Elizabeth McCall paired up with Compartés chocolatier Jonathan Grahn to create a limited-edition of four truffle flavors to complement a 750 ml Woodford Reserve Double Oaked Bourbon: butterscotch chocolate, oak-smoked salt caramel, pear nutmeg, and maple pecan.

Following in the footsteps of their Indigo Gin, Empress 1908’s Elderflower Rose Gin pays homage to the distillery’s home city of Victoria, BC, AKA the City of Gardens. Inspired by Victoria’s flowers, Empress Elderflower Rose Gin has a bright floral bouquet of nine botanicals, including red rose petals, elderflowers, lavender, and black carrot.

WhistlePig founder Raj Bhakta is the talent behind this eponymous spirit. Bhakta 1928 is a delicious drink that combines 60% rye whiskey, 30% XO Calvados, and 10% Armagnac. The latter blends vintages dating back as far as 1928. The result is a complex blend of spiced apples, tea, vanilla, and gingerbread, perfect for slow sipping by the fireplace.

For 2023’s special release, master blender Trudiann Branker crafted Mount Gay Rum PX Sherry Cask from pot and column still rums that were aged in American whiskey casks for 20 years. Barbados’ tropical heat and humidity worked like magic, especially while the rum spent an extra year in Pedro Ximenez Sherry wine casks.

Created by the Maison Brillet House in France’s Anjou region, Belle de Brillet is a pear and cognac liqueur that combines the intense fruitiness of Williams pear eaux-de-vie with the delicate complexity of Cognac eaux-de-vie to create an exceptional gold-medal winner at a low ABV. 100% natural ingredients.

Founded in 1815 on the wild, remote Scottish Isle of Islay, Ardbeg whisky has an irrepressible spirit with a ‘rollercoaster’ history that survived against the odds after shuttering in 1981. Eight years later, new owners rescued the distillery, and the stills sang once more. The Ardbeg The Rollercoaster handcrafted wooden box marks the distillery’s new era.

The 30-year dream of Dassai sake’s founder, Dassai Blue, is their first American brewery, now producing its first American-made sake. Dassai Blue is a premium Junmai Daiginjo sake made with Yamada Nishiki rice — the gold standard for sake — through traditional methods such as “tokomomi,” drying the rice by hand.

Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson put his considerable muscle behind Teremana Small Batch Tequila, and he has a bunch of gold medals to show for it. It’s def a winner, with no sugars, carbs, or gluten. With a 1.5 oz. shot having just 96 calories, you might as well make it a double.

Since 1865, Don Q has consistently delivered great rums. Don Q Reserva 7 is a robust Puerto Rican blend of rums aged in American white oak barrels for seven years. Rich in flavor, it’s just the ticket for seasonal hot drinks like Hot Buttered Rum and many other tasty cocktails.

Made in Scotland with infusions of rose and cucumber, Hendrick’s Gin is unusually smooth and much more than just juniper berry flavored. Hendrick’s 10 other botanicals are chamomile, elderflower, lemon peel, orange peel, caraway, coriander, cubeb berries, angelica root, yarrow root, and orris root. To make one gin, they actually make two.

Mezcal is a unique and multi-faceted spirit with a storied past and a bright future. Distilled to be served neat, on the rocks or in cocktails, sweet and smoky Mezcal Unión Uno is blended from two types of agave Espadin (taking 6-8 years to reach maturity) and Curial (8 to 20 years to maturity).

Gin has been an anchor in Holland America Line’s history dating back to the cruise company’s start 150 years ago. To toast its big anniversary, HAL launched De Lijn gin to be exclusively served and sold on board its fleet. The result is a premium gin made in America and inspired by the Netherlands.

Lalo Tequila was co-founded by Eduardo ‘Lalo’ González, the grandson of tequila pioneer Don Julio. Lalo uses a traditional cooking method and just three ingredients: hand-picked agave from the Jalisco highlands, yeast, and water. Unlike many tequila labels, Lalo distills the agave only twice, and doesn’t add sugar, artificial flavors or additives.

A tasty tequila has joined the Campari Group and (surprise!) it’s not an aged anejo. Mayenda Tequila is a rarity: a young blanco made to be equally good for sipping or mixing. How? Mayenda captures flavors of cooked agave by adding two extra steps before distillation: maceration and the addition of agave miel.

A multi-platinum star without a booze brand is like a day without sunshine. Or, in this case a day without a Tequila Sunrise. Not only does Bay Area hip-hop star E-40 have his own Blanco, Reposado and Anejo tequilas — he named them after himself: E. Cuarenta literally means E-40 in Spanish.

There are booze cruises, then there’s the 40-week, 60,000 nautical-mile voyage taken by American white oak barrels carrying what would become Goslings Spirited Seas Ocean Aged Rum. Goslings is the Official Rum of US Sailing, so the experiment kinda makes sense. Regardless, the Goslings Spirited Seas rum blend really floats our boat.