Belated Merry Christmas and an early Happy New Year. Here's hoping your holidays are delivering everything you hoped for and needed. As we round out 2024, it's a natural time for reflection and gratitude. On the social beverages front, the recent piece on Stocking Your Bar For 2025 offers a glimpse into some recurring thoughts this year, but following is a very short catalog of memorable acquaintances made in 2024. Note: while these include some of the best-tasting thinks I've enjoyed, they do not include either things that have had coverage here before (such as the perennially excellent Smith-Madrone cabernet) or nearly-unobtainable items (like the surprisingly youthful 1982 Chateau Haut-Brion enjoyed with family last winter.)
So, by no means an exhaustive list, these new-to-me drinks stand out as ignition switches for my imbibing experimentation this past year. Some of these will be easy to find wherever you are, while I hope the others will give you a starting point to embark on some of your own discovery. Importantly, almost all of these are within reach for the average imbibing person, which, to me, does make them taste better.
Beer
It was a great year for beer drinking, and why wouldn't it be? We live in a golden age of supply chain logistics that makes it not only easy to get beers from far-flung places at your local carry-out, but it's also leveled the playing field for breweries in every corner of the US, allowing them to procure the same raw ingredients. That said, beer is a very local - even tribal - thing. So, each region, state, and brewhouse will have its own strengths and styles.
The most memorable beer I had this year was, hands down, Upslope Brewing Company's Japanese
Style Rice Lager. First consumed at the brewery's Lee Hill taproom in Boulder on a scorching hot afternoon, I enjoyed this enough to pick up a six pack of it the next day - and it's been haunting me ever since. Fresh, crisp, dry, and crushable at 4.9%, I will henceforth order any rice lager I see on a menu.
The second most satisfying discovery is that a local market regularly stocks Maine Beer Company's Lunch, which is an IPA that clocks in at 7%. What makes it so satisfying (besides tasting great) is that drinking their beer helps support their mission, which is simply stated as "Do what's right." They expand on that on their website, and someday I hope to make it to their taproom, which is reputed to be legendary.
Finally, a word of gratitude for local beer. We are blessed with an embarrassment of riches when it comes to beer made within a 10 mile radius: Jackie O's, Nocterra, Columbus Brewing Company... these places can't seem to make a bad beer of any kind. Fresh and fantastic, these producers have raised the bar for all breweries in the area. Traveling even just 150 miles in any direction will get you a different handful of equally skilled beermakers, and that's likely to extend to your area, regardless of where you live. So, drink local!
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2024 was not exactly a great year for wine, as the industry continues to tighten its blinders against what the data is plainly telling them: younger consumers are not having it. Prices continue to rise along with homogenization of character, and the occasional wine find in the $10-12 range is now pretty much extinct. That said, there were some bright spots.
Clos des Fous pinot noir from Chile serves as a strong suggestion to continue exploration of Chilean wines,
particularly those grown at altitude. Domaine d'Auphilac's 'Lou Maset' bottling from the Languedoc in southern France is a reminder that fun and delicious wines can come from less famous regions and, therefore, at more modest prices. And Filipa Pato's Dinamica bottling from the baga grape from Portugal's Bairrada region is anomalous to the rest of the country's heavy, dense ink monsters. I've purchased more than a case of each of these wines this year, which is highly unusual for someone who thrives on variety.
Lastly, a few general epiphanies: My love affair with Loire valley whites is only deepening since a trip to Paris, and I am rediscovering how great affordable red Bordeaux can be. Also, I'm learning that white wines, particularly European and those from alpine environments, can be every bit as sophisticated, complex and downright enjoyable as the finest reds. I'm talking German riesling, Italian pinot grigios from Sudtirol
Spirits
My pilgrimage to Buffalo Trace Distillery in the spring was a pleasant and revelatory eye-opener. And, while I brought back bottles of hard-to-find bourbons, the real prize was the education. It was on this visit that I learned of Ancient Age Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whiskey, the distillery's working class whiskey that's available everywhere and yet with which very few people are familiar. It's a very solid weekday bourbon that doesn't lean too hard in any direction (corn, wheat, or rye) and will only set you back a measly $13. Props to our college-aged tour guide for this pearl of wisdom.
At the risk of sounding like a PR rep, it was on the same visit that I rediscovered vodka, thanks to Wheatley. Bearing the name of the man in charge, Harlen Wheatley, Buffalo Trace's sixth master distiller since the civil war, this is a departure from the sterile stuff that the market values. Definitely sippable neat.
Finally, and coming full circle geographically, Kikori Japanese Whiskey is, like the beer above, made from rice. Like many of the well-executed Japanese single malts that deservedly stand in their own right, this is a sophisticated, clean, elegant and aromatic spirit that overdelivers on its $45 price tag.
