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:
RTDs (Ready-to-Drink/Canned or Bottled Drinks)
• Nomadica Rosé Yuzu Spritz
www.explorenomadica.com/products/rose-yuzu-spritz-250ml
I’ve written about Nomadica’s quality canned wines in years past. Just-released Nomadica Rosé Yuzu Spritz (7% ABV; 4-pack $24) is in partnership with Olympian Gus Kenworthy and Yuzu Co., whose products I’ve also reviewed. This is a crushable, light new RTD of crisp 64% Merlot, 28% Grenache and 8% Gamay wines, bright and floral with yuzu, rounded out and subtly honeyed with muscat concentrate. It’s lovely with fresh mint and utterly crushable.
Taste Rating: 4.5
• Crystal Head Vodka Cosmopolitan and Espresso Martini RTDs
www.crystalheadvodka.com
Released spring 2024, Dan Aykroyd’s Crystal Head Vodka launched two new RTDs, Espresso Martini and Cosmopolitan. Espresso Martini capitalizes on yet another renaissance of the creamy cocktail that just keeps trending again every few years in the 20-something years I’ve been researching the Cocktail Renaissance. It’s the better of the two: a touch too sweet but also strong and boozy at 20% ABV, featuring Crystal Head Canadian corn-based vodka and nitro-brewed coffee. The Cosmo is less my jam — vodka, pure cranberry juice, natural lime extract, triple sec. Though a touch too sweet for me, it’s not as sweet as feared. In cute little cans, they are convenient, fun, boozy canned cocktails.
Taste Rating: 3.5 to 4
VERMOUTH
Mommenpop Grapefruit Aperitif
https://mommenpop.com
Mommenpop’s wine-based citrus aperitifs — made with organic California citrus — has been a local favorite for years in the Bay Area, taking off further afield over recent years. Their playful, colorful packaging aids its cult following, centered by fruit-forward, balanced yet bold flavors founder/winemaker Sam Sheehan achieves with each citrus. Makrut Lime may be my favorite, but I love the whole line. I sampled their vivid Grapefruit with brand new label design, just launched in July 2024 with embossed, textural labels and screw tops. With the blessed rise of aperitifs in the U.S. (23% growth in 2021), I love seeing us embrace the long-held Italian, French, Spanish apertif/aperitivo tradition with local fruit and expressions.
Taste Rating: 4.5
GIN
• Lighthouse Gin
www.lighthousegin.com
Distilled on New Zealand’s Northern Island with Yen Ben lemons, 2005-launched Lighthouse Gin ($49.99 SRP) features eight other botanicals, though the citrus dominates from a floral aroma to the coriander-orange-lemon body and gentle cinnamon finish. New Zealand’s first female distiller since she took over at the distillery in 2014, Rachel Hall, centers the gin’s flavor profile around the lemons. For those into citrus-forward gins, this is a good one, even if I wish to taste more of the almond, juniper and licorice botanicals.
Taste Rating: 4
• Junipero Rosemary Gin
https://juniperogin.com/products/smoked-rosemary-junipero-gin
Junipero Gin has been one of my all-time gins since pioneering San Francisco locals, legendary Fritz Maytag and Hotaling & Co. distiller Bruce Joseph, launched it well ahead of the global gin renaissance in 1996. Uber-juniper-forward, it’s the epitome of classic London Dry gin. Hotaling just released Junipero’s only new gin since the 1990s: Junipero Rosemary. At 98.6 proof, the smoke is blessedly subtle, imparted from lapsang souchong tea, while dried rosemary is thankfully present alongside Junipero’s welcome juniper. Balance is there and it’s an unusual gin flavor profile. However, I’d rather drink the classic Junipero. But it is subtly pushing into new territory.
Taste Rating: 3.5
TEQUILA
• Alto Canto Tequila
https://www.altocanto.com
Additive-free, 100% organic, wild-fermented, Tahona-milled Alto Canto tequila just launched in the U.S. Distilled in the Highlands of Tequila, 9,000 feet above sea level in the Sierra del Tigre mountains, founder Daday Suarez and master distiller Juan Reyes focus on only certified organic agave, mountain spring water, copper pot distillation and wood, even in the blanco. I only tried the Blanco and Reposado, both in striking, clean packaging and white boxes. The Blanco is settled for 25 days in a white oak container, exuding a bit of vegetal-green, white pepper and lime, but buttery vanilla notes are never what I seek in a blanco. Still, I prefer the blanco to the woodier reposado where I struggle to taste any agave, getting more astringency from wood tannins. But with nutty, fruit and caramel notes, these will please fans of wood-forward tequilas.
Taste Rating: 3 (reposado), 3.5 (blanco)
• Santo Tequila Blanco
www.santospirits.com
Additive free, estate grown Santo Tequila is distilled at El Viejito Distillery (NOM 1107) in Atotonilco in Mexico’s Highlands of Jalisco, with none other than Sammy Hagar and Guy Fieri behind it. For this reason, I feared another celebrity-driven, mediocre tequila. I was delighted to be wrong. I only tried the Blanco ($49.99 SRP), but it’s a lemon and stone fruit bomb that has a welcome peppery, earthy, nutty rusticity I love in a blanco or reposado. It’s fun, lively and showcases the agave first. Though its bracing profile makes it less elegant, it means it holds up and shines through in cocktails.
Taste Rating: 4
MEZCAL
Rosaluna Mezcal
https://mezcalrosaluna.com
While Rosaluna Mezcal is dubbed “less-smoky, all-natural handmade agave” mezcal, it’s a nicely-balanced mezcal that isn’t entirely missing smoke or those gentle roasted agave notes. But it leads with a blessed green, vegetal character, citrus and tropical fruits. Carbon-neutral, sustainable farming methods and an anti-deforestation focus — as well as their practice of letting agave fields and soil rest to restore for 1-2 years after harvest — all make it an admirable brand. So does its six generations distilling family and all-onsite production — grown, harvested, cooked, fermented, distilled, bottled — in Oaxaca. Balance and nuance make it a great entry-level mezcal that won’t isolate mezcal lovers.
Taste Rating: 4
JAPANESE WHISKEY
World Whiskey Society Japanese Single Malt by Chip Tate
https://worldwhiskey.com/collections/collections-current/products/japanese-single-malt-whisky-finished-in-bourbon-and-port-ruby-cask-handcrafted-by-chip-tate
Chip Tate first made his name launching Balcones in 2008, long ago moving on to make his own copper pot stills and a range of projects post-Balcones. Late June 2024, he released a limited edition whisky with the World Whiskey Society (WWS). A Japanese Single Malt ($120 SRP, 102-proof) finished in bourbon and ruby port barrels, the whisky is distilled in Japan from 100% Australian Malt. There are a bit more tannins from the wood and port sweetness than I would like, but it’s a pleasing, bold, layered whisky unfolding with pear, raisins, baking spices and a savory umami.
Taste Rating: 4.5
BOURBON
Leiper’s Fork Distillery Bottled-in-Bond Bourbon Whiskey
https://leipersforkdistillery.com/whiskeys/bourbon-bottled-in-bond
Tennessee-based Leiper’s Fork Distillery just released their Bottled-in-Bond Bourbon Whiskey ($79.99 ABV), a 100-proof, non-chill filtered, five years aged bourbon with a mashbill of 70% Corn, 15% Wheat and 15% Malted Barley, distilled with local non-GMO grains and corn grown on their head distiller’s farm. It’s bold and bracing but blessedly not overly woody or tannic as so many higher-proof bourbons are these days. It leads with cherry and plum, undergirded by some earthy coffee notes, subtle mint and citrus.
Taste Rating: 4
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.
