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Discover the Highest-Rated Beer in Tennessee: A Must-Try Brew!
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If you drink beer—any beer—you’re probably familiar with the craft beer explosion that began in the late 2010s, and you likely fall into one of two camps: IPA warrior or lager loyalist. The great thing about a beer-related revolution is that there is no wrong side. Whatever your preference, cheers to you.
The brewery business is indeed a revolution by many counts. According to the Brewers Association, the number of breweries in the United States grew by 567% from 2003 to 2023—all while beer consumption, on average, was declining. For the first time since 1999, beer shipments fell below 200 million barrels in 2023, making it the lowest amount of beer consumed in the U.S. in a generation.
Like all revolutions, this began as a desire for change—as an overthrow of the old and the monopolistic. When combined, Anheuser-Busch InBev and Molson Coors (formerly MillerCoors), two of the largest beer companies in the world, comprised roughly 72% of total beer sales in the U.S. around 2013. A decade later, that share dropped to 65.7% in 2023, with smaller brewers claiming a larger share.
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With a taste of the innovations and variety coming out of craft breweries, consumers are demanding a higher-quality product—and are willing to pay more for it. Over the last decade, between May 2014 and May 2024, beer prices have risen 21% overall.
But how can you determine the best craft beers in an increasingly crowded market? If you’re curious about the most popular beers in the Volunteer State, Stacker compiled a list of the highest-rated beers in Tennessee using ratings from BeerAdvocate. A maximum of five beers per brewery were included.
Read on to plan your next local beer tour!
– Rating: 4.15 (40 ratings)
– Type: Brett Beer
– ABV: 6.20%
– Brewery: Yazoo Brewing Company
– Read more on BeerAdvocate
– Rating: 4.33 (10 ratings)
– Type: New England IPA
– ABV: 6.50%
– Brewery: Xül Beer Co.
– Read more on BeerAdvocate
– Rating: 4.12 (902 ratings)
– Type: Smoked Porter
– ABV: 9.00%
– Brewery: Yazoo Brewing Company
– Read more on BeerAdvocate
– Rating: 4.2 (30 ratings)
– Type: Sweet / Milk Stout
– ABV: 6.50%
– Brewery: Southern Grist Brewing Co.
– Read more on BeerAdvocate
– Rating: 4.17 (50 ratings)
– Type: Imperial IPA
– ABV: 7.90%
– Brewery: Southern Grist Brewing Co.
– Read more on BeerAdvocate
– Rating: 4.17 (52 ratings)
– Type: American IPA
– ABV: 7.50%
– Brewery: Southern Grist Brewing Co.
– Read more on BeerAdvocate
– Rating: 4.3 (15 ratings)
– Type: American Imperial Stout
– ABV: 13.20%
– Brewery: Blackstone Brewing Company
– Read more on BeerAdvocate
– Rating: 4.27 (22 ratings)
– Type: Wild Ale
– ABV: 5.90%
– Brewery: Yazoo Brewing Company
– Read more on BeerAdvocate
– Rating: 4.4 (12 ratings)
– Type: Wild Ale
– ABV: 6.00%
– Brewery: Yazoo Brewing Company
– Read more on BeerAdvocate
– Rating: 4.31 (20 ratings)
– Type: Quadrupel (Quad)
– ABV: 10.00%
– Brewery: Tennessee Brew Works
– Read more on BeerAdvocate
| Check out more lists and rankings from across Tennessee →
– Rating: 4.2 (114 ratings)
– Type: American Imperial Stout
– ABV: 13.20%
– Brewery: Blackstone Brewing Company
– Read more on BeerAdvocate
– Rating: 4.22 (69 ratings)
– Type: Saison
– ABV: 6.30%
– Brewery: Blackberry Farm Brewery
– Read more on BeerAdvocate
– Rating: 4.24 (50 ratings)
– Type: New England IPA
– ABV: 8.00%
– Brewery: Southern Grist Brewing Co.
– Read more on BeerAdvocate
– Rating: 4.27 (45 ratings)
– Type: Imperial IPA
– ABV: 8.30%
– Brewery: Southern Grist Brewing Co.
– Read more on BeerAdvocate
– Rating: 4.21 (530 ratings)
– Type: New England IPA
– ABV: 6.00%
– Brewery: Bearded Iris Brewing
– Read more on BeerAdvocate
– Rating: 4.24 (213 ratings)
– Type: New England IPA
– ABV: 8.20%
– Brewery: Bearded Iris Brewing
– Read more on BeerAdvocate
– Rating: 4.27 (75 ratings)
– Type: New England IPA
– ABV: 6.80%
– Brewery: Bearded Iris Brewing
– Read more on BeerAdvocate
– Rating: 4.28 (149 ratings)
– Type: New England IPA
– ABV: 7.50%
– Brewery: Bearded Iris Brewing
– Read more on BeerAdvocate
– Rating: 4.33 (252 ratings)
– Type: New England IPA
– ABV: 8.20%
– Brewery: Bearded Iris Brewing
– Read more on BeerAdvocate
– Rating: 4.36 (218 ratings)
– Type: American Imperial Stout
– ABV: 12.20%
– Brewery: Wiseacre Brewing – Broad Ave OG
– Read more on BeerAdvocate
⏩ Read today’s top stories on wkrn.com
This story features data reporting by Karim Noorani and is part of a series utilizing data automation across 50 states and Washington D.C.
Copyright 2024 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WKRN News 2.
New Crop Insurance to be Tested in California: Wine Grape ‘Smoke Taint’ Coverage
In a major development for the wine industry, the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Risk Management Agency this summer plans to try out new crop insurance coverage in California to protect growers against losses from wildfire smoke exposure.
The “fire insurance protection smoke index” will be available as an optional add-on to individual grape crop insurance policies starting in the 2025 crop year, an agency official said at the West Coast Smoke Damage Task Force summit earlier this month.
The pilot program will launch initially in 32 counties where crop insurance is available in the Golden State, with plans to potentially expand to other smoke-prone regions in the future.
“We want to develop something really simple, something that can quickly respond to smoke events or smoke damage at the end of the insurance period, and provide indemnities quickly without minimal interaction,” said Jeff Yasui, agency regional director.
Wildfire smoke compounds can be absorbed into wine grapes and be released during the winemaking process, leaving smoky, ashen or muted flavors that result in wines that can be unfit for sale. In 2020 alone, an estimated 165,000 to 325,000 tons of California winegrapes were lost due to actual or perceived smoke damage, with financial losses of over $600 million.
The smoke-taint add-on or endorsement is designed as an area-based plan, meaning payouts will be triggered if the required number of “eligible smoke days” are recorded in the insured county during the coverage period, rather than requiring individual growers to document losses, Yasui explained during the task force online summit.
The extra insurance is meant to cover the liability for smoke damage between the grape policy’s coverage level and 95% of the crop price. Most of the premium costs will be subsidized by the government.
“The nice thing about it, too, growers don’t have to do lab tests. They don’t have to prove they had losses. It’s just whether or not the area had a loss,” Yasui said. “Indemnities can be issued under either or both policies.”
This new insurance option aims to provide a straightforward way for growers to be compensated for smoke-related damage without extensive documentation requirements. It comes after years of advocacy by the wine industry and research efforts to better understand and mitigate the impacts of wildfire smoke on winegrapes.
“We’re hoping the program is popular and resolve some issues,” Yasui said. “It was a big group collaborative effort, it was a big success.”
The smoke taint coverage rollout, announced amid other coverage changes for other crops from the USDA agency Thursday comes just over a year after the introduction of a House bill (H.R. 4801) that seeks to study and develop such coverage for California, Oregon and Washington.
“Winegrapes are essential to California’s economy,” Rep. Mike Thompson, D-St. Helena, one of the bill sponsors, said in a statement Thursday. “Yet growers in our state have been struggling to recover after smoke exposure damages their winegrapes. I’ve long advocated for strengthening crop insurance for winegrowers to better capture the risks associated with growing in smoke- and wildfire-prone regions. RMA’s announcement is an essential step toward that goal.”
Natalie Collins, president of California Association of Winegrape Growers, called smoke-damage coverage a “critical need” to the “significant threat” of wildfires.
“This new policy is a significant step forward in protecting the livelihoods of growers and the industry as a whole,” Collins said in a statement Thursday.
Policy coverage for smoke “became a top federal priority” in public policy advocacy for trade group Napa Valley Vintners.
“Today’s announcement that the Department of Agriculture will begin offering smoke insurance policies is a huge win for the Napa Valley wine Industry,” said Rex Stults, vice president of industry relations for the Napa Valley Vintners on Thursday.
Additional details on the pilot program will be released later this summer, according to the Department of Agriculture.
Jeff Quackenbush covers wine, construction, and real estate. Reach him at jquackenbush@busjrnl.com or 707-521-4256.
Sweet Grass Vodka Owner’s Profits Seized Following $1.7M Sale of Mount Pleasant Home
Our newsletter catches you up with all the business stories that are shaping Charleston and South Carolina every Monday and Thursday at noon. Get ahead with us – it’s free.
Sweet Grass Vodka owner Jarrod Swanger toasts with actor Jeremy Renner, then his celebrity brand rep, in September 2023.
The owner of a rapidly unraveling Charleston vodka company sold his million-dollar house and lost a large chunk of the profits in a court order.
Jarrod Swanger bought a 2,300-square-foot house in Mount Pleasant in 2020 months after launching Sweet Grass Vodka, a business investors now say was built on a series of falsehoods. Swanger convinced those investors to give him millions of dollars and lured actor Jeremy Renner to be the face of his brand, even calling him a co-owner.
Renner cut ties with Swanger earlier this year, while people who sunk money into Sweet Grass are suing Swanger for failing to pay back nearly $750,000 in loans. He also stands accused of owing Renner nearly half a million dollars and employees as much as five weeks in back pay.
Swanger officially sold his Snee Farm home for $1.7 million on June 21, when the deal closed. A sales contract was signed in late April, court records show.
More than a quarter million dollars—the bulk of Swanger’s share of the profit from the sale—was handed over to the court as part of an agreement in a lawsuit brought by investor Stephen McCord.
Alicia and Jarrod Swanger pose for a portrait in the future location of Sweet Grass Vodka inside of The Refinery on Meeting Street Road on Dec. 9, 2021, in Charleston.
The agreement allowed Swanger’s wife, Alicia, to keep half of the $680,000 in net proceeds after a previous order by Judge Jennifer McCoy had called for all proceeds from the sale to be seized. An exemption in South Carolina law also allows Jarrod Swanger to keep $73,700 from the sale.
The caveat protecting Swanger’s wife was the main reason he agreed to the June 12 order, said Swanger’s lawyer, Ronald Jones Jr. He said Swanger’s wife has nothing to do with the business or debts of her husband and noted the judge has yet to make an order on who is to receive Swanger’s cut of the profits.
McCord and his lawyer could not be reached for comment.
Far from the jet-setting lifestyle brushing shoulders with celebrities he enjoyed in recent years, Swanger’s story has devolved into a tale of professional failure mixed with personal tragedy.
With his business shuttered and debts mounting, Swanger’s 16-month-old son fell into the family’s backyard swimming pool on June 11 and nearly drowned.
Swanger and his wife were both at home when the child was found unresponsive in the water, a police incident report states.
The Mount Pleasant house sold this month by Sweet Grass Vodka owner Jarrod Swanger. A judge ordered his share of the profits held by the court until a final decision is made on one of the lawsuits against him.
Story continues below
Police are still investigating and have been tight-lipped with any further details while refusing to release records related to the incident. A spokeswoman for Mount Pleasant police could not be reached for comment.
The infant was taken to East Cooper Medical Center and then the pediatric critical care unit at the Medical University of South Carolina’s Shawn Jenkins Hospital. The child was still there as of midweek. No update was available June 28.
Swanger has been selling off his furniture on the Snee Farm Villa HOA Facebook page, posting this month: “Anyone need an office set up for cheap? Or just the table or just the book shelves?”
Nearly 20 people, among them investors and former employees, told The Post and Courier that Swanger took millions from investors while operating a business built on deception. The craft vodka, billed as made from locally sourced potatoes in a Charleston distillery from his wife’s family old Polish recipe, is a watered-down version of alcohol made elsewhere. The farm where Swanger claimed he bought the potatoes confirmed it never sold to him — and it hasn’t had a potato crop in two years.
Investors say they never got their money back, and Swanger never provided them annual tax forms the IRS requires for business partnerships.
On June 14, a judge ruled in favor of South Carolina Federal Credit Union in one of four outstanding lawsuits against Swanger that stated he owed $26,154.30 on a defaulted loan. Swanger also was ordered to pay the credit union’s legal fees. Court records show that loan was repaid as of June 25.
Other lawsuits claim he still owes $37,000 on his bottling equipment and $113,466 as part of an unpaid loan.
Alicia Swanger holds one of the company’s bottles inside the future location at The Refinery on Meeting Street Road on Dec. 9, 2021, in Charleston.
Sweet Grass Vodka and its Sweetgrass Lounge has been closed since April, when Swanger was booted out of the company’s space, located inside The Refinery at 1640 Meeting Street Road on Charleston’s upper peninsula, for failure to pay rent. Swanger still went on to host parties at the lounge until his mid-April eviction, even though his liquor license was revoked in March.
He also failed to pay state income taxes in 2020, 2021 and 2022.
Sweet Grass Vodka hit shelves in 2020 and quickly landed in Total Wine locations, restaurants and six states across the Southeast, including South Carolina. Two years later, Swanger was telling people his company was worth $26 million and would reach $40 million in annual sales by 2023.
In reality, according to a former business partner with copies of the brand’s distribution figures, Sweet Grass in 2023 sold roughly 2,000 cases. Even at retail prices on the company website, that comes to well below $1 million.
John Ramsey is a reporter on The Post and Courier’s Watchdog and Public Service team.
He has worked as an editor and reporter in Richmond, Va., Fayetteville, N.C. and Rocky Mount, N.C.
Sewing Down South, co-owned by Southern Charm star Craig Conover, has collaborated with Reese Witherspoon’s Draper James brand for a three-day event in Charleston. Read moreStore co-owned by Southern Charm star brings Reese Witherspoon’s apparel line to Charleston
Profits from the house may end up paying off some of Jarrod Swanger’s mounting debts Read moreSweet Grass Vodka owner’s profits seized from the $1.7M sale of his Mount Pleasant home
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WASHINGTON —… Read moreSupreme Court weakens federal regulators, overturning decades-old Chevron decision
California to Pilot Crop Insurance with ‘Smoke Taint’ Coverage for Wine Grapes
In a major development for the wine industry, the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Risk Management Agency this summer plans to try out new crop insurance coverage in California to protect growers against losses from wildfire smoke exposure.
The “fire insurance protection smoke index“ will be available as an optional add-on to individual grape crop insurance policies starting in the 2025 crop year, an agency official said at the West Coast Smoke Damage Task Force summit earlier this month.
The pilot program will launch initially in 32 counties where crop insurance is available in the Golden State, with plans to potentially expand to other smoke-prone regions in the future.
“We want to develop something really simple, something that can quickly respond to smoke events or smoke damage at the end of the insurance period, and provide indemnities quickly without minimal interaction,” said Jeff Yasui, agency regional director.
Wildfire smoke compounds can be absorbed into wine grapes and be released during the winemaking process, leaving smoky, ashen or muted flavors that result in wines that can be unfit for sale. In 2020 alone, an estimated 165,000 to 325,000 tons of California winegrapes were lost due to actual or perceived smoke damage, with financial losses of over $600 million.
The smoke-taint add-on or endorsement is designed as an area-based plan, meaning payouts will be triggered if the required number of “eligible smoke days” are recorded in the insured county during the coverage period, rather than requiring individual growers to document losses, Yasui explained during the task force online summit.
The extra insurance is meant to cover the liability for smoke damage between the grape policy’s coverage level and 95% of the crop price. Most of the premium costs will be subsidized by the government.
“The nice thing about it, too, growers don’t have to do lab tests. They don’t have to prove they had losses. It’s just whether or not the area had a loss,” Yasui said. “Indemnities can be issued under either or both policies.”
This new insurance option aims to provide a straightforward way for growers to be compensated for smoke-related damage without extensive documentation requirements. It comes after years of advocacy by the wine industry and research efforts to better understand and mitigate the impacts of wildfire smoke on winegrapes.
“We’re hoping the program is popular and resolve some issues,” Yasui said. “It was a big group collaborative effort, it was a big success.”
The smoke taint coverage rollout, announced amid other coverage changes for other crops from the USDA agency Thursday comes just over a year after the introduction of a House bill (H.R. 4801) that seeks to study and develop such coverage for California, Oregon, and Washington.
“Winegrapes are essential to California’s economy,” Rep. Mike Thompson, D-St. Helena, one of the bill sponsors, said in a statement Thursday. “Yet growers in our state have been struggling to recover after smoke exposure damages their winegrapes. I’ve long advocated for strengthening crop insurance for winegrowers to better capture the risks associated with growing in smoke- and wildfire-prone regions. RMA’s announcement is an essential step toward that goal.”
Natalie Collins, president of California Association of Winegrape Growers, called smoke-damage coverage a “critical need” to the “significant threat” of wildfires.
“This new policy is a significant step forward in protecting the livelihoods of growers and the industry as a whole,” Collins said in a statement Thursday.
Policy coverage for smoke “became a top federal priority” in public policy advocacy for trade group Napa Valley Vintners.
“Today’s announcement that the Department of Agriculture will begin offering smoke insurance policies is a huge win for the Napa Valley wine Industry,” said Rex Stults, vice president of industry relations for the Napa Valley Vintners on Thursday.
Jeff Quackenbush covers wine, construction and real estate. Reach him at jquackenbush@busjrnl.com or 707-521-4256.
Exploring XXXX Beer: The Legacy and Popularity of Australia’s Beloved Brew
A number of years ago, Foster’s ran a commercial claiming that its brand name was “Australian for beer” and that, along with the fact that Paul Hogan (aka Crocodile Dundee) once served as a pitchman, helped to cement the idea in American minds that it really was the premier Australian beer. Down Under, however, they’d probably laugh at the notion, since if the island-nation-continent has an unofficial beer, it would be far more likely to be XXXX than Foster’s. Unlike Foster’s, which is produced in such far-flung locations as Manchester, England and Fort Worth, Texas, XXXX is Australian born and brewed in Brisbane since the late 19th century.
Even though the name might sound like an extra-raunchy porn movie — either that, or the Most Interesting Man in the World double-fisting his signature Dos Equis — XXXX’s moniker actually has a more mundane meaning behind it. The letter X was originally meant as a quality rating, somewhat akin to Amazon stars, and the first beers produced by the Castlemaine Brewery managed to garner three of them. In 1893, however, the brew had improved sufficiently to earn a fourth star, so the brewery changed the name to honor the accomplishment (Pabst Blue Ribbon has a similar origin story.)
Read more: Kopi Luwak Is A Very Expensive Cup Of Poop Coffee
The XXXX brand today offers several different lager-style beers, among them XXXX Dry, XXXX Bitter, and XXXX Summer Gold (the last-named also available in lime and mango flavors) as well as the nonalcoholic XXXX Zero. Top of the chain, however, is XXX Gold, a beer that was the number two seller in all of Australia for 2023 — and in a 30-pack, no less. (Guess which beer didn’t even make the top 10? Fosters may actually be Australian for “meh.”)
As to why Australians love XXXX beer, we can’t speak for all of them, since around 27 million people are living there and it’s possible that some prefer to stick with Milo, a Nesquik-like chocolate drink, while other non-beer drinkers would rather Tim Tam Slam a cup of coffee. To be honest, we can’t really speak for any of them since we’re not Australian ourselves, nor can we render an American’s take on the brew since it’s not imported to this country. (Or anywhere else.) From what we do know of it, though, it seems to fall into the category of what you’d call an “easy drinker” — only 3.5% ABV, and with a slightly sweet, not too bitter flavor and a decent amount of fizz. IPA-sipping hipsters are clearly not the intended market for XXXX, but it’s been a best seller since it launched back in the 1990s so it’s doing just fine without the endorsement of craft beer snobs.
One sign that XXXX may be the quintessential Australian beer is the fact that in some quarters it is literally synonymous with the country, or a close facsimile thereof. In Sir Terry Pratchett’s Discworld series, which spans 41 books and also spawned a number of movie and video game adaptations, “The Last Continent,” which is clearly based on Australia, goes by the name of Fourecks.
Not only does XXXX have this literary legacy, but it is even more strongly associated with sports since it’s been sponsoring the Queensland Maroons rugby team since 1991. The annual National Rugby League State of Origin series between the Maroons and New South Wales is one of the country’s premier sporting events, kind of like a Super Bowl where the same two teams play every year, only without Taylor Swift dating any of the players (yet). XXXX, of course, is the de rigeur brew for Maroons supporters during the series, and at other times as well, After all, no true fan would be caught drinking a Toohey’s because this rival beer brand sponsors the NSW Blues.
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Read the original article on The Takeout.
White Rum vs Dark Rum: Understanding the Key Differences
Rum is a wonderfully versatile cocktail ingredient that’s brilliant in anything from a warm-you-from-the-inside winter’s day cocktail like a hot buttered rum to a refreshing, light, summertime mojito. It’s an invaluable ingredient to cook with, too, and the next time you’re looking for an amazing brunch, look no further than a rum-soaked challah French toast. You’ll have to pick up a bottle of rum before you try any of those, and picking out the right type can be more confusing than you might think. There are a surprising number of options, but let’s talk about the two most common.
When it comes to white and dark rum, their differences start right from the beginning. White rum gets its distinctive clarity by having all impurities removed during the distillation process, and that’s done (in most cases) by using a column still. Dark rum, on the other hand, contains all of those impurities — which isn’t a bad thing despite the negative connotations of the word.
Impurities aren’t just important for the color; they also have a major impact on the taste. Because dark rum still contains essentially more traces of the ingredients used in the distillation process, it often has a stronger, richer, deeper flavor. Dark rum is generally described as having tasting notes that tend toward a smoky caramel, while white rum is sweeter and smoother. Does that mean they’re not interchangeable in various cocktails and recipes? Not entirely.
Read more: 26 Popular Vodka Brands, Ranked By Their Versatility
Both white and dark rum are made from the same ingredient: sugar cane. The juice extracted from the cane is fermented and turned into rum, but white and dark rum are made from entirely different processes, including the various stills and filtration levels we mentioned. But that’s just the start. After the rums are distilled, they take a different route into the bottle and onto your liquor shelf. While some white rums are bottled immediately, others might be aged for a relatively short time in stainless steel tanks.
Dark rum, on the other hand, is typically aged for at least three years (although more expensive rums can spend decades aging before they’re bottled and sold), and the barrel it spends time in is important. Barrels can be made from American white oak, European oak, or acacia, and they all impart distinctive flavors to the rum, giving it distinctive hints of vanilla, spices, honey, or caramel. When American white oak barrels are used, there’s a good chance they’ve already been used to age whiskey, which adds to the character that dark rum develops as it ages. Sometimes, caramel coloring and other flavors are added to dark rum, while white rum is valued for purity, clarity, and a light sweetness.
If a cocktail or a recipe specifically calls for white or dark rum and you don’t have exactly what’s recommended, you can swap one for the other. It’ll end up tasting different, but it’s generally not going to taste bad. There are, however, some guidelines to remember if you want to use the correct rum for a particular application, especially when it comes to drinks.
If you’re looking for something to drink straight or on the rocks, go for a dark rum, as it will be much more complex. Dark rum is also best used in cocktails with strong mixers. Those are drinks that can be as simple as a rum and coke, but you’ll also want a dark rum so it stands out in something like a rum punch or rum-based versions of classic cocktails like a Manhattan, a Negroni, or a Mai Tai.
White rum, on the other hand, is perfect for cocktails where you want to focus on flavors other than the rum itself. Any kind of mojito best uses a white rum as it doesn’t overpower the mint and fruit, and the same goes for a daiquiri. If you’re adding rum to lemonade or another juice, or making a light and fizzy spritz, go for the fresh, clear, light flavor of a white rum. That said, experimentation is also perfectly fine!
Read the original article on The Daily Meal.
Explore the Allure: How to Smell Like Whiskey—In a Good Way
Smelling like bourbon is usually frowned upon.
Especially when engaged in certain activities, like driving, sitting for a job interview, or attending a kid’s 9am birthday party.
But sometimes that familiar aroma is exactly what you need to tie an outfit together, or to spice things up for a date.
So here’s Oduoak, a bourbon-based fragrance line from a Kentucky whiskey expert.
Pronounced “oh-du-oak” (like eu de parfum), the new company comes from Jackie Zykan. She has degrees in biology and chemistry, and her career has taken her to nearly every corner of the American whiskey world. She once served as Master Taster for Old Forester, and today she’s the Master Blender of Hidden Barn Whiskey. With a finely tuned sensory skill set, she’s now turned her attention to fragrances.
Colognes and perfumes are traditionally based on neutral alcohols and infused with scents. But Zykan has put her own twist on the category by building these fragrances on a foundation of bourbon whiskey. Bourbon receives the bulk of its aromatic qualities from maturing in oak barrels, hence the complex notes of vanilla, spice, fruits, herbs and florals.
The Oduoak collection includes several fragrances available in 15 mL rollers and 30 mL atomizers in names like Feral Gent and Walk of Shame. Each comes with descriptions similar to those you might find on your whiskey bottle.
There’s Love & Whiskey, a comforting fragrance with notes of cedar, vanilla and alpine. The Mint Julep scent is described as clean, masculine, fresh and minty and channels the famous Kentucky cocktail. Walk of Shame is warm, woody, spicy and leathery, and Basecamp is smoky and dark, with notes of the woods and the sea.
If you can’t choose just one, the fragrances are also available in sets of four, so you can mix things up. In that case, Love & Whiskey could lead to Feral Gent and then Walk of Shame.
Yeah, just like in real life.
Rediscovering Napa’s Heritage: The Revival of Old Vine Petite Sirah Wine
Bush-trained vines during the fog in the Palisades Vineyard
Ten years. Ten years to get a vine just right, according to the heritage way of growing premium wine grapes.
Old Petite Sirah vine
First, the rootstock goes into the soil. Two years later, the vine is grafted onto the rootstock. Six years of getting advice from four well-known viticulturists, one of them a PhD who is a leader in her field of research, with the most experienced vineyard workers meticulously pruning and shaping these bush vines (also called goblet vines because they should be shaped like a goblet cup). Then, after the shape of these bush vines resembles some of the grand old goblet vines of the world, it takes two more years to bring it to an ideal balance of fruit-producing potential through future management in the vineyards.
“In another 30 to 40 years, people will come to the valley and have no idea what old vineyards look like,” explained Palisades Canyon co-owner Steve Rasmussen.
Felicia Woytak
Steve is speaking about the old heritage bush vines that his area of Napa Valley is known for, currently the steward to some of the most precious Petite Sirah old bush vines that top Napa producers have cherished for years. As the old vines around his valley start to get past their prime where they can no longer produce, forcing owners to pull them out, they will be replaced by trellised vines that are more in line with modern practices that help mechanize a lot of the work in the vineyards. But he and his wife, Felicia Woytak, bought their Palisades Canyon property with the primary focus on preserving the heritage style of growing grapes and conserving their 796-acre property as a whole. So, when it came to the vineyards on the property, they would protect those precious, old heritage bush vines but also go through the decade-long process of replanting in the heritage style, which would need many years of detailed work to get the vines to the perfect place, creating an ideal growing zone for the fruit before they could even get the vines where they wanted them for making ultra-premium wine.
Steve fully admits that it has been Felicia leading the charge when it comes to taking on the massive challenge of making sure to not only restore the vineyards to what they looked like over 100 years ago, but also, to insist that the new bush vines are not only for show, as she would go to any length to make sure these new heritage vines lived up to their much older siblings. Today their estate, Palisades Vineyard, is only 17 acres, as they would like to keep it small to continue their meticulous work and to carry on the organic management of the whole vineyard.
Palisades Canyon estate
It has been a long journey for Felicia to find the ideal property, which would incorporate her love for nature, being an adventurous camper and whitewater rafter for decades, her dedication to protecting wildlife and its habitat, her and her husband’s devotion to education and her deep passion for wine. She already had a highly accomplished career in male-dominated industries when she started in the 1990s, navigating herself through Silicon Valley and then making a mark for herself by having her own successful brokerage for commercial real estate. Despite her husband Steve having a very successful career as a mathematics publisher, he makes no bones that Felicia’s incredible financial success makes purchasing Palisades Canyon possible and why they can go to great lengths to keep heritage viticulture alive.
Sheep in the vineyards
Steve and Felicia moved out to Berkeley in the ‘80s and have been part of the wine community ever since. Noting how well they know Napa, as well as Felicia being well-versed in how the real estate market works with every self-proclaimed “dream” property hardly ever living up to its proclamation, one can imagine that it is saying something that when Felicia first visited the Palisades Canyon property, in Calistoga, she was so overwhelmed with the powerful feelings of falling in love with the property that tears started to stream down her face. And they do not take for granted for one moment how lucky they are to have such a place, as they allow educational programs to give kids first-hand experiences with geology, watershed study, regenerative farming practices and allow them to hike their 15-mile hiking path and meet their goats and llama. They especially like to invite lower-income kids and their families to come and enjoy their beautiful property.
Among all these great achievements and incredible projects that give back to the community, they have some of the most sought-after Petite Sirah grapes—despite once being the most planted grape in Napa Valley, Cabernet Sauvignon eventually prevailed with its association with Bordeaux fine wines in France. Hence, Cabernet Sauvignon is king in Napa today, with very few growers making premium Petite Sirah.
Petite Sirah is not a variant of the Syrah grape; it has been identified through DNA testing as the Durif grape variety found in Southern France. It has small berries and makes wine with lots of structure and deep concentration. The best are multifaceted, extremely complex wines.
Steve Rasmussen, Felicia Woytak and Graeme MacDonald in the vineyards
One day, they were introduced to winemaker Graeme MacDonald, who was fascinated by the history of the property which was first planted with vines in the 1870s, thrilled to look at the head-trained, dry-farmed old Petite Sirah vines and to see their “ghost” winery, which is a rare sight, as these wineries were built from the mid-1800s to the early 1900s, during the winemaking boom, so very few still exist.
Graeme MacDonald knows about outstanding, historic vineyards as he is a fourth-generation Napa Valley grape grower and winemaker whose grandparents sold grapes from their property, which became part of the legendary Robert Mondavi To-Kalon Vineyard bottling. After spending some time with Felicia and Steve, all three decided that they would collaborate to make Palisades Canyon wines, creating a small amount of the estate Petite Sirah as well as estate Cabernet Sauvignon (blended with a bit of estate Cabernet Franc and Petit Verdot) and the lesser-known white, estate Chenin Blanc, which are all bush-trained under strict heritage guidelines.
Palisades Canyon’s property with vines near a creek
Felicia admires the top Chenin Blanc ultra-premium wines from South Africa. She feels that the grapes do well in their valley with a good amount of heat, and the bush-trained vines help to keep an ideal balance of retaining plenty of that crisp freshness that Chenin Blanc is known for.
Considering its lack of prestige combined with the difficulty of growing an ideally ripened Petite Sirah grape, one would have thought that the grape would have vanished entirely from Napa Valley, where Cabernet Sauvignon and other grapes are more of a guarantee and do not need to be babied in the vineyards like Petite Sirah. But it still stands in the magnificent Palisades Vineyard. The same can be said about a woman fighting to carve her path in commercial real estate in one of the most competitive markets in the U.S. when male-owned and run businesses had no interest in hiring a woman for anything other than an administrative assistant. By all accounts, she should have crawled in a hole and just disappeared, yet instead, she was able to get female bankers to give her loans so she could buy those properties herself, work for herself and succeed all by herself.
Some rare breeds are hard to wipe out as they find a way to survive, as important people realize their potential, that they are something special, and ultimately become victorious.
2021 Palisades Canyon, Petite Sirah
2021 Palisades Canyon, Chenin Blanc
2021 Palisades Canyon, Chenin Blanc, Calistoga, Napa Valley: 100% Chenin Blanc from organically-farmed Palisades Vineyard. A serious white wine that shows all the uniquely fine qualities of Chenin with an extremely complex bouquet of honeysuckle, dried hay and intense minerality with deliciously rich flavors of apple strudel and quince paste balanced by mouthwatering acidity. A real stunner!
2021 Palisades Canyon, Cabernet Sauvignon
2021 Palisades Canyon, Cabernet Sauvignon, Napa Valley: 95.2% Cabernet Sauvignon, 4.6% Cabernet Franc, and 0.2% Petit Verdot from organically-farmed Palisades Vineyard. A beautiful nose with lovely violet aromas, blueberry scones, and an intriguing underlying note of graphite. The wine has sculpted tannins that are finely pixilated with classic Cab flavors such as tobacco and blackcurrant. The distinctive sense of place is evident with a persistent finish that has lots of finesse.
2021 Palisades Canyon, Petite Sirah, Calistoga, Napa Valley: 100% Petite Sirah from organically-farmed Palisades Vineyard. A profoundly seductive nose that is dark and brooding with blackberry liqueur, licorice, and asphalt. The palate is delectably dense, filled with wild cherry cordial and subtle nuances of baking spices and black tea. The texture is round and plush yet delicately etched to give shape and drive to the finish.
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WATCH: McDonald’s Mascot Grimace Chugs a Beer During Yankees-Mets Rain Delay
Wednesday’s game between the New York Mets and New York Yankees was forced to go into a brief rain delay. Luckily for Mets fans, one famous figure found something to do to help pass the time.
With heavy thunderstorms rolling through Queens, McDonald’s mascot Grimace could be seen chugging a beer as a sea of fans on the Shea Bridge cheered him on.
Grimace has become quite the good luck charm for the Mets in recent weeks. Since throwing out the ceremonial first pitch on June 12, the Mets have put together an 11-2 record.
The contest ended up being delayed for over an hour, but Mets fans didn’t seem to mind too much as they were being entertained by Grimace’s antics. The Mets went on to beat the Yankees 12-2, taking the latest Subway Series.
8 Refreshing Rum Drinks to Try Instead of a Piña Colada
Brugal 1888 Jungle Negroni
A quality-made rum cocktail is transportive.
Whether or not it’s summer, you’re a snowbird escaping to a Caribbean island in the heart of winter, or you’re simply mixing up your own libation at home — rum cocktails exude the tropics in a glass. Contrary to popular belief, rum drinks are not all about sweet Piña coladas and potent mojitos; there’s a wide variety of rum drinks out there, from tiki classics to twists on celebrated cocktails, that showcase the spirits’ nuances.
From the painkiller, a Piña Colada’s mature cousin, to unique recipes like the Tipsy Toucan, have fun experimenting with these eight rum drinks that are sure to bring a smile to your face no matter the temperature outside.
The ingredients may read similar to a piña colada, but the Painkiller is a trademarked drink by Pusser’s Rum and has its own origin story that dates back to the British Virgin Islands in the 1970s. The standout differences: it’s not blended and is built from a base of Pusser’s dark rum rather than light rum.
Ingredients: 2 oz Pusser’s Rum, 4 oz pineapple juice, 1 oz orange juice, 1 oz cream of coconut, freshly grated nutmeg
Method: Add all liquid ingredients to a cocktail shaker with ice; shake vigorously. Pour into a tall glass or goblet filled with ice. Grate fresh nutmeg on top; garnish with an orange slice and Maraschino cherry.
Celebrated as the national cocktail of Martinique and Guadeloupe, Ti’ is an abbreviation for “petite” in the French Caribbean islands’ native tongue. Only three ingredients are required to make this refreshing yet potent petite, or small, punch.
Ingredients: 2 oz rhum agricole, 1 oz lime juice, 0.25 oz simple syrup
Method: Squeeze the lime juice into a low glass; add the simple syrup and stir together. Add the rhum agricole and ice (optional) and garnish with a lime wheel.
Morse code for “V,” which stood for “victory” by its creator Donn Beach, this popular tiki cocktail was invented during WWII. The cocktail is well-balanced, hitting almost every note on the palate with sweet, bitter, and spice.
Ingredients: 1.5 oz Martinique rhum agricole, 0.5 oz blended aged rum, 0.5 oz fresh lime juice, 0.5 oz fresh orange juice, 0.25 oz velvet falernum, 0.25 oz allspice dram, 0.25 oz honey syrup, 1 dash Angostura bitters
Method: Combine all ingredients into a blender with crushed ice to the rim; flash-blend then pour into a pilsner glass. If you don’t have a blender, add all ingredients to a cocktail shaker with crushed ice, shake gently then empty the tin into a pilsner glass, ice and all, for a similar effect. Garnish with three Maraschino cherries (3 dots) and a pineapple frond.
Though this tiki drink has become synonymous with Hawaii, it was reputedly created in Oakland, Calif. by Victor Bergeron at his Trader Vic’s bar. In the 1950s, the hotel group behind the Royal Hawaiian and Moana Hotel in Waikiki commissioned Bergeron to create their cocktail list and as tourism boomed from this period on, the Mai Tai he included on the list became the island state’s signature cocktail.
Ingredients: 1.5 oz white rum, 0.75 oz dark rum, 0.5 orange curaçao, 0.5 oz fresh lime juice, 0.5 oz orgeat,
Method: Combine all ingredients except the dark rum into a cocktail shaker with ice; shake gently and strain into a rocks glass over crushed ice. Slowly pour the dark rum in to float on top of the cocktail; garnish with a lime wheel, slice of pineapple and optional cherry.
Homemade Mai Tai
Star & Key’s terroir-driven rum infused with passionfruit adds complex layers to any classic rum drink, but this recipe is a standout – drawing parallel flavors to a piña colada but with unexpected complementary notes from the lemon juice and Champagne.
Ingredients: 2 oz Star & Key Passion Fruit Rum, 0.75 oz lemon juice, 0.75 oz pineapple juice, 1 oz egg white, 0.5 oz demerara sugar syrup, splash of Champagne
Method: Add all ingredients, except for the Champagne, to a shaker; dry shake (without ice) then add ice, shake again and strain into a Champagne flute. Top with Champagne and garnish with a skewered cherry.
Another way to impress guests with tropical flavors in a new format comes from Copalli Rum, an organic, single-estate rum out of Belize. The banana liqueur and coconut cream make this sip taste like a vacation in a glass — no matter where you are.
Ingredients: 2 oz Copalli White Rum, 0.75 oz banana liqueur, 0.75 oz coconut cream, 0.75 oz fresh lemon juice, 0.75 oz fresh orange juice, 1 dash Angostura bitters
Method: Add the soda water to a chilled Champagne flute and set aside. Combine the rest of the ingredients in a cocktail shaker with ice; shake then strain into the Champagne flute with the soda water at the bottom. Garnish with an orange twist spiral.
Sunshine Punch has become popular for its ready-to-serve citrus, creme and rum cocktail in a bottle that’s designed to be poured over ice or combined with ingredients to create a more elaborate drink. Their Sunburn cocktail emphasizes the key flavors of the base ingredient (which are often likened to an orange creamsicle).
Ingredients: 2 oz Sunshine Punch, 2 oz pineapple juice, 0.5 oz coconut rum, dark rum float.
Method: Combine all ingredients, except for the dark rum, in an ice-filled shaker; shake for 20 seconds. Pour into a rocks glass over fresh ice, float over the dark rum to the rim and garnish with an orange wedge.
A playful riff on the classic Jungle Bird cocktail, Brugal 1888 puts forward their fruity yet sophisticated summer sip that only requires three ingredients.
Ingredients: 1 oz Brugal 1888 rum, 0.3 oz Campari, 0.3 oz pineapple syrup
Method: Add all ingredients into a glass cocktail beaker with ice, stir together then strain into a low-ball glass with a large cube of ice.
One Community. Many Voices. Create a free account to share your thoughts.
Our community is about connecting people through open and thoughtful conversations. We want our readers to share their views and exchange ideas and facts in a safe space.
In order to do so, please follow the posting rules in our site’s Terms of Service. We’ve summarized some of those key rules below. Simply put, keep it civil.
Your post will be rejected if we notice that it seems to contain:
User accounts will be blocked if we notice or believe that users are engaged in:
So, how can you be a power user?
Thanks for reading our community guidelines. Please read the full list of posting rules found in our site’s Terms of Service.