Excellia Tequila is a relatively new player in the tequila category, and it’s making some noise due to its unique maturation process. The 100% agave Excellia Tequilas begin their life in the highlands of Jalisco, Mexico, where the estate grown blue agave plants are cut by hand and cooked slowly in traditional brick and stone ovens. From there, the cooked agave is shredded and crushed to extract the aromatic agave juice and then fermented in wooden vats and twice distilled in copper stills. Most aged tequilas then sit in used whiskey barrels until maturity. But in producing Excellia Tequilas, the...

Vision Vodka hails from Oregon, where it’s crafted with American wheat and mountain spring water before being distilled five times. During its short time on the market, Vision Vodka has won numerous awards, including a gold medal at the 2011 San Francisco World Spirits Competition and a score of 93 from Wine Enthusiast Magazine. Sounds promising. However, it comes from a company best known for producing entertainment awards like the Golden Globe statuettes; it’s a fixture in NYC nightclubs, comes in a chic bottle and relies heavily on lifestyle-oriented marketing. With few exceptions, such a pedigree often suggests a product...

Plantation Grande Reserve Rum falls under the Cognac Ferrand umbrella, and each rum in the Plantation range undergoes a two-step maturation process. Step one involves aging in the Caribbean in American oak; step two moves the rum to France, where it’s finished in old French oak casks. In this case, the Barbados-sourced Plantation Grande Reserve is aged for five years in ex-bourbon barrels in the Caribbean before heading to France. The result is a rum that’s rich in flavor and aroma, with notable oak accents. On the nose, Plantation Grande Reserve offers aromas of ripe bananas, toasted coconut, leather and...

Laphroaig Triple Wood is the Scotch whisky maker’s latest expression, just released three weeks ago into the U.S. market after two years of availability in duty free shops. Triple Wood gains its name from its maturation process, in which the whisky is aged in three kinds of casks. The first maturation is in American oak – ex-bourbon barrels just like other Laphroaig expressions. From there, the best of these barrels is transferred into quarter casks for a second maturation. Finally, the spirit moves to large Oloroso Sherry casks. It’s the mingling of these different woods that gives Triple Wood its...

Kahlúa Cinnamon Spice is the latest offering from Kahlúa, adding to the brand’s stable of flavors that also includes French Vanilla, Mocha and Hazelnut, to name a few. Kahlúa Cinnamon Spice is a blend of Arabica coffee and sugar cane spirit that’s infused with flavors of cinnamon, cloves and brown sugar. We already know Kahlúa to be a nice addition to coffee, but what else can we do with this liqueur? For starters, we drank it neat. On the nose, Kahlúa Cinnamon Spice is rich and sweet, with aromas of coffee and cinnamon. Take a sip and it’s more of...

Karlsson’s Gold Vodka is distilled from virgin new potatoes grown in Sweden’s Cape Bjar. This ‘07 entrant to the U.S. market is made by Bjore Karlsson, who helped create Absolut, one of the world’s most popular and better-produced vodkas. Karlsson’s Gold is an industry rarity, in that it’s the product of a single distillation and is unfiltered. To give this more weight, Smirnoff is distilled three times, Svedka and I Spirit Vodka are distilled five times, Tito’s goes through six distillations and Russian Standard Imperia is distilled a whopping eight times. Karlsson’s Gold is a testament to the fact that...

High Liquors is a new operation producing a range of spirits – including whiskey, tequila, rum and vodka – and the company bills itself as the world’s first full line of ultra premium spirits. Always wary of buzzwords like “ultra premium,” and also wary of whiskey bottles that resemble a cross between vodka and Voss Water, we wanted to take High Whiskey for a spin. But first – High liquors was founded by friends Brad Wright and Chris Lawson. Lawson noted that they were “very frustrated with the vast differences in quality that all of the premium spirits brands possessed. If...

Bak’s Bison Grass Vodka is a brand of Zubrówka (Zoo-Bruhv-Ka), which is Polish vodka made from a particular type of grass that’s popular with bison. For years it was banned in America, as the grass contains trace amounts of toxic chemicals. Since neutralized, it’s now been incorporated into American-ready vodkas like Bak’s and ZU. On the nose, Bak’s Bison Grass Vodka is full of grains, grass and creamy vanilla rather than vodka’s notorious rubbing alcohol top notes. Take a sip and taste more of that vanilla, plus notes of pistachios, cardamom and honey. It’s warm and oily on the palate...

Johnnie Walker Double Black is the newest addition to the Johnnie Walker family of Scotch whiskies. It was formerly only available in global duty-free shops, but it’s just been released, for a limited time, to the mass market. Double Black starts with the Black Label template, and from there, it adds peatier malts and malts aged in heavily charred oak barrels – the result being a smokier dram than the original. And while the Black Label is aged for 12 years, Johnnie Walker Double Black carries no age statement. On the nose, Double Black offers aromas of peat smoke, oak and...

Mount Gay Eclipse Black is a recently-released 100-proof rum from Barbados. It rounds out Mount Gay’s Eclipse collection, which already includes a Silver and Gold rum. All Mount Gay rums are crafted with two stills – a traditional pot still and a column still – but Mount Gay Eclipse Black features a higher percentage of pot still distillate than the company’s other products. This, along with the higher proof (which equals less water dilution), yields a bolder, more flavorful rum. Mount Gay Eclipse Black is made from a blend of single and double distilled rums aged from two to seven...