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The online retailer Rueverte sent us this little sample of Darroze – Les Grands Assemblages 12 ans d’age over a year ago, and it just sat on the shelf the whole time because I didn’t really know what to do with it. It wasn’t a large enough of a sample to make cocktails with, and if we’re being honest, I really don’t know anything about Brandy. It turns out that Armagnac is actually made the same way as Cognac (wine, distilled to a spirit), but in a different region of France, and with continuous column stills, rather than the pot still more commonly associated with Cognac. It was the first spirit distilled in France, and is only distilled once, resulting in a more fragrant and flavorful spirit than Cognac, but at the cost of smoothness.

To start things off, we did a tasting not only of the Barrel Finished edition that we were sent, but a side-by-side with the original Bluecoat from our own collection. With the Barrel Finished, the nose had nearly nothing to do with the flavor, which was a bit odd at first, but not necessarily a bad thing. I’m not the world’s biggest gin fan, but the barrel finished is definitely an interesting entry to the category. The consensus was the Barrel Finished was superior, and generally pretty damn tasty.

(we may be a little biased) has released a limited edition barrel aged gin, and now they have the unenviable task of selling out of product in PLCB stores in order to stay on the shelves. We’ve got a whole load of things to taste and experiment with this coming weekend, and Bluecoat Barrel Reserve is at the top our expectation heap. In the meantime, if you think you might be interested and live in Pennsylvania, you might want to head out and grab a bottle before it’s gone forever. At the time of this writing, there’s still 1 bottle left at 11th and Wharton, 9 bottles at 7th and South, and a whole bunch at 43rd and Chestnut for you

Though we don’t usually review beer and cider, sometimes when a rep reaches out and asks if you’d like to try out a new drink, you’re just in the mood to try out a new drink. If I’m being honest, I’m not entirely sure why I was interested in trying it, because while I do enjoy ciders, I find most Woodchuck expressions to be too sweet, and I am not the biggest fan of the current style of A MILLION HOPS FOREVER that seems to have taken over the beer industry. It has the sweetness, but also a large floral component that really made it smell like a carbonated Gewürztraminer (which is a semi-sweet, floral German wine that I happen to like, for those who haven’t tried it). Whenever I see a beer with a gimmick, I expect it to be heavily leaned upon, like cloying nutmeg Christmas ales, or pumpkin beers that taste like they’ve had a whole container of pumpkin pie spice dumped into them, but in this case, the gimmick actually improved the product.