What's Popular Right Now?
Check out the spirits grabbing the most ratings from Distiller community members this week!
Mar 28, 2017
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20France//Fruity & SweetThis expression is the youngest released from Courvoisier and uses eaux de vie that range in age from 4-7 years. The grapes are primarily sourced from the Fins Bois region with some Petite Champagne used as well.
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19Italy//Sweet & FruityLuxardo Maraschino Liqueur is a clear cherry liqueur made from Sour Marasca cherries which are cultivated exclusively by the Luxardo family in the orchards of the Euganean Hills in Veneto. The cherries including the stones, branches and leaves are placed in larchwood vats for two years to infuse with neutral alcohol. Then the infusion including the solids is distilled and the heart of the cherry distillate is aged in large Finnish ash wood vats for a 12-18 months. Water and sugar is added prior to bottling at 64 proof.
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18USA//JuniperJunipero is made in the London Dry style with juniper as the featured botanical. Other botanicals in play include aniseed, cardamom, cubeb, grains of paradise, and bitter and sweet orange peel. The spirit is distilled in a copper pot-still and is not chill-filtered. It was first released in 1996 by San Francisco's Anchor Distilling Co. now known as Hotaling & Co. Bottled a 49.3% ABV.
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17France//Fruity & SweetYann Fillioux is the current Master Blender for Hennessy and in fact, the Fillioux family has been blending for Maison Hennessy for over 200 years. Hennessy VS was first introduced in 1865 by Maurice Hennessy, although the bottling was known as "Three Star" rather than VS at the time.
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16Guyana//Sweet & RichEl Dorado has been produced at Demerara Distillers Limited since 1992 on Guyana. The 15 Year is a blend of aged demerara rums, some as old as 25 years, made in different styles of stills - Enmore and Diamond Coffey stills, Port Mourant double-wooden-pot-still and Versailles single-wooden-pot-still. The rums are blended and aged in ex-bourbon casks.
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15Colombia//Spicy & HerbalThis century old rum producer is based in the heart of Cartagena de Indias, Colombia and produces rum using the classic Spanish solera method where the oldest rum is 20 years of age. Pursuant of a rustic and more medium-bodied style, the Dictador Solera System Rum 20 is made from cane syrup and distilled in a combination of pot and column stills.
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14Guatemala//Sweet & RichRon Zacapa 23 Sistema Solera Rum was first produced in 1976 to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the Guatemalan town of Zacapa. It's a rum made from raw sugarcane honey grown on the Zacapa estate high in the hills of Guatemala, extracted from the first pressing of sugarcane juice. It is then fermented using a proprietary strain of pineapple yeast and distilled in a copper-lined column still. After distillation, the rum is aged in a Solera process from a series of casks which once held bourbon, oloroso sherry and Pedro Ximenez sherry. The rums in the blend vary between 6 and 23 years of age.
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13Multiple Countries//Fruity & SweetThe first-ever white rum from Plantation is named for three rum-producing “stars” of the Caribbean: Barbados, Jamaica and Trinidad. The blend features unaged rums from Barbados and Jamaica, a 3-year-old rum from Trinidad and a 12-year Jamaican rum. Each rum brings their respective island’s distinctive flavors and characteristics to the blend, from the lighter, refined Trinidadian rum to the funkier, full-bodied Jamaican rums. Any color from the aging process has been removed via carbon filtration before bottling.
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12Mexico//Sweet & RichDon Julio 70 is an añejo tequila that is filtered to remove the color imparted in the aging process. It is aged for 18 months in used American white oak barrels. 70 does not refer to the proof (which is 80 proof), but to the 70th anniversary of the distillery Don Julio started in 1942. This bottling was released in 2012 to commemorate that occasion.
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11Mexico//Rich & FruityBottled in a beautiful handmade and hand painted ceramic decanter. Inside is a distillate that is carefully aged for eight months in second-use oak barrels. It is then triple micro-filtrated to ensure the highest purity.
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10Mexico//Herbal & SweetNamed for Don Felipe Camarena, the man who established La Alteña Distillery in 1937 and where El Tesoro is distilled today. The agaves used in its production are 100% estate-grown agaves from Los Altos (aka Highlands) of Jalisco. After the agaves cook for three days in a horno (oven), they are then crushed by a two-ton tahona stone. Fermentation and distillation includes not only the aguamiel (cooked agave juice), but the fibers and pulp. It is distilled to proof meaning no water is added. It is bottled without aging at 80 proof. Note: Packaging and name update from Platinum to Blanco Tequila in April 2018. (SRP $50)
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9Mexico//Spicy & SaltyAvión Tequila revamped its packaging in mid-2018 to reflect the single origin for its agave. All agaves used in the production of the tequila is sourced from the town of Jesus Maria, located at 7,000 ft. above sea level in the Los Altos region of Jalisco, Mexico. The tequila is distilled in small batches and finished with a "proprietary" ultra-slow filtration. Each bottle is hand-filled and labeled with batch number and a bottle code.
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8Mexico//SpicyIntroduced in 1989 along with their Añejo release is the now iconic Patrón Silver Tequila. Co-founded by John Paul DeJoria (of John Paul Mitchell hair products), Patrón first introduced the world to "ultra-premium" tequila. The brand's standard line is produced by using half tahona-crushed agave and half modern roller-mill crushed agave. The agaves are sourced from Los Altos, Jalisco and are slow-roasted in an oven before fermentation in wooden vats. The late Francisco Alcaraz was their original Master Distiller & Blender who created the recipe for the brand. It was initially produced at the Siete Leguas distillery until Patrón built their own in 2002.
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7Germany//Fruity & FloralHailing from Germany’s Black Forest, Monkey 47 is an exotic gin made with a molasses base. The 47 refers to the number of botanicals used which includes such unlikely fruit ingredients like lingonberries, blackberries, and honey pomelo. These are combined with a host of recognizable gin botanicals such as chamomile, sage, angelica, coriander, and a whole array of others. Another anomaly at Monkey 47 is that the distillate is aged in earthenware containers for three months before being brought to 47% ABV with the forest’s celebrated water.
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6Venezuela//Sweet & RichThis is the Venezuelan distillery’s flagship rum, called “exclusiva” as a tribute to their 18th century founder Don Juancho Nieto Meléndez, who was always in search of exclusive flavors for his rums. It’s a blend of 12 year old copper pot-still rums made from both molasses and sugarcane honey, aged in ex-bourbon barrels.
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5USA//Sweet & RichLarceny Small Batch is a brand extension of Heaven Hill's Old Fitzgerald line. According to their story, back in the day, John E. Fitzgerald used his privilege of holding the keys to Pappy Van Winkle's bonded warehouse, where the Old Fitzgerald bourbons were kept, to steal the best casks for himself. These became known as the "Fitzgerald Barrels." Larceny is a wheated straight bourbon made from a blend of selected barrels made in honor of this legend. It bears no-age statement and is bottled at 92 proof.
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4USA//Fruity & SweetFour Roses Small Batch is a straight bourbon that is comprised of 4 of the 10 recipes Four Roses employs. They use an equal measure of both of their mash bills (60% corn, 35% rye, 5% barley and 75% corn, 20% rye, 5% barley). They also use yeast strains which highlight both a light and spicy profile along with a rich and fruity one. It is bottled at 45% ABV.
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3Scotland//Full Bodied & PeatyThough not officially (read, legally) established until 1816, there are records that date distillation here going back to 1742. Malted barley produced just a hop, skip, and a jump away at neighboring Port Ellen is utilized. Everything is long at this distillery: fermentation, distillation, and maturation. Good things do indeed come to those that wait. Bottled at 43% ABV after 16 years in oak barrels.
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2USA//Rich & OilyThe first mass-produced single-barrel bourbon, bottled by Master Distiller Elmer T Lee in 1984, gets its name from Colonel Albert Blanton. Colonel Blanton spent more than 55 years producing, studying and upholding whiskey traditions; holding almost every job imaginable at what is now the Buffalo Trace Distillery. Insider's note: Save the stoppers. They spell out Blanton's and depict eight different moments from the beginning to end of a horse race.
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1USA//SweetThe former George T. Stagg Distillery was renamed Buffalo Trace when Sazerac took over ownership in 1999. Master Distiller Elmer T. Lee came out of retirement for the creation of Buffalo Trace Bourbon which was released later that same year. This is the flagship bourbon from the distillery and is comprised of a low-rye traditional mash bill. It is bottled without an age statement at 90 proof.