There’s a whole lot of questions about what the Houston Rockets will look like this season because of the looming questions surrounding James Harden’s future with the franchise. Regardless, John Wall is in town now, and on Friday night, the former All-NBA guard made his debut in the Rockets’ first preseason tilt.
Houston managed to come out on top against the Chicago Bulls, 125-104, with Wall having a respectable showing. He scored the opening bucket of the game on a layup, and on 19 minutes of work, Wall scored 13 points on 6-for-10 shooting with nine assists, five rebounds, and a pair of steals.
Just seeing Wall on the floor again, even if it was in an unfamiliar uniform, was great to see, and after the game, he discussed his debut as a Rocket. As he explained, opening the game with a layup made him feel like he was “back.”
“First play of the game. I drove, made a layup and I knew I was back.” – @JohnWall
“I just knew I was back,” Wall said. “I know how much hard work I’ve been through the last two years. It was a surreal moment for me even though it was preseason. I’ve been through so much in the last two years of not knowing if I’ll play basketball again, or losing my mom, having another boy. It’s just so much I’ve been through and adversity, that I feel like God just gives his strongest battles to his strongest people.”
Wall had not appeared in an NBA game since December of 2018, so again, this was quite the step for him to take. Building on it, of course, is the big thing, but with everything he’s gone through since his last game, this is one heck of a foundation.
From the moment it was dropped, Cardi B and Megan Thee Stallion‘s “WAP” has inspired controversy. Some saw no issue with it, even loved it. Others were horrified. Still, it’s taken four months for one person to make their opinion known. That person is Snoop Dogg.
The West Coast legend stopped by Central Ave, where he wound up talking about the much talked-about track. And he was not on the pro side. “Oh my God. Slow down. Like, slow down. And let’s have some imagination,” he said. “Let’s have some, you know, privacy, some intimacy where he wants to find out as opposed to you telling him.” He added, “To me it’s like, it’s too fashionable when that in secrecy, that should be a woman’s…that’s like your prize and possession. That’s your jewel of the Nile. That’s what you should hold onto. That should be a possession that no one gets to know about until they know about it.”
That said, Snoop did reveal that his daughter, who is 21 years old, does not agree with him. “She’s from this era,” he said. “She may be doing the ‘WAP’ or apart of the ‘WAP’ and I can’t be mad at her ’cause it’s her generation, you know what I’m saying? But, at the same time, the things that I would rather see, you know, ’cause I’ma older man.”
Lastly, Snoop took note of how hypocritical his comments were due to the music he made early in his career. He also said that perhaps he thinks that way because he’s “an older man” now. “Now, when I was young, 21, 22, I may have been with the movement,” he said. “I probably would have been on the remix. But as an older man, I love it, that they are expressing themselves and doing their thing. I just don’t want it that fashionable to where young girls express themselves like that without even knowing that that is a jewel that they hold onto until the right person comes around.”
You can watch Snoop Dogg’s interview in the video above.
It’s long been assumed that the identity of the “Zodiac killer,” who terrorized Northern California from the late ‘60s through the early ‘70s, is one of those mysteries that will never be solved. David Fincher’s film Zodiac is about that very idea. (Then again, some people think maybe it was Ted Cruz.) And yet we now have one piece of information we’ve never had before: As per The New York Times, codebreakers recently cracked a cipher attributed to the puzzle-loving murderer, one that had baffled cryptographers for over 50 years.
The cipher had been mailed to The San Francisco Chronicle in November of 1969. On December 5, just over 51 years later, a solution was sent to the FBI, cracked by three citizens: David Oranchak, a software developer in Virginia; Sam Blake, an applied mathematician from Melbourne, Australia; and Jarl Van Eycke, a warehouse operator and computer programmer from Belgium.
As in other cracked Zodiac killer ciphers, it contained no punctuation and included deliberate misspellings. The message found several dark boasts, and it can be read below in its entirety:
“I hope you are having lots of fun in trying to catch me that wasn’t me on the TV show which brings up a point about me I am not afraid of the gas chamber because it will send me to paradice all the sooner because I now have enough slaves to work for me where everyone else has nothing when they reach paradice so they are afraid of death I am not afraid because I know that my new life is life will be an easy one in paradice death.”
Mind you, this brings us no closer to identifying the killer, whose trail evaporated in the early 1970s. Oranhak, who runs both a website and a YouTube series about the ciphers, said as much, expressing his concern that it may give families of the killer’s victims false hope.
“The message in that cipher — I don’t see it as being helpful to them,” Oranchak said. “It’s more of the same junk that the killer liked to write about. It’s just intended to hurt people and make them afraid.”
Previously only one Zodiac cipher had been solved, also by citizens, namely a California couple, back when the killings had just started. This one, however, was considered even more complex.
The Zodiac killer claimed to have taken 37 lives, but only five have been verified. The San Francisco wing of the FBI says the Zodiac case remains an “open investigation.
Christopher Nolan was the first filmmaker to come out against Warner Bros.’ controversial decision to dump their 2021 movie slate onto HBO Max, and he’s also been the most furious. Since then other directors, including Dune’s Denis Villeneuve, have joined him, calling the studio out for what they see as a short-sighted decision. Now Nolan is back to slamming Warner’s, and while he’s a little less keyed-up, he’s sticking with his guns.
Nolan’s beef isn’t so much that Warner’s is disrespecting the hard work of his cast and crew as it is that they’re missing out on making some serious dough. “The economics of it are unsound unless you’re purely looking at movements in share price, number of eyeballs on the new streaming service,” Nolan told NPR. “Theatrical is really only one part of what we’re talking about here. You’re talking about your home video window, your secondary, tertiary windows. These are things very important to the economics of the business and to the people who work in the business.”
Nolan was also worried about his crew, including those below-the-line employees who rely on huge productions, like Tenet and Dunkirk and more, to pay the bills and feed their families. “I’m talking about when I come on the set and I’ve got to shoot a scene with a waiter or a lawyer who has two or three lines,” Nolan explained. “They need to be earning a living in that profession, working maybe sometimes a couple of days a year. And that’s why the residuals structure is in place.”
He continued:
“That’s why the unions have secured participations for people down the line … “So when a movie is sold to a television station 20 years after it was made, a payment is made to the people who collaborated on that on that film. And these are important principles that when a company starts devaluing the individual assets by using them as leverage for a different business strategy without first figuring out how those new structures are going to have to work, it’s a sign of great danger for the ordinary people who work in this industry.”
It’s a more restrained — though no less impassioned — takedown of Warner’s decision than the one he made earlier in the week, where he called HBO Max “the worst streaming service.” (He was probably referring to its struggles to make a mark in the marketplace, not to its content, which is, frankly, the best and most diverse in the business.)
Warner’s HBO Max deal will involve them dropping their new releases both on the streamer and in theaters on the same day. It came after Nolan’s latest film, Tenet, dramatically underperformed at the box office, almost certainly because most audiences are terrified of sitting inside with strangers during a once-in-a-century pandemic.
Before his career in the music world began to take off earlier this year, Mario Judah spent much of his time living the life of a die-hard Playboi Carti fan. But things have changed. The rapper recently expressed his frustration with the constant delays involving Carti’s third album, Whole Lotta Red. He even threatened to release his own album, with the same title, in an attempt to get him to hurry up. The deadline he issued was December 11. That day has come and gone, and sure enough, there’s now an album called Whole Lotta Red. But it’s not by Playboi Carti.
The Judah version of Whole Lotta Red is an entirely-solo release with four songs, including his most recent single, “Bih Yah.” Speaking about his mini Whole Lotta Red effort, Judah reaffirmed his Carti fandom saying, “I’m still a Carti fan but he’s making it difficult.” He added, “I’m doing everything in my power to get him to drop. I’m beyond disappointed, I’m furious!”
As of this writing, Carti has yet to respond to Judah’s bold move. Hopefully at some point we’ll have two very different albums, each called Whole Lotta Red.
Whole Lotta Red is out now. You can listen to it on SoundCloud here.
Keyontae Johnson, a standout junior forward for the Florida Gators’ men’s basketball team, was taken to the hospital on Saturday afternoon. Johnson, the preseason SEC Player of the Year and a first-team All-Conference selection following last, collapsed after the team came out of a timeout during the first half of action, and after receiving attention from the medical staff in Tallahassee, was stretchered off and taken to a local hospital.
Before the incident, Johnson had just finished an alley-oop on a pass from Tyree Appleby. He was celebrating with teammates and walking toward the sideline before he collapsed.
Florida players were crying and hugging each other during the timeout. Gators coach Mike White put his arms around his players before the game restarted.
Both programs tweeted about the incident, with the Gators giving updates on the youngster and the ‘Noles sending out a positive sentiment towards Johnson and the Florida hoops program as a whole.
Keyontae Johnson is being taken to a local hospital for further evaluation, and we’ll share an update when we can. https://t.co/bUkidjT4qd
Johnson is a former four-star recruit in the class of 2017. He showed flashes as a freshman in Gainesville, then exploded onto the scene last year, averaging 14 points and 7.1 rebounds a night. Through three games this season, Johnson has averaged 19.7 points and six rebounds per game.
It’s been almost a year since the release Cats, the instant bad cinema classic take on Andrew Lloyd Webber’s deathless musical. But the movie was already notorious long before its hit theaters. When the first trailer arrived, social media exploded with jeers, many of them about the creepily realistic derrieres on the human-felines. The already overworked effects crew then had to painstakingly fix that, which may have caused them to ignore other issues, like the fact that some cats still had human hands. But was there ever a version of the film where they didn’t change that problem? Is there in fact a “butthole” cut of Cats?
That’s what Stephen Colbert wanted to know. On Friday’s The Late Show, Colbert asked one of his guests, James Corden — who played hungry trash pussy Bustopher Jones — about the existence of this legendary version. Alas, even he couldn’t give a clear answer.
“I don’t know, I haven’t seen it. I’ve not watched the film,” Corden said, implying that he may have never actually watched any version of the film. His host then asked if a Cats where every performer had anatomically correct rear ends would perhaps make it better, or at least more entertainingly awful. “I think, either way, it probably can’t save that movie,” he responded.
Alas, it’s almost certain the “butthole” cut does not exist. The trailer was released some six months before the film’s release, and it’s highly unlikely the editors had at that point even completed an assembly cut, which is to say the whole movie laid out, before trimming it down to a releasable form. Of course, if there was ever high demand for a “butthole” cut, the effects team could go back and undo their fixes. But they’ve already been worked to death and would surely like to move on with their lives. Still, one can dream.
You can watch Corden’s chat with Colbert in the video above. The Cats discussion begins around the 1:50 mark.
With all that drinking you’d think it’d be easy to pick the “best” whiskey we tasted in 2020. Spoiler alert: It’s wasn’t.
We went back and forth on a lot of expressions this year. And by year’s end, we had to revisit many of them to make sure they were as good or mediocre or even bad as we remembered. Sometimes our opinions shifted, creating a domino effect across the rankings. It’s also interesting how a list like this changes when you put various styles up against each other, instead of simply judging a bourbon versus other bourbons, etc. Suddenly, bottles you cited for being “smooth” or “balanced” fail to shine when facing a completely different category of juice.
In the end, the overall quantifier for this list was the taste, but price definitely played a role. We didn’t want a list of whiskeys that all cost $100 or more. That feels snobby. So we made sure to consider standouts in the $20-60 range, even if they don’t reach the nuanced heights of some of the pricier entries. The final rankings represent whiskeys costing anywhere from $20 to $900.
The 20 whiskeys highlighted below are the sips we can’t wait to try again. The list isn’t comprehensive by any stretch, but it’s a start. And even with 20 entries, there are serious gems that didn’t make the cut.
Old Tub is the original name of Jim Beam, back before Prohibition change almost everything about booze. This particular bottle used to only be available at the Louisville Distillery in half-bottles. As of this year, it’s available nationwide for the first time and in full-sized bottles.
Yes, the price is eye-catching, but this isn’t a charity pick. The juice in the bottle really does shine as an unfiltered and higher ABV version of classic Jim Beam, giving you a sterling example of the quality of Beam’s whiskey.
Tasting Notes:
The sip draws you in with hints of milled cornmeal, freshly sawed wood, honeycomb, and plenty of vanilla. The taste has caramel popcorn mingling with more vanilla, notes of oak, and a hint of spicy stewed apples with a touch of brown sugar sweetness. The end is long and has a very distant hint of orange oil and minerality.
Bottom Line:
This has no business only costing $20. This is a real workhorse whiskey that you can use as an on the rocks sipper to a highball to a cocktail. Again, this is only $20 … there are $40 bourbons that don’t taste this good. Lots of them.
Every year around this time, Jim Beam drops their Basil Hayden’s 10-year Bourbon just in time for the holidays. This bourbon is the same juice as Old-Grandad. It’s simply aged longer. That makes this a very high-rye bourbon with a mash bill of only 63 percent corn next to 27 percent rye and ten percent malted barley.
Tasting Notes:
Musty oak, oily vanilla pods, and surprisingly subtle spice greet you. The taste leans into the old oak with a toasted nature, while hints of leather, sharp pepper, and creamy vanilla mingle on the tongue. The long finish touches on a caramel and syrup sweetness next to all that musty wood, counterpointed by bitter dark chocolate when water is added.
Bottom Line:
If you like Old Grand-Dad, then this is the bottle for you. Moreover, this yearly release seems to be getting better with each passing year.
18. Virginia Distillery Courage & Conviction American Single Malt
This was a big swing for American Single Malts. The juice from Virginia is made from 100 percent local malted barley. The whiskey is then rested in three casks. 50 percent go into ex-bourbon casks with 25 percent going into both French cuvée and Spanish sherry casks for four years.
Tasting Notes:
This is subtle yet enticing. The nose is full of caramel, vanilla, oak, and fruit (think tropical). That fruit has a floral edge that almost reminds you of a hazy New England IPA. The sip has a nice dose of caramel malts with plenty of oakiness, nuttiness, and sweetness to hold your attention. The end is just the right length, with hints of spice and bitter cacao attaching to the wood, fruit, florals, and sweetness.
Bottom Line:
This is just the beginning of Virginia Distillery’s work in American single malts and it’s very promising (and tasty). We’re looking forward to the next set of releases next year.
This whiskey takes Jameson to the next level. The juice is standard Jameson that’s aged in both ex-bourbon and ex-sherry casks. Those whiskeys are blended and then transferred to a finishing barrel — a deeply re-charred bourbon cask. The whiskey spends a long spell mellowing in that before it’s proofed and bottled.
Tasting Notes:
Dark cacao nibs next to toasted oak, bourbon vanilla, and rich toffee draw you in. The taste delivers on those promises while adding a Christmas cake matrix of fatty nuts, candied fruits, cakey malts, and plenty of spice next to that charred wood. The finish is medium-length and highlights the spice, sweets, and wood.
Bottom Line:
This is another bottle that has no business being this cheap. It’s also a fantastic mixing whiskey for any cocktail. No, it’s not a new release but it’s a bottle we kept going back to again and again this year so we had to give it love.
16. Baker’s Single Barrel 7 Year Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whiskey
This new release from Beam’s premium Baker’s line is moving the brand out of small-batch and into the single barrel market. The bourbon is hand-selected juice from barrels that hit just the right mark in the Beam warehouses. The whiskey has aged a minimum of seven years before going in the bottle at high proof.
Tasting Notes:
This year’s release had big notes of spice, vanilla, caramel, and musty oak that really embraced “classic” bourbon nostalgia. The taste relishes in all that vanilla, spice, and oak while adding hints of savory herbs, light and sweet fruitiness, and a distant wisp of pipe tobacco smoke. The end is just long enough with plenty of spicy warmth, bourbon vanilla, old oak, and light syrup sweetness.
Bottom Line:
This has a hefty new bottle and look to match the powerful taste. The price is also great for a single barrel expression, making this a great gift for 2020.
This is an outlier in the whiskey world. The mash bill is 51 percent malted barley with 47 percent corn and only two percent rye. It’s kind of like a bridge between the world of malt whiskeys and bourbon whiskeys and it’s goddamn fascinating.
Tasting Notes:
Creamy vanilla with Christmas spices mingles with oak and a hint of caramel malts. There’s a corn muffin with butter body that marries to the sharper spice and oak as flavors of dark chocolate cut with fresh mint arrive. The end lasts as all that creamy vanilla, spice, oak, and maltiness combine for a fine finish.
Bottom Line:
This was released in 2018, but it was this year’s batch that finally clicked for us. It’s an interesting sip of whiskey that stood out, tasted good, and didn’t break the bank. Use it cocktails, sip it on the rocks, throw it in a highball … it’s all good.
14. Westward American Single Malt Stout Cask Finish
This small distillery in Portland, OR, is making some damn fine single malts. This expression takes their fully matured single malt and transfers it into stout-seasoned barrels that held beer from local craft breweries Bent Shovel Brewing, Breakside Brewing, Culmination Brewing, Ex-Novo Brewing, Fort George Brewery, Migration Brewing, Sky High Brewing, and more.
The whiskey spends a whole year soaking in all those stout-y flavors before proofing and bottling.
Tasting Notes:
The sip opens with a mix of dark cherries next to orange oils, Christmas spices, and a hint of banana in brown sugar and butter. The taste carries on that path while adding salted caramel and dark chocolate bitterness, especially with the addition of a little water. The stout really starts to shine after that water, as the chocolate gets darker and a hint of espresso bean bitterness marries to the vanilla, oak, spice, and dark fruits on the long-simmering end.
Bottom Line:
This year this whiskey got an upgraded bottle and the juice in that bottle seems to be more refined. It’s a fine whiskey that seems to have truly benefitted from the beer-barrel finish, all of which helped it stand out in 2020.
This single pot still Irish whiskey uses the classic mash bill of unmalted and malted barley that’s triple distilled in old pot stills. The hot juice is then transferred to a majority of ex-bourbon and a minority of ex-sherry casks where it rests for 12 long years.
The whiskeys are then married, proofed, and bottled with no filtration.
Tasting Notes:
Bright and sweet orchard fruits meet worn leather, oak, caramel malts, and a note of soft stone. The fruits become dried and candied as creamy vanilla pudding, dark spices, and a choco-coffee bitterness lead back toward that oak and leather. The vanilla kicks back in late but the dram remains oaky, spicy, and fruity on the fade.
Bottom Line:
This is a shockingly easy-sipping whiskey. The new bottle design — reminiscent of a pot still — and the box also make this whiskey a great gift for anyone looking to get into higher-end Irish whiskey without breaking the bank.
Legendary Master Blender Dr. Rachel Barrie has taken an old scotch and brought it into the 21st century. This Speyside single malt marries four unpeated whiskies aged in ex-bourbon, ex-sherry, ex-red wine, and new American oak casks for 21 long years. The end result was one of the biggest surprises of 2020 for us.
Tasting Notes:
Mild oak greets you alongside a very refined sense of freshly plucked orchard fruits, red berries off the vine, and honey fresh from the hive. The fruits lean into pears and candied cherries as subtle spice kicks in with hints of smoked almonds dipped in honey and a distant note of malty dark chocolate. The end isn’t too long and really lets the sweet fruit, oak, and spice shine as a final whisper of sweet, almost plummy smoke closes the sip out.
Bottom Line:
This is the sort of sip that puts a smile on your face from the moment it hits your olfactory system. We’d argue you don’t even need water to drink this, but a little water will certainly let to bloom nicely.
This was the final release of Irish Distiller’s Master Distiller Brian Nation. The 37th installment of the much-beloved Very Rare series out of Midleton. Basically, Nation spent a year tasting single pot still and single grain whiskeys aged 13 to 35 years in ex-bourbon and ex-sherry. The final bottling is his swan song to his decades at Midleton and last seven years as their Master Distiller.
Tasting Notes:
There’s a real sense of the bourbon vanilla next to black pepper, freshly ground nutmeg, dark chocolate, and dark yet sweet fruits, all surrounded by a mild sense of old oak. That oak carries on and is joined by hints of pear, orange oils, chili peppers, and a clear hint of soft cedar. The end fades at just the right pace, leaving you with the oak, spice, fruit, and that sense of being in a room walled with only cedar.
Bottom Line:
This is going to be hard to find and expensive when you do find it. Still, this is a collector’s item heralding the end of an era and also happens to be a very fine sip of whiskey. If you see it, try to get a sip.
This quiet Speyside distillery is one of those distilleries that many don’t know even about. Those who do know, know that Aberlour makes some seriously good whisky, year after year. This year’s 18-year Double Cask release is another testament to that. The juice is left alone in ex-bourbon and ex-sherry casks for 18 long years before it’s brought down to proof with soft Scottish spring water and bottled.
Tasting Notes:
Bruised peaches mingle with buttery toffee, butterscotch candy wrappers, rich vanilla, and orange oils. That peach is drowned in heavy cream and honey, with plenty of leathery oak and sharp Christmas spices as an orange marmalade note counterpoints the whole sip. The round finish rolls through your senses while highlighting the spice, creaminess, fruit, oak, and vanilla on the slow fade.
Bottom Line:
This is one of those sips that keeps popping back into our mind. It’s just really, really good on its own, though it blooms nicely with a little water. This really was a revelation this year that’ll be a mainstay on our shelves for years to come.
This year’s release from the Buffalo Trace Antique Collection is an 18-year-old rye made with Minnesota rye. The juice spent 18 years aging in heavily charred barrels in a specific spot in one warehouse, where it lost 76.9 percent to the angels. The remaining juice was proofed and bottled as-is, leaving an amazingly accessible sip of whiskey.
Tasting Notes:
Imagine freshly picked apples packed in bales of straw next to a mild spice warmth and lots of oakiness. The palate embraces the dryness of the straw while adding in more distinct rye spiciness with charred oak bitterness, dark cacao, and a spicy stewed sweet apple body. The end is like an old barn full of hay, orchard fruit, and rusting tools. It’s not too long, but fully satisfying.
Bottom Line:
The beauty of this dram was a big surprise this year. This is one of those ryes that we may never get again. It’s so unique yet still amazingly easy to drink.
This single pot still triple-distilled whiskey from Irish Distillers in Midleton is hard to beat. The juice is a marrying of whiskey aged for 15 long years in ex-bourbon and ex-sherry casks before masterful blending, proofing, and bottling. The end result is something truly special from the Emerald Isle.
Tasting Notes:
Orange oils, dry straw, vanilla pudding covered in candied cherries, dark spices, and a hint of bananas fried in butter and brown sugar greet you. The spices really take on a Christmas edge as the creaminess of the vanilla hints at eggnog-spiked bitter coffee. The end is just the right length as hints of old oak, those creamy spices, the orange, and dry straw all merge into a warm embrace.
Bottom Line:
This isn’t a new whiskey. It’s just a really f*cking good whiskey we got back into this year. Every single year, this expression continues to shine brightly and we can’t look away.
7. Aberfeldy 18 Exceptional Cask Single Malt Whisky
Dewar’s Master Blender and Master of Malt, Stephanie MacLeod, really hit on something special with this release. The whisky is hand-selected by MacLeod from juice that’s spent 18 years resting in ex-bourbon casks in Aberfeldy’s warehouses. The juice is then transferred to first-fill Pauillac wine casks from Bordeaux (also hand-selected by MacLeod) for a final rest before proofing and bottling.
Tasting Notes:
That Aberfeldy honey mingles with sweet red berries, mildly spicy tobacco, vanilla pods, old and leathery oak, and a real sense of soft cedar. Those berries and honey offer the perfect counter to the leather, tobacco, and cedar as the honey creates a bridge between the two poles — with a whisper of citrus oils. The end is long, full of cedar, honey, and spicy tobacco, and very fulfilling.
Bottom Line:
This is one of those drams we can’t stop thinking about and wish we had a barrel of to call our own.
This Seattle craft bourbon is a great example of the power of the small craft distillery. This juice is the award-winning Woodinville 5-Year Bourbon that’s finished for six to 12 months in port casks, adding a serious depth to the already solid whiskey.
Tasting Notes:
Bourbon vanilla dances with plummy fruits, fatty nuts, and mild spice next to oak. The sip feels like a Christmas cake brimming with candied fruits, dark spices, dried fruit, nuts, and creamy vanilla. The slow end holds onto all of those notes while also embracing a bit of oak and bitter char as it fades.
Bottom Line:
This is one of those sips that are perfect on a little ice but also work wonders as a cocktail base, especially for a Manhattan.
This Tennessee whiskey from newly minted shingle Uncle Nearest celebrates the history of Tennessee whiskey while embracing diversity in the industry, all while also creating a damn fine line of booze. Their 1820 is made from hand-selected barrels that have aged for a minimum of eleven years. Master Blender Victoria Eady-Butler sources the barrels for their exactness and ability to convey the beauty of Tennesse whiskey before marrying them and bottling at high proof.
Tasting Notes:
There’s a lot going on that just works. The nose is full of orange oils, vanilla pods, dark chocolate, Christmas cakes with nuts and fruit and spice, and plenty of oak. The body is creamy yet refined, with sweet notes of maple syrup next to dark chocolate covered cherries next to worn leather and more oak. The end is long and full of all those Christmas cake notes while adding a hint of salty buttered popcorn before ending on a wisp of smoke.
Bottom Line:
You can tell immediately why Uncle Nearest continues to sweep up awards in 2020. This is a damn tasty dram of whiskey that we’re very excited to drink more of every single chance we get.
4. Mortlach 21 (Rare by Nature Collection) Single Malt Whisky
This Dufftown distillery is a real classic (it’s the oldest one in town). It’s also one of those shingles that only hardcore scotch fans seem to know exists. This special one-off release is small-batched after aging for 21 long years and then finished in Pedro Ximenez and Oloroso sherry casks, adding a subtly refined finishing touch to the dram.
Tasting Notes:
There’s a really welcoming nose that leans towards subtle hints of dark spices, candied fruits, and oakiness with the feel of a flaky, buttered biscuit. The body of the dram has a dark chocolate orange base that then takes a turn into fresh chili territory with a savory fruit depth. It kind of feels like what all those chili-spiked chocolate craft stouts wish they were. The dark and sweet fruits stick around the long end as old oak and rich malts slowly fade through your senses, leaving you smiling.
Bottom Line:
This is one of those whiskies that’s grown on us immensely as we’ve re-tasted it. It’s gone from, “this is fine” to “wow, this really is something special, isn’t it?” to “where has this been all of my life???” Though that means, “goodbye savings account!” if we choose to scratch that itch.
This limited edition release from Michter’s this year created a big stir over the summer for being delicious. The 10-year old hand-selected single barrel expression is a much sought after whiskey that we’d argue lives up to the hype.
Tasting Notes:
Butter rich toffee meets marzipan cut with rose water next to peppery spice and clear oakiness. Bespoke Red Hots mingle with orange oils, more oakiness, vanilla pods, and a rush of fresh spicy/sweet chili peppers. The almond edge loses some of its marzipan sweetness as the oak, spice, vanilla, and orange slowly fade away, leaving you warmed with plenty of rye spice.
Bottom Line:
This is another expression we almost forgot about until we tasted it again and… wow, this is really f*cking tasty. This is a hell of a rye in every way. It’s also great if you want to make $50 Manhattans with a really solid sweet vermouth and more orange oils.
2. William Larue Weller (Antique Collection) Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whiskey
This wheated whiskey was made in 2008 from a mash bill that replaced Minnesota rye with North Dakota wheat. The hot juice was barreled and stored in two warehouses on specific floors where 73 percent of the whiskey was lost to evaporation over the past 12 years.
Tasting Notes:
This is the sort of nose that says, “Hello! Welcome. Make yourself at home.” with mild notes of creamy bourbon vanilla, rich caramel, slight oak, and a clear nutty edge. The taste adds to that with choco-coffee bitterness next to bright red cherries swimming in creamy vanilla and spicy tobacco leaves. That chocolate/cherry/oak matrix marries to the velvet body as it slowly fades away, leaving you warm and happy.
Bottom Line:
This is a bottle that also grew on us. We just kept thinking about, going back to it, dreaming about it. We get that it’s very hard to find and crazy expensive. But… this really is a masterpiece and moved between one, two, and three on this list about 50 times.
1. Talisker 8 Year (Rare by Nature Collection) Single Malt Whisky
This release from Diageo’s Rare By Nature Collection is a special one-off whisky that you can actually find and hopefully afford. The whisky is a rare Talisker expression that’s aged for eight years and then finished Caribbean rum casks. The idea is to blend the salty, seaside nature of a Talisker with the sweet, seaside nature of a pot still Caribbean rum. The results are something new and very enticing.
Tasting Notes:
The sip starts off like a classic Talisker with hints of briny sea spray, sweet pears, and beach campfire smoke. Then a hint of molasses peeks in. The palate continues on that path and starts building in notes of fatty, smoky whole hog or brisket smokers with burnt sugars, red spices, and smoked salts and fats. It sounds heavy, but it’s somehow still light and easy-sipping. The end really embraces the taste as the fat, smoke, sea, orchard fruits, and sugars fade out at an even pace.
Bottom Line:
This has been a hell of a year for BBQ. We want to take this bottle to South Carolina or Texas’ Hill Country, sit down next to a smoker, and order everything on the menu. Then we want to eat it all while drinking a bottle of this stuff.
This is the whisky that surprised us the most, drew us back the most, and really feels like 2020 in a bottle. Cheers to the Talisker team on the Isle of Skye!
The NBA’s preseason began on Friday night with a number of teams working off the rust following either an incredibly short offseason or one that dated back to March, depending on whether or not they got the chance to participate in the Orlando Bubble. One preseason game that featured two Orlando squads pitted the Portland Trail Blazers, which got to the postseason, against the Sacramento Kings, which saw its time in the Bubble end in the seeding games.
It was a generally unremarkable preseason game — Portland came out on top, 127-102, behind big nights from Carmelo Anthony and Harry Giles off the bench — but it also featured a funny moment involving Blazers guard CJ McCollum and Kings coach Luke Walton. For one reason or another, Walton had to bark an instruction to someone on the floor, which he thought meant he needed to pull down his mask.
McCollum, posted up on the bench, noticed this, and from his seat, reminded Walton that the game is happening in the midst of a pandemic, and he needs to keep his mask up.
Kamaiyah has been busy. Though she hadn’t released a full-length project since 2017, she began 2020 by releasing the mixtape Got It Made, followed later by the albumOakland Nights, with fellow hometown native Capolow. Recently she released her third project of the year, No Explanation, and one of its standout tracks, “Art Of War,” now has a video.
It begins with Kamaiyah in a straitjacket as she stands inside a glass box filled with money. Throughout the song, the Oakland rapper takes aim at her competition, condemning them for their passive-aggressive attacks on her.
No Explanation has 10 other tracks, which feature guest appearances from Jackboy and Mozzy. In a press release, Kamaiyah the new direction she’s taking.
My previous two projects this year I would say had a heavy west coast influence. The up-tempo feel good, club music, the baselines, the production etc. But I’m such a versatile artist so I really wanted to showcase my ability to do my thing on any type of beat. I like to say this project gives a southern feel to it. Its definitely not a typical Kamaiyah project, but it’s still good music.
You can watch the “Art Of War” video above.
No Explanation is out now via Grnd.Wrk/Empire. Get it here.
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