Wine Berserkers - international wine social media, online community, and discussion

Dave McCloskey

I personally don't care for the drumshambo, just too over the top with the gunpowder tea. It's really all i taste. The Uncle Val's makes a spectacular bloody mary. Repurpose for that and you will be happy. Was just able to reload the Gin Mare. Outstanding Martini gin. Closest available for me is in...

Dave McCloskey

ChrisW wrote: ↑January 15th, 2021, 3:01 pm
Dave McCloskey wrote: ↑January 15th, 2021, 2:27 pm I'm drinking Lagavulin 16. Just the right amount of Peat.
Amen. If you can get your hands on the 10 don't hesitate. A very nice compliment to the 16

Thanks for the tip. I think I had some in Scotland a couple of years ago and enjoyed it.

Dave McCloskey

Currently I'm drinking Midleton Very Rare Barry Crockett Legacy and Green Spot. The Barry Crockett Legacy is the finest Irish I've ever had, with a finish that lasts forever. Unreal.

Dave McCloskey

I'm drinking Lagavulin 16. Just the right amount of Peat.

Dave McCloskey

When I was in Tokyo years ago I went to a bar that served BBQ skewers, but specialized in Japanese whiskey/bourbon. Our hosts told us we had to try this clear Japanese Bourbon, so naturally we did. I remember it being smooth and easy to drink. A young lad asked where the bathroom was and got up, onl...

Dave McCloskey

Here's a quick take on all the Gins I've purchased recently. I'll also give an estimated number rating in alignment with a 0-100 wine point system. Ki No Bi Kyoto Dry Gin - 91 pts. Interesting gin with a mid-palete bite. More on the traditional side with some nice botanicals and a slight sake finish...

Dave McCloskey

Can someone advise me, if the shape of the wine glass affects how long the alcohol fumes escapes? ( for the wine to breathe) and whats the best recommendation for like a holiday get together and serving cabernet? I only have 2 standard sets, regular with stem, and one that is without stem, standard...

Dave McCloskey

I had some nice wines in 2020, but nothing that blew my doors off. I think overall the whites led the reds for me. Off the top of my head the two reds that drank well were a 2009 M Etain Cab and 2010 Tor Beckstoffer To Kalon Anniversary Cuvee.

Dave McCloskey

I’ve tried Ransom Old Tom and found it pleasant enough - thought it to be a gin for whisky drinkers. It’s not something I look for; but interesting. The recipe is about 150 years old. I'd be interested to know what they were aiming for... a whiskey with gin aromatics and botanicals, because that's ...

Dave McCloskey

Wine Folly has some great resources for getting you started thinking about flavors and aromas. I especially like their aroma wheel graphic. Agree. I'd also add YouTube as a source. I've been recently watching a series on blind tasting and the aroma and palate descriptors are very good. The series i...

Dave McCloskey

I tried Ransom Old Tom last night for the first time and was impressed... very different, but I liked it. I’ve tried Ransom Old Tom and found it pleasant enough - thought it to be a gin for whisky drinkers. It’s not something I look for; but interesting. The recipe is about 150 years old. I'd be in...

Dave McCloskey

Glad to have you and some activity in the gin thread! Glad to be here and hope this thread continues. I tried Ransom Old Tom last night for the first time and was impressed... very different, but I liked it. I've been to the UK twice over the last two years and Gin is incredibly popular. Last year ...

Dave McCloskey

New Pappy or stitzel-Weller juice? New Pappy? [scratch.gif] New Pappy = Buffalo Trace distillate. Pappy garnered cult status on the basis of Stizel-Weller distillate. All Pappy has been without SW for a few years now. The ultra limited Pappy 25 that was released a few years ago was probably the las...

Dave McCloskey

I've had every offering from Van Winkle including Pappy's 20+ year old Bourbon. I've also had a boat load of other Kentucky boutique label Bourbon's. I recently bought a bottle of Weller's 12 year old and am hard pressed to identify something I like better. Unfortunately, it's super hard to find. N...

Dave McCloskey

NickRut wrote: ↑November 15th, 2020, 12:27 pm Rivers Marie
Outpost True
Maybach
Schrader rarely disappoints as well

Agree.

Dave McCloskey

K John Joseph wrote: ↑August 22nd, 2018, 9:15 am Q Tonic is focused on low sugar.

The Fever Tree Medi tastes more like club soda.

I agree and I kind of like that about it. There's enough tonic taste, but it comes across a little more clean/fresh. It doesn't take away from the gin.

Dave McCloskey

Great report, Dave! And I'm going to repeat my prior request for those looking to do this test. Phase 1 is to do something like what Dave just described. This leads to a hypothesis that, for example, Grassl Liberté is better for both Chablis and California chardonnay and that Grassl Cru is better f...

Dave McCloskey

I've had every offering from Van Winkle including Pappy's 20+ year old Bourbon. I've also had a boat load of other Kentucky boutique label Bourbon's. I recently bought a bottle of Weller's 12 year old and am hard pressed to identify something I like better. Unfortunately, it's super hard to find. W...

Dave McCloskey

I've had every offering from Van Winkle including Pappy's 20+ year old Bourbon. I've also had a boat load of other Kentucky boutique label Bourbon's. I recently bought a bottle of Weller's 12 year old and am hard pressed to identify something I like better. Unfortunately, it's super hard to find.

Dave McCloskey

Scottish gin seems to be 'in' this year, I tried the Botanist at the Whiskey Live event here in NYC. There was also Caorunn Gin, which is really nice. I also like the Botanist. To me it's not over Botanical. Some of these new gins taste like a botanical chemistry lab. Sometimes too much of a good t...

Dave McCloskey

Another fan of Hendricks. I was a fan of Hendricks until a friend said, "You know this has a Palmolive dishwashing soap smell." Done, over and out. He was dead on and from then on out that's all I smelled. Now their new Gin with Wormwood doesn't have any of that soapy smell and is very go...

Dave McCloskey

Monkey 47 is my favorite gin (Wine Spectator rated it the best Gin in the world), but I recently purchased Drum Shanbo out of Ireland that's very interesting and makes a great G&T when combined with Fever Tree's Mediterranean tonic water.

Dave McCloskey

Michael Sopher wrote: ↑November 3rd, 2020, 2:28 pm My boss sits in Dublin, he is a huge Rugby fan as well. I will get some recs

Thanks, I appreciate it.

Dave McCloskey

On Saturday we conducted our glass comparison test with 8 wines and 1 Champagne. The wines generically fit within the categories of Red & White Burgundy, Bordeaux and Piedmont. We tested Grassl (Cru, Liberte and 1855), Zalto (Burgundy and Bordeaux) and Reidel (Montrachet, Burgundy, Champaigne, B...

Dave McCloskey

Bill Sweeney wrote: ↑November 10th, 2020, 4:18 am I think Bordeaux and burgundy almost always profit from age. Barolo too. But California and Oregon wines don’t necessarily need age. I think the myth that all red wines improve with aging arises from experience with European wines.

^^^This^^^

Dave McCloskey

Last night I opened a very nice Chardonnay from Burgundy and poured it into a new Liberté glass. My initial impression was that I liked the look and feel of the glass design in my hand, however it seemed a tad short in it's height and wondered how that would impact the aroma experience. After a few ...

Dave McCloskey

We are building a dedicated wine room in the basement. The custom wine racks have arrived and will be installed this week. We experimented with a portable cooling unit, but without venting the room shot up to 94 degrees. Thankfully no wine was stored in the room. We're now looking at other approache...

Dave McCloskey

Thanks for your test and comments, Dave. You're welcome. I'm adding another glass to the test. I'm picking up 2 Zalto Bordeaux's to compare with the Grassl 1855. Over the weekend I watched a Somm from the original "Somm" movie do a wine glass comparison. It was not blind and all glasses w...

Dave McCloskey

I also have the kick ash baskets....they certainly make clean up of spent charcoal a bit easier. Are they designed specifically for the BGE? I have a Kamado Joe and this looks like a handy device. Hi Dave - they are generically made for all the big name Kamado manufacturers (including of course Kam...

Dave McCloskey

Rugby? That’s an English sport, so said our polish taxi driver in Cork. BTW, you’re quite the optimist. A lot of Poles in Ireland these days. Didn't find them to be very well informed. Not surprising though, it's not their country. At this point nobody really knows if the Six Nations Tour will star...

Dave McCloskey

The Grassl glasses arrived yesterday and unbeknownst to me my wife picked up two extra of the 1855, so now I have 4 of them. We did a preliminary test last night with the Cru against a Penner Ash Pinot Glass. The wine was a 2012 Rhys Alpine Vineyard PN. Both my wife and I thought the Grassl Cru was ...

Dave McCloskey

Rick Joyer wrote: ↑October 6th, 2020, 9:11 am I also have the kick ash baskets....they certainly make clean up of spent charcoal a bit easier.

Are they designed specifically for the BGE? I have a Kamado Joe and this looks like a handy device.

Dave McCloskey

Assuming your goal is to pick wines that "should" show better in different glasses than the other wines in the tasting (and that may well not be your goal), I would suggest changing 3 to something old world and from some place cooler than CdP - Burgundy or Piedmont, or the more traditiona...

Dave McCloskey

The glass comparison has been set for Saturday Nov. 14. I was able to pull in four members from our wine club, including the owner who has an encyclopedic knowledge of wine. We'll compare at least two Riedel glass designs, three from Grassl and the Zalto Burgundy. Category of wines included in the t...

Dave McCloskey

I'm picking up thru Chris' company two each of the Grassl Liberte, 1855 and Cru. I'll be interested in doing a blind comparison of the Cru and 1855 with the Zalto Burgundy. And this leads back into what I was hypothesizing about in my earlier post. Let's accept that we all prefer nice glasses to cr...

Dave McCloskey

I'm picking up thru Chris' company two each of the Grassl Liberte, 1855 and Cru. I'll be interested in doing a blind comparison of the Cru and 1855 with the Zalto Burgundy.

Dave McCloskey

Great discussion. For you Grassl fans, what's your favorite glass from them? I'm open minded and would have no issue checking them out.

Dave McCloskey

My wife and friends used paddyosullivan95@yahoo.com (not too Irish, eh), who is a remote cousin of one of the friends. My wife said he was great. I hope that the planning and trip go well Thank you. We've looked into match tickets and they're not on sale. It appears the schedule hasn't been set. It...

Dave McCloskey

SZZimmermann wrote: ↑October 7th, 2020, 10:27 pm We used Martin Hurley and we were pleased. Very experienced. But you will need to figure out what you want to visit. His telephone is +353 (0) 872833436

Thank you!

Dave McCloskey

In either Feb. or March my Rugby group plan on going to Dublin to see a Six Nations Tour match. This time we'd like to hire a driver to take us from Dublin to Belfast and points of interest in between. I understand people hire drivers to take them all the way around the Ireland. Has anyone here done...

Dave McCloskey

The last days of summer......a fine meal together with a tomato-rocket-salad on the countryside. Arugula/Rocket from the garden with lovely peppery flavor. What a difference to the supermarket stuff. https://www.wineberserkers.com/content/?p=6087 B2D3E26D-E766-4E64-B72F-519EE40E7573.jpeg P.S. 35F13...

Dave McCloskey

Vince L. wrote: ↑September 14th, 2020, 11:27 am Look into Tablas Creek.

They were started by a CdP and an importer. I haven't had much experience with Rhone but I enjoy TC

I've been a wine club member of Tablas Creek for many years.

Dave McCloskey

Do buy a bunch of something you really like. You'll miss it when it is gone. Do not be afraid to pass on a "great" deal. There will be another one tomorrow. Do travel to a wine region, at least once. Do not follow the crowd, unless that crowd is Oregon Pinot Noir. :) Do check Cellartracke...

Dave McCloskey

This topic has been discussed in the past. Within the last year someone posted a scientific article about the affects of decanting and air on wine. According to science there's no measurable impact of air on improving and or changing the flavor and or aroma of wine. That said, I too have experienced...

Dave McCloskey

The Nomad on Broadway. It's interior design is modeled on the Hotel Costes in Paris and they have a 1 star Michelin restaurant. Since it's located in the model photography area of NYC the women who come in for cocktails will take your breath away. Their omelet is the best I've ever had - simple, fre...

Dave McCloskey

I had a phenomenal dinning experience at La Pergola in 2016. I chose the wine for our table and worked with the Somm to find offerings that would appeal to the majority of our party and the food being served. I went Italian throughout the meal and was not disappointed. Unfortunately, I don't recall ...

Dave McCloskey

Dell Taco and Pup N Taco are each coming out with competing offerings. Dell Taco is releasing 'Ghost Pepper' Cabernet and Pup N Taco is has 'Smokey Salsa' Sauvignon Blanc. Sign up for your allocation ASAP, because offerings are limited.

Dave McCloskey

I grabbed close to a full allocation of Realm and Aubert. I just signed up for MacD, so my guess is my Great Grandchildren will be reaping the rewards of that offering.

Dave McCloskey

Just put my name on the mailing list. I take this is a long process! ;-) I just signed up my first grandchild, hope it’s a he and is named Michael too. Maybe he will make the list in 2055 now that I’ve signed him up! Maybe I should sign up a granddaughter just in case. [thumbs-up.gif] Yeah sounds l...

Dave McCloskey

This is a good question. I would suggest moving it to the "Wine Talk" forum. It will get more eyeballs and comments. I second this recommendation. There's a huge thread on Rhone Syrah's that's very informative. In general... very general, Central California GSM's tend to have higher alcoh...

Search found 881 matches