Looking for a new flavor? Need a little help making your next choice at your local bar or bottle shop? Dining and drinks writer and judge Virginia Miller combs through new craft spirits releases to taste, review, and recommend. Here are her top 12 picks of the month, rated on a scale of one to five.
My bottle review column (last month’s edition here) is about what is unique, standout, new and/or trending in spirits with my review ratings on a 1-5 rating scale. My 10 bottle reviews of the month:
AGAVE SPIRIT

Atávica Armando Solis Martinez Tepache Distillate
https://atavicaspirits.com/en
Magical, outdoors Arca in Tulum is one of Mexico’s greatest restaurants. Chef Jose Luis Hinostroza just opened a special new cocktail bar, Mecenes, in Guadalajara, making all their own house spirits. He’s also part of a new line of ancestral spirits just released in Mexico and available at each of his spots: Atavica Spirits. I tried the incredible Edition 1, Atavica Armando Solis Martinez, a tepache distillate. Yes, you heard right: a spirit distilled from tepache, a fermented pineapple peel and rind Mexican drink I’ve tasted hundreds of versions of. While some tepache is blessedly funky and kombucha-esque, Armando Solis Martinez has produced an elegant spirit in Jalisco with whispers of pineapple and ferment, but also verde and amarillo agave imparting vegetal, floral notes. Love the website details about how it’s made and thrilled to discover this beauty in Tulum and GDL, thanks to chef Hinostroza.
Taste Rating: 5
RUM

• VARA Winery and Distillery Estrella Blanca Rum and Noche Negra Rum
https://varaspirits.com
In the past, I’ve reviewed Albuquerque-based VARA Winery & Distillery’s Corona De Oro Rum. I’ve just tasted their new Noche Negra Dark Rum ($42 SRP) alongside their Estrella Blanca White Rum ($35 SRP), now a complete duo. VARA Noche Negra Dark Rum is a 100-proof dark rum aged in sherry casks, employing a traditional solera system like the Corona De Oro. It’s not overly sweet but rounded, a bit too smooth for me, lacking in the complexity and the funk and earthiness I crave in dark rums. VARA Estrella Blanca Rum is distilled in a four-plate column still and filtered through 100-micron pad filters. It’s likewise a bit too smooth for my tastes, somewhere between a clean vodka and a vanilla-forward white rum, but it’s also fresh and brigh. Both will have their audience as they offer a rounder cocktail profile and smooth accessibility.
Taste Rating: 3 (Noche Negra) to 4 (Estrella Blanca)

• Star & Key Indian Ocean Fresh Cane VSOP Rum
www.starandkeyrum.com/products/star-key-vsop-rum
On an 1856 estate, palm tree-lined Labourdonnais Estate is a 1500 acre sugarcane and fruit tree farm on the island of Mauritius where Star & Key’s single estate rums are produced. Distilled from estate-grown, fresh cane in a coffey still, their VSOP rum, aged in French oak Cognac casks, is a bit too sweet for me. But for those who crave a sweeter figs, toffee, butterscotch, orange and allspice rum with warm brown sugar tones, this nails “sweet” rums, winning gold medals and “best in class” awards along the way.
Taste Rating: 3.5
SOJU

Mahan Soju: 48 and Oak
www.smartbrewery.co.kr/shopping-soju
Distilled at Smart Brewery in Cheongju, South Korea, Mahan Soju makes classic rice distillates: Mahan 48 at 48% ABV and Mahan Oak at 40%. The first is clean, clear yet still bold, letting the rice shine with full body and silky texture. Mahan Oak is robust, aged in domestic Korean oak barrels. The wood is balanced while the rice still comes through in a woody, toasted and rounded profile. Sadly, these are not exported to the States yet, but they’re a prime example of quality Korean soju and increasingly popular aged soju category.
Taste Rating: 4
TEQUILA

• Cazcanes Tequila: Blanco no. 7, Blanco no. 9, Blanco no. 10 Still Strength, Reposado no. 7, Anejo no. 7
www.cazcanes.com
Cazcanes Tequila is producing some of the better tequila to come along in recent years, with numerous blancos representing different proofs, a reposado and an anejo. They’re certified additive-free by Tequila Matchmaker and made with only two ingredients: 100% Pure Weber Blue Agave and natural spring water, “based upon a 300-year-old indigenous recipe found in a moonshine jungle still,” as their website states. I appreciate each, especially the blancos, with their earthy, herbaceous notes, especially in the Still Strength. Reposado No. 7 and No. 7 Añejo allow the agave to star over the wood and have won Double Gold medals from San Francisco World Spirits Competition, where I’m a lead judge (we taste all blind).
Taste Rating: 4 to 4.5

• Alto Canto High Proof Blanco Tequila
https://altocanto.com/producto/the-tequila-high-proof
Last year I reviewed Alto Canto’s line of tequilas except for their high-proof Blanco, which I received at a later date. Distilled at their own NOM 1636 9,000 feet above sea level in the Sierra del Tigre Mountains of Jalisco, Mexico, it’s 48% ABV and with less dilution, more ideal for cocktails than their regular blanco and more bracing in flavor. I still find it a bit sharp, as I do the rest of the line, and maybe hard to justify for the nearly $100 price point, but with its hits of vegetal white pepper, citrus and minerality, it is my preferred tequila from this producer.
Taste Rating: 4
NON-ALCOHOLIC (NA)

Lyre’s Coffee Originale + White Cane Spirit
https://lyres.com/products
Australia-based Lyre’s was a pioneer in the now-booming NA sector and has been honing their popular non-alcoholic spirits and canned RTD “cocktails” for years. Their new Coffee Originale provides an option for the Espresso Martini-obsessed and other coffee cocktails or affogatos. It leans a bit sweet and less earthy and espresso-forward, as I long for, but for lovers of spice, caramel, vanilla and toasted nuts in sweeter form, it’s there with some body for cocktails. Their White Cane Spirit is a rum alternative evoking a hint of aged rum with some oak and marzipan, as well as fresh sugar cane, coconut and a subtle peppery hit. The body and flavor is still not equal to a great rum, but NA spirits have come a long way since I was first judging them a good eight years ago.
Taste Rating: 3.5
GIN

Drumshanbo Gunpowder Brazilian Pineapple Irish Gin
www.palmbay.com/spirits/drumshanbo-gunpowder-irish-gin/gunpowder-irish-gin-with-brazilian-pineapple
Produced at The Shed Distillery in Drumshanbo, Ireland, I’ve long reviewed their Gunpowder Gins in Irish, Sardinian Citrus and California Orange Citrus formats (the latter is the only one I have not tried or reviewed). Based on the travels of creator PJ Rigney, their new gin — Drumshanbo Gunpowder Irish Gin with Brazilian Pineapple — sources pineapples from Brazil to compliment their classic juniper, citrus and Gunpowder tea gin profile with a tropical tinge. It’s a bit harsh or sharp on the finish and the pineapple is subtle, but it’s also intriguing, adding faint whispers of pineapple to a cocktail.
Taste Rating: 3.5
SCOTCH

The ImpEx Collection
https://impexcollection.com
The independent Scotch bottlings from Sam Filmus and business partner Chris Uhde’s The ImpEx Collection are full of beauties for Single Malt lovers. Their latest late fall 2024 Edition Four lineup is no exception. Each cask is hand selected via blind tasting by the Impex tasting panel; each limited edition, between only 250 and 330 bottles. I appreciate the light body yet orange-cherry richness of the 2011 Benrinnes 12yr Scotch (58.9% ABV, $120 RRP), the apple, black pepper and spiced hit of the 2011 Royal Brackla 12yr (58% ABV, $120 RRP), the tropical stone fruit dance of the bracing 2009 14yr Dailuaine (56.8% ABV, $140 RRP), and waxy pear and grain intensity of the 2009 14yr Strathmill (57.5% ABV, $140 RRP).
Taste Rating: 4.5 to 5
AMERICAN WHISKEY

Old Elk Straight Rye Whiskey
https://shop.oldelk.com/products/old-elk-straight-rye-whiskey
Old Elk Straight Rye Whiskey (50% ABV; $79.99 SRP) is a mashbill of 95 percent rye and 5 percent malted barley from master distiller Greg Metze. While a touch “hot,” the whiskey is thankfully not too tannic or over-oaked, though the wood of the barrel does hit with some force. Rye spice dominates with stone fruit, cinnamon, caramel and dry tannins.
Taste Rating: 3.5
Ready for another round? Visit Virginia’s website http://www.theperfectspotsf.com/wp02/for last month’s edition, plus personal recommendations on the best spots in cities around the world.