School of Wine & Spirits
All Reviews
340 curated reviews
Tanqueray London Dry Gin
Diageo
Tanqueray London Dry is the benchmark against which other London Dry gins are measured. Charles Tanqueray's four-botanical formula, created in 1830, has endured because it works — bold juniper, balanced spice, and a higher proof that stands up in any cocktail.
Herradura Añejo
Brown-Forman Corporation
Herradura Añejo is tequila heritage in a glass. Casa Herradura has been making tequila at the Hacienda San José del Refugio since 1870, and this añejo — aged 25 months, well beyond the 12-month minimum — shows the patience that comes with long experience.
Glenmorangie The Original 10 Year Old
The Glenmorangie Company (LVMH)
Glenmorangie The Original is a masterclass in the Highland style — delicate, fruity, and approachable without sacrificing depth. Those famously tall stills, the tallest in Scotland, strip away heavier compounds and deliver a spirit of unusual purity.
Château Léoville-Las Cases Grand Cru Classé 2018
Domaines des Grands Crus de la Famille Delon
Château Léoville-Las Cases is frequently described as the finest of the Super Seconds — Second Growth estates that rival the First Growths in quality — and the 2018 vintage makes a compelling case.
Famille Hugel Riesling Classic Alsace 2022
Famille Hugel
Famille Hugel has been making wine in Riquewihr since 1639, and their Classic Riesling is a distillation of everything they have learned across thirteen generations. This is Alsatian Riesling at its most pure.
1792 Small Batch Kentucky Straight Bourbon
Sazerac Company
1792 Small Batch is a bourbon that punches well above its price point. The high-rye mash bill gives it a spice-forward character that balances beautifully against the caramel sweetness, and at 93.7 proof it delivers flavor without overwhelming heat. The Barton 1792 Distillery, which has been producing spirits in Bardstown since 1879, brings a quiet consistency to this bottle — heritage you can taste in every sip.
Ron Abuelo Añejo 7 Year Old
Varela Hermanos S.A.
Ron Abuelo Añejo 7 Year Old is estate rum at its purest. The Varela Hermanos family has controlled every step of production — from sugarcane field to bottle — since establishing their sugar mill in 1908 and beginning rum distillation in 1936.
Bushmills Black Bush
Proximo Spirits (José Cuervo)
Bushmills Black Bush is one of the great values in Irish whiskey. The high proportion of sherry-cask-matured single malt in the blend gives it a richness and complexity that belies its modest price, and the Old Bushmills Distillery — whose site has held a distilling license since 1608 — brings centuries of craft to bear.
Arette Añejo
Tequila Arette de Jalisco S.A. de C.V.
Arette is one of those brands that connoisseurs pass around like a secret. The Orendain family has been in the tequila business for generations, but Arette was their deliberate reinvention.
Bodegas Muga Reserva Rioja 2019
Bodegas Muga S.L.
When the rest of Rioja rushed to modernize in the 1990s — switching to French oak, adopting international varieties, chasing Parker points — Muga went the other way. They built their own cooperage and committed to traditional methods.
Benromach 10 Year Old
Gordon & MacPhail
Benromach sat silent for fifteen years. When Gordon & MacPhail brought it back to life in 1998, they didn't try to copy the old Speyside playbook. Instead, they introduced a light peat — unusual for the region — creating something that didn't exist before.
Kilbeggan Single Grain Irish Whiskey
Beam Suntory
The Kilbeggan distillery nearly vanished. After closing in 1957, it sat derelict until a group of local volunteers began restoring it in 1982 — cleaning pot stills by hand, patching stone walls, preserving equipment.
Hayman's Old Tom Gin
Hayman Distillers Ltd
Old Tom gin was the taste of Victorian London — sweeter than London Dry, the bridge between Dutch genever and the bone-dry gins we know today. It vanished for nearly a century until the Hayman family resurrected it.
Ron del Barrilito Three Star Rum
Fernández Family (Private Estate)
Ron del Barrilito is Puerto Rico's best-kept secret — a rum that has never left family hands since 1880. The Fernández family survived every upheaval the island threw at them and simply kept blending.
Schloss Gobelsburg Grüner Veltliner Gobelsburger 2022
Weingut Schloss Gobelsburg
Schloss Gobelsburg is an 800-year-old estate that was slowly fading when Michael Moosbrugger arrived in 1996. He didn't bulldoze the past — he studied the monastery's ancient records, revived forgotten vineyard practices, and transformed neglect into one of Austria's finest expressions of Grüner Veltliner.
Angel's Envy Rye Finished in Rum Barrels
Louisville Distilling Company (Bacardi)
Lincoln Henderson spent decades perfecting bourbon at Woodford Reserve. Then, after four decades at Brown-Forman and a brief retirement, he started over. Angel's Envy Rye is the fruit of that second act — a rye finished in Caribbean rum barrels that adds layers of tropical sweetness to the grain's natural spice.
Casa Dragones Joven
Casa Dragones
Casa Dragones Joven is among the purest expressions of tequila-as-blend on the market. Silver for freshness, extra añejo for depth.
Yellow Spot 12 Year Old
Irish Distillers (Pernod Ricard)
Yellow Spot is the middle child of the Spot range, and arguably the most balanced. Three-cask blend: bourbon, sherry, and Malaga.
Johnnie Walker Green Label 15 Year Old
Diageo
Green Label is among the most underappreciated whiskies in the Johnnie Walker family. Pure malt — four single malts combined into one harmonious whole.
Conundrum White Blend 2023
Wagner Family of Wine (Caymus Vineyards)
Conundrum was decades ahead of its time. Chuck Wagner of Caymus created it in 1989, asking what if you gave each grape its best role.
Citadelle Original Dry Gin
Maison Ferrand
Citadelle is a quiet genius of the gin world. Nineteen botanicals, each earning its place under Alexandre Gabriel’s direction.
Basil Hayden’s Kentucky Straight Bourbon
Beam Suntory
Basil Hayden’s is a quiet argument for restraint. Where so many bourbons muscle their way forward with proof and sweetness, this one leads with the grain blend itself — that generous 27% rye lifting everything around it.
Pusser’s British Navy Rum
Pusser’s Rum Ltd.
Pusser’s is a definitive blended rum. Charles Tobias secured the original Admiralty blending recipe in 1979 and brought it back to life.
The Prisoner Red Blend 2022
The Prisoner Wine Company (Constellation Brands)
The Prisoner began as a rebellious experiment. Each varietal brings a different voice; over 100 growers provide the blending palette.