Thomas S. Moore Cabernet Sauvignon Casks and Port Casks

When I heard of the Thomas S. Moore Bourbon releases I was excited to find them knowing their origin prior to cask aging was 1792. The Bourbon used for the three variants was 5 to 6 years old and then finished in the Cabernet Sauvignon, Port, and Chardonnay casks. With a price point of $69.95 it was a bit of a stretch to purchase all three bottles so when reviews emerged suggesting a pass on the Chardonnay cask I took that as a sign to skip it. I was able to get the other two bottles and as both leave it building if the Chardonnay is the weakest expression of the three, skipping it was a wise decision. Anyway, let’s take a closer look at the other two bottles.

Cabernet Sauvignon Casks
The Cabernet Sauvignon bottle is 95.3 proof. The aroma is reminiscent of Cabernet Sauvignon enhanced Bourbon, but lacks depth and complexity. There is a slight fusel alcohol component which wafts unpleasantly. The background Bourbon notes are brown sugar and pepper with hints of oak. The flavor is extremely restrained with slight Cabernet Sauvignon wine character, low brown sugar, low black peppery, and a smidge of oak thrown in for good measure. The finish is the best part with lingering brown sugar and wine long and pleasantly into the aftertaste. The sweetness in the finish is well balanced and where this bottle truly shines out of the darkness.

Port Casks
The Port bottle has the highest alcohol content and rings in at 98.9 proof. The Port aroma is much more pleasant than the CS. Once again however a slight fusel alcohol note fills the nasal passages with an unpleasant character. The Bourbon is masked by the Port in this bottle and that is not necessarily a bad thing. What is a bad thing is a vegetal note which while very low is off-putting and present. Otherwise the notable aromatic notes which are worth mentioning are oak and black pepper. The flavor is balanced and tasty, but still not as complex as it should be for a bottle with this price point. It’s mostly Port with slight oak, brown sugar, and pepper. The finish is very pleasant, and similar to the CS bottle with the exception of Port presence. In case you cannot tell, this was my preferred bottle of the two. The Bourbon was noticeable darker and with a ruby hue in the glass. Of course it still wasn’t mind blowing.

While the bottle appearance is eye catching, the slender base is a terrible idea. I first noticed the poor functional design of the bottle when placing in the vehicle. Its near impossible for the bottle to stay vertical on anything but a perfectly horizontal surface. Also the bottle is extra tall. In my bar it was almost impossible to pull out the bottle without contacting the glassware hanging above the bottles. I can imagine someone with shelves might have a difficult time storing the bottle on their shelves. In case you are wondering how tall these bottles actually are, they stand 13 inches tall.

In the end when you consider it all these bottles need to gather dust on the store shelves until they land in the bargain bin. Their flavor and complexity is not interesting enough to command a 70 bean price point. Couple that to a lousy, but eye-catching, bottle at 40 bucks these would be fantastic, even at 50 bucks they would be good or better, but at 70 they are a hard pass. Skip them as a fad. I know if they roll out more I will not be the guinea pig and I may not pick up another even if all the reviews talk about how it blows their socks off. Sorry guys, these aren’t all that and a bag of chips and IMHO aren’t worth the price of admission.

No Sunday Morning Libations For Kure Beach

In a bonehead move Kure Beach has denied Sunday morning alcohol sales. We knew somewhere in North Carolina a governing body would stand on religious principal and the evils of alcohol, but I wouldn’t have suspected it to be a tourist area. It is their prerogative to decide if Sunday morning sales should be allowed to happen, but it is ridiculous to put it in a religious context. Someone should remind them religious organizations meet all the time, not just on Sunday morning. The mayor, Craig Bloszinsky, cited traffic getting worse in town if alcohol sales were to occur beginning at 10am. I guess Craig has realized what I learned long ago, they only put those fish symbols on the back of cars who cannot drive in the first place. I think they have a meeting at church to decide who gets a fish and who doesn’t and they want the highest possible visibility so it goes on the car who drives the worst and is most likely to draw attention to the symbol. I’m kidding of course, but to say it will add to traffic is quite short sighted. People having a bloody with 10am brunch are not apt to get sloshed by noon when the neighborhood churches typically let out. Anyway, I know where I won’t be visiting when planning my next vacation if that is the attitude of Kure Beach. Sounds like they didn’t want visitors there in the first place.

Happy 4th of July!

Have a safe and happy 4th of July!

Sunday Morning Drinking – Almost

You may or may not have heard Senate Bill 155, the Brunch Bill, has been sent to Governor Cooper to be signed. This bill was actually entitled ABC Omnibus Legislation and made several changes to the law including the definition of Homebrew. Assuming he signs it quickly that does not mean you get to run out and have a bloody the following Sunday morning. In fact now you will have to wait for your city or perhaps county to allow those sales. Yep, it may be quite some time before you actually can have a Sunday morning libation in a restaurant or bar depending upon when the governing body for each area meets to allow or disallow those sales. I suspect you will be walking into a small town restaurant next year on a Sunday morning and order that mimosa only to be told the town has still not approved those sales. I’m all for big government allowing small cities and towns to be the master of their fate, but I’m also for uniformity, especially when it comes to alcohol. I should be able to expect the same rules in each and every place where it is sold in NC. Anyway, the bill has passed and soon enough the larger cities will jump on the bandwagon. No more waiting until noon to head out to Sunday brunch. Now I can thrown on a hat and have some hair of the dog first thing in the morning.

There are many other tweaks to the law in the bill. The text is available here.

NCGA House Alcohol Beverage Control Committee

You know how they say a picture is worth 1,000 words. How about several photos which demonstrate a point. I got to wondering the House ABC Committee and their decision to gut House Bill 500 and why that might have happened. Then I took a few minutes and looked at the campaign contributions they have received from the NC Wine & Beer Wholesalers and it paints a picture of pay to play politics. Take a gander at the screen shots below and see if you come to the same conclusion.

It should be noted a few are not in the pocket of the NC Wine & Beer Wholesalers, but it should be obvious a majority of the committee are on Tim Kent’s payroll through campaign contributions.

House Bill 500 – About Time!

I have no idea if House Bill 500 which was introduced on March 28 will pass it the current form, but if it does we will all be better off. This revised ABC legislation does a host of things. I stole this synopsis from Facebook, but it sums it up well.

1) Makes crowlers legal for sale at retail
2) Allows breweries to sell wine and cider without food
3) Allows breweries to have off-site storage for beer
4) Allows QC sampling and other on-site sampling to be legal
5) Makes homebrew meetings & competitions legal
6) Authorizes farm breweries
7) Raises the self-distribution cap to 250,000 bbls wholesale (not produced)
8) Changes the wording of the franchise law to allow small breweries to more easily manage distribution agreements and partners
9) Clarifies and modernizes other parts of the law (mainly just makes things more straightforward and easy to understand without changing function)

Get behind this bill and contact your representative to support it so it doesn’t die.

Kirkland Signature Asolo Prosecco

Lately Costco has not carried our favorite Prosecco, Riondo, so I grabbed a bottle of the Kirkland Signature instead. If memory serves this set me back about $7 so it was a no brainer to give it a whirl. First impression is the carbonation level is much higher than Riondo and the finish is much drier. It still has the same crisp characteristics and pleasant apple and pear notes. It paired well with food and would be excellent to consume on a hot summer night or even a cool fall evening sitting by the fire. I think we’ll keep some around, but if I run into Riondo at a good price it will always find it’s way into the shopping cart.

Brunch Anyone – S155

On Wednesday Senate Bill 155 was introduced and while I wish it was more encompassing, it is nice someone finally realized there is no reason to wait until noon to have a bloody mary at brunch on Sunday. This bill addresses two things, one of which is the silly rule to only allow alcohol sales at restaurants after noon on Sunday. The second is to allow off-premise free tastings for those holding a distillery permit. Where it falls short is not allowing alcohol sales in retail stores until noon. I’m not saying everyone needs to have a drink at 10am on Sunday, but how about you are heading to lunch with friends and forgot to grab the wine on Saturday before lunch on Sunday. Now you run to the store to quickly pick up a red for the event and are told you need to wait until noon. Why do I need to wait until noon exactly? Because someone feels my ability to purchase alcohol should be based on their religious convictions? That’s a special kind of stupid considering all the various religions and when they have services. Are we to continue to cowtail to the prohibitionists or can we all agree it is 2017 and the chances of someone getting all liquored up and going to church service is not going to change with a change in the laws. This bill is on the right track, but let’s complete the circle and send a message to people like Rev. Mark Creech that his skewed sense of values is not that of the majority of NC.

National Drink Wine Day 2017

Today is National Drink Wine day. I think you know what to do!

Celebrating Five Years

Today is the fifth anniversary for the blog. When it started 1,827 posts ago the direction was unclear and with this post once again the direction is a bit of a mystery. Trying to post daily has proven difficult when a fresh topic idea isn’t forthcoming, for that reason the plan is to only post when there is something relevant or fun to say. That might be a reminder of a particular day to celebrate a drink or beverage of a discourse on how ignorant a politician is on the topic of alcohol or firearms. The goal will be for topics to concentrate on firearms and fermentation only occasionally coloring outside the lines. Thank you to everyone who receive the blog via email and to those who visit regularly to read what we have to say.

Cheers to you all!