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 Tepache Distillate. Courtesy photograph.

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 & Distillery. Courtesy photograph.

• 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 rum

• 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

Photo courtesy of Mahan Soju website

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 Blanco 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 Blanco high proof tequila.

• 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)

Lyres. Courtesy photograph

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 Brazilian pineapple 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

Impex Collection Edition Four 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.

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.

 

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Founding The Perfect Spot in 2007 sharing top recommends globally in food and drink, Virginia Miller is W. North America Academy Chair for The World's 50 Best Restaurants, regular columnist at The Bold Italic and Medium, Distiller Magazine, American Whiskey Magazine, Whisky Magazine, VOICES, Liquor.com, Gin Magazine, etc. She held roles as Zagat SF/NorCal editor, SF Guardian restaurant critic, Table8 National Editor/VP of Content. Published in over 60 international publications, she’s covered global dining, travel, spirits, cocktails, hotels and bars with regular columns at Time Out, Where Traveler, Google’s Touringbird, Food Republic, Thrillist, Travelux, to name a few. She wrote The Official Emily in Paris Cocktail Book. Virginia consults in dining, spirits, cocktails and drink. She co-created Avion’s Reserva Cristalino tequila with Pernod Ricard’s House of Tequila innovation, marketing and distilling teams and is now working multiple agave spirits projects in Mexico over recent years, including cutting edge innovation products and blends for different clients. She consults for multiple distilleries on short-term projects, whether evaluating and providing feedback on samples or products or multiple versions. She helps create various samples and flavor profiles with distilling teams or in labs, edits or writes tasting notes, provides feedback on marketing materials and leads tastings virtually or in-person. She leads tastings virtually for Whiskies of the World and for company parties or private events, educating on a range of spirits. Virginia creates drink menus for Michelin-starred restaurants (like Dominique Crenn’s Golden Poppy in Paris, a multi-month project creating an entire menu of cocktails and non-alcoholic cocktails with stories and photos for the restaurant’s launch). She aids in honing and curating food and drink menus and provides feedback on dishes and drinks. Virginia judges in many international dining, food, spirits, cocktails and bars competitions and awards (including SF World Spirits, ADI Craft Distilling, Tales of the Cocktail, Good Food Awards, IWSC in London, Nola Spirits Comp, Whiskies of the World, etc.) and has visited over 13,000 restaurants and even more. top bars around the world.