Kirk Miller

What is a luxury tequila? It’s certainly not an official tequila category. But “luxury” is a word that gets thrown out a lot in the agave spirits world, along with “premium” or “super-premium.” But what makes it luxury? Is it simply price, availability, packaging, unusual barrel maturation or a marketing gimmick? The Distilled Spirits Council of the United States (DISCUS) defines luxury in the drinks world as simply “​​spirits brands that have a 750ml retail price of $50 or more.” This is fai…

Whiskey lovers circle the date for the fall release of the annual Buffalo Trace Antique Collection, an assortment of uncut and unfiltered bottles that are quickly snatched up for well over the $125 retail price. And those whiskey fans tend to notice when things are different (or even missing), even as the collection has changed a bit over the past 23 years. While the 2023 BTAC collection includes all the usual staples — George T. Stagg Bourbon, Thomas H. Handy Sazerac Rye Whiskey, Sazerac Ry…

What is a luxury tequila? It’s certainly not an official tequila category. But “luxury” is a word that gets thrown out a lot in the agave spirits world, along with “premium” or “super-premium.” But what makes it luxury? Is it simply price, availability, packaging, unusual barrel maturation or a marketing gimmick? The Distilled Spirits Council of the United States (DISCUS) defines luxury in the drinks world as simply “​​spirits brands that have a 750ml retail price of $50 or more.” This is fai…

What we’re drinking: Three releases from HIRSCH Selected Whiskeys Where they’re from: Crafted in Bardstown, Kentucky, HIRSCH is part of the larger Hotaling & Co. portfolio (Nikka Whisky, Junipero Gin, Old Portero Whiskey, etc.) Why we’re drinking these: If you’re unfamiliar with HIRSCH, there’s quite a backstory here. The current brand is loosely part of a lineage that includes what was once considered the best American whiskey ever produced: A.H. HIRSCH Reserve 16-Year-Old, distilled in 1…

I’ve been to enough food fests to know the dirty little secret — people sign up for the fancy food and the chef personalities, but they really come to drink. Which is why if you’re going to the New York City Wine and Food Festival (NYCWFF) this weekend, you should find an event that caters to the imbiber. There will be less waiting in line, and some of the city’s top bartender talent will be serving specialty drinks. The event that excites us the most (and isn’t sold out, at least at the tim…

As enthusiasts, we very much enjoy the thrill of seeking out the best new bourbons the moment they hit shelves. We love choosing the perfect pour for a Friday night after a long week, and we especially love pulling out one of our most prized bottles — the more highly allocated the better — when the occasion calls for it. But not every night qualifies as such, and it’s a good thing because drinking rare bourbon on the regular would get really expensive real quick. This is why it’s equally import…

(Updated list on 6/27/23) Whiskey is not an American invention, but the best domestic iterations certainly have their own fanciful backstories and flavor profiles (we can claim bourbon and Tennessee whiskey as our own). Without spending too much time on a history lesson — though we suggest quickly familiarizing yourself with the Whiskey Rebellion, Nearest Green and the Bottled-in-Bond Act — we simply wanted to profile 50 of the best American whiskeys and bourbons we appreciate. As with any…

I love tequila. But there’s a serious glut in the marketplace. We’ve mentioned this before, but there are thousands of tequilas (literally). And our inbox and mailroom are inundated weekly with new brands and new expressions, all of which often end up residing in the “meh” category. They’re fine, usually. And that’s about it. “There’s 190 new brands every year for the past three years and a half, four years,” Loco Tequila Co-founder Juan Pablo Torres Padilla told us earlier this fall. “That…

(Updated list on 6/27/23) Whiskey is not an American invention, but the best domestic iterations certainly have their own fanciful backstories and flavor profiles (we can claim bourbon and Tennessee whiskey as our own). Without spending too much time on a history lesson — though we suggest quickly familiarizing yourself with the Whiskey Rebellion, Nearest Green and the Bottled-in-Bond Act — we simply wanted to profile 50 of the best American whiskeys and bourbons we appreciate. As with any…

What we’re drinking: Three new whiskeys from Barrell Craft Spirits (BCS) Where they’re from: Started in 2013, Barrell is an award-winning independent blender of uniquely aged cask-strength whiskey. Why we’re drinking these: We’ve been huge fans of Barrell for years, even dubbing them the “best, most untraditional bourbon” back in 2020. And other drinkers have certainly caught on. Barrell recently opened a new state-of-the-art, 31,000-sq.-foot, $15 million blending and bottling facili…