Martini Groove

The fellas over at Compass Box are shaking it up yet again with Oak Cross Whisky. This one is a single-malt blend of three other single malts that are all aged around 10 years already. The blend is aged in casks that were first filled with Bourbon and are made from American AND new French Oak woods. This one's all yours for about US$40. Oak Cross Whisky

The plethora of Halloween recipes on sites abound today and I would hate to not follow the crowd as I regularly do so in order to seek their acceptance as a good and valid peer. Thanks to Liquor Snob there's an article on The State (South Carolina's Home Page!) with some pretty good ideas for drinks. The Bloody Brain looks like the most visually interesting one. We're having a little get together tonight and walking around with Black Margaritas. It's basically the Perfect Margarita recipe but with black tequila. Happy Halloween! Eat, drink, and be scary: Cool cocktails for Halloween via Liquor Snob

Anheuser-Busch announced three brews especially for the holidays. Because nothing gets grandma more drunk than a brew with excellent vanilla oak flavors. The flavors actually sound pretty intriguing and might be a good six pack or bottle to bring to the holiday party. The three brews are: Michelob Celebrate Chocolate, with a dark chocolate flavor and aroma as well as hints of caramel. Serve in a snifter please. Michelob Celebrate Vanilla Oak is also best in a snifter and gives you the simple caramel taste but the beer is aged on vanilla beans and oak. Budweiser Brew Masters' Private Reserve is the cream off the top of the butter, almost literally. It's the richest part of the brew that is usually collected right as it is tapped in order to toast the holidays. Perfect for a rich drinking experience. All of these are available right now through the end of the year. via Bottlewatch

Penderyn makes an extremely drinkable Welsh Whisky and is now pushing out in to vodka and gin. I must say, it's really nice to see more expansion in to gin. Liquors with delicate flavors are really falling by the wayside and Gin is just the type of drink to cross the gap. Both drinks are made from water from Brecon Beacons National Park in Wales, UK. The Brecon Five vodka is five column distilled for purity and smoothness and made with wheat grain and comes in a bottle meant to resemble a block of ice. The Brecon Special Reserve gin is infused with 10 specially selected botanicals, married with Penderyn barley spirit. Both sell for around $30. Brecon Five vodka and Special Reserve gin - US$30

Hey! Yeah you! These are good wines! No, not great. But very good. Your friends will think "Wow! This is something I've never seen before and the bottle is blue. I like blue. I like wine in blue bottles. Therefore, I like this wine." Also, they will think you're attractive and know the secret code to cracking "Deal or No Deal." The three wines in this special JanKris Paso Robles Trio are all blends, which means you'll have no idea they're from Paso Robles, but that they'll taste super yummy and unique enough to make your tastebuds stand up and preach the Power of Blue. Plus, it's 3 bottles for US$40 and $5 shipping. Yay Blue! JanKris Paso Robles Trio - $39.99

Appelation America has two distinct things about it's site. First, it is easily the most eye-hurting, overly busy site I've seen in quite some time. It looks like GeoCities circa 1997. Second, they're doing some fantastic work spreading the word of " Terroir"that every wine writer seems to be freaking out about these days. They're doing it by making it so you can look up an appellation and see a map of the region as well as get a short synopsis of what that region is about. A very handy tool for learning the characteristics of an area. A lot of the images are like the one here but they are starting to upload more and more satellite photos of the appellations. Appelation America

Okay, let's say you don't like the results of a contest. Here's what you do, keep running the contest until you DO like the results. For a third time, they ran a Judgement of Paris, for a third time, California one. What's a shame to me is that anyone thinks that France needs to win this. There are some amazing wines in both places and they both have characteristics that make them worth buying. So, California is better. Does that mean that you have to stop selling your wines or making them because the world will think that you're just California wanna-be's and all your wines suck? Or does it mean that you're no longer relevant to the wine world and just about any upstart region in the world can have some judgement with you and you'll come in second place? Well, it probably does, but stop it with the competitions already. California in pole position yet again