This cocktail has interesting composition but very familiar and annoing name. Great Scottish poet and a lyricist Robert Burns merit bigger respect that “Bobby”.

Dale DeGroff specify that Bobby Burns Cocktail was created at one of the great and famous pre-prohibited bar of Amirica - Big Brass Rail (Waldorf) for celebration of Robert Burns Day. This cocktail has so similar composition to Rob Roy Holiday Style.

Bobby Burns

35 ml scotch
35 ml sweet vermouth
8 ml Benedictine
Stir. Cocktail glass. Garnish with lemon twist.

Some sources specify that Drambuie is substitute of Benedictine in this cocktail. I think that is bad idea. If you do not have Benedictine but Drambuie - please try the Rob Roy Holiday Style but not Bobby Burns Cocktail.

The Bobby Burns Cocktail is one of the great cocktail with scotch, actually. It has very smooth, so sweet and aromatic taste.

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Bobby Burns

Citadelle isn’t just releasing this specially-flavored (with 19 spices) and cognac-barrel aged (5 months) gin — it’s actually going the vintage route, with this 2009 edition recently hitting shelves.

Versus the 2008 version, the only difference in recipe I can tell is one month less in oak: 5 months vs. the 2008 bottling’s 6 months. It’s still a hazy golden hue, with spice and citrus, and a little vanilla finish imparted by the time in cask. Just as good as the 2008 — perhaps a little smoother, even. I like it a lot and recommend it just as highly as last year’s model.

Even better: It can now be found for cheaper than the 2008, about $5 less per bottle. Win.

A / $35 / citadellegin.com

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Citadelle Reserve Gin 2009 Vintage

HammerSky made just 137 cases of this Paso Robles cabernet, and that’s a shame. It’s a fruit-forward wine, one with lots of character but one which is still easy to drink. Made with 79% cabernet sauvignon, 16% merlot, and 5% cabernet franc, it’s a deeply purple wine, fat with blueberry character, herbal notes, and a moderate tannin backbone. The finish is jammy, with a green olive tinge to it. Quite nice.

A- / $40 / hammersky.com

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2007 HammerSky Cabernet Sauvignon Paso Robles “Limited Resource”

Doña Paula’s 2008 Malbec hails from the Mendoza region of Argentina. Jammy, with a light herbal finish, it’s easy to see why this wine has won so many accolades of late: It’s great with food or by itself, and it lightens up to reveal more red fruit as it aerates. It’s hard to love many malbecs, but it’s easy to really like this wine. The price, however, it’s what’s really shocking.

A- / $12 / donapaula.com.ar

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2008 Doña Paula Malbec

Yeyo! It’s fun to say. Pretty fun to drink. But more fun to say.

Yeyo!

Yeyo is a new brand, a straight-up silver tequila. 100% agave. 80 proof. No aged versions. Hailing from Beaverton, Oregon (by way of the Highlands of Jalisco, Mexico, of course), it’s only now arriving in small pockets of the Pacific Northwest.

Easygoing but good, Yeyo has a distinct citrus character that makes it good with margaritas (I know, I tried) but also fine on its own, if you’re a silver sipper type. It’s got good agave character in the body, with a kind of charcoal-tinged finish. Quite smooth, I have no complaints, really.

Or as I like to say: Yeyo!

A- / $TBD / yeyotequila.com

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Yeyo Tequila

So many booze companies try to jump on the Oscar bandwagon with a custom cocktail, but this one from our friends at Moet sounded just about perfect. It’s what I’m serving tonight! (The Academy Awards start at 5PM PST.)

Golden Glamour

4 oz. Moët & Chandon Imperial Champagne
1/4 oz. Navan vanilla liqueur
1 1/2 oz. passion fruit juice

Combine all ingredients in a champagne coupe. Top with fresh sprig of mint for garnish.

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Recipe: A Cocktail for Oscar

This simple cocktail is standart woman cocktail as specify many authors. Equal parts of gin and sweet vermouth (It) and some interesting for garnish. My favorite Salvatore “Maestro” Calabrese garnish own Gin & It with a maraschino cherry and orange peel. I think is it optimal choice for this cocktail

Gin & It

35 ml sweet vermouth
35 ml gin
Stir. Cocktail glass. Garnish with a red maraschino cherry and orange peel.

The Gin & It Cocktail has good-balanced sweet and dry herbal taste. It is good evening cocktail and not for woman only. Some mixologist (like Dale DeGroff) reccomend to add some drops of Angostura bitter in the Gin & It Cocktail.

Gin & It (Dale DeGroff)

35 ml sweet vermouth
35 ml gin
1 dash Angostura bitter
Stir. Cocktail glass. Garnish with an orange peel.

This version has more complex palate with wide herbal bitternes of Angostura. It is good cocktail for any romantic evening.

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Gin & It

Can the French go toe to toe with the Australians at their own game: Putting out cheap and simple varietally-focused wines that consumers will lap up? All that’s missing is the animal on the label.

Here’s how the five wines of the HobNob label — sometimes seen as Hob Nob and all hailing from “the sunny hills of southern France” — stack up.

2007 HobNob Chardonnay – Not drinkable, heavily perfumed with mint and incense. Like licking a belly dancer, and not in a good way. D

2008 HobNob Pinot Noir – Smoky and meaty, this is more harmless than the chardonnay, but a bitter green finish mucks things up. C

2006 HobNob Merlot – Jammy, somewhat easydrinking, but with a big green olive kick. Bizarre, but not horrible. C+

2007 HobNob Cabernet Sauvignon – Extremely light but clearly cabernet, at least — rare for these wines which defy varietal classification. A lot like the merlot, but with less abrasive components. Harmless. B-

2006 HobNob Shiraz – Plummy but mild. A little chewy, but easy to deal with. Curiously uses the Aussie “Shiraz” name instead of the Francophilic “Syrah.” B

$11 each / hobnobwines.com

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HobNob Wines

My new passion is scotch. I explore blend scotch meanwhile. I have Johny Walker, Balantines, Famous Grouse an Chivas Regal in my bar. Today I explore the one of the classic whisky cocktail - the Rob Roy.

The Rob Roy (Robert Roy MacGregor) is folk Scottish folk hero, something like English Robin Good. The operetta about him (Rob Roy) was popular at Broadway in 1890s. The Rob Roy Cocktail was created at the old Waldorf Astoria Hotel in this time. It was popularized by famous Scottish whisky distiller Tommy Dewar.

The Rob Roy Cocktail is a Manhattan with scotch instead rye (or bourbon). As Manhattan it has three version - Sweet (common), Dry and Perfect. Today we explore this three versions of the Rob Roy Cocktail.

Rob Roy

35 ml scotch
35 ml sweet vermouth
1 dash Angostura bitters
Stir. Cocktail glass. Garnish with a maraschino cherry.

The proportions of the Rob Roy Cocktail may be variable.

The Rob Roy Cocktail is an excellent cocktail with so sweet complex palate with powerful scotch finish.

Dry Rob Roy

50 ml scotch
20 ml dry vermouth
1 dash Angostura bitters
Stir. Cocktail glass. Garnish with a lemon peel or an olive.

The Dry Rob Roy Cocktail has so dry taste with dominant taste of scotch.

Perfect ??? ???

40 ml scotch
20 ml sweet vermouth
20 ml dry vermouth
1 dash Angostura bitters
Stir. Cocktail glass. Garnish with a lemon peel.

The Perfect Rob Roy Cocktail has interesting and good-balanced taste with herbal notes of vermouth and powerful scotch finish. I think that Rob Roy is a great cocktail.

Specially for my Rob Roy Cocktail exploring I get yet one bottle of scotch - Teacher`s Highland Cream. And I explore yet one version of Rob Roy - the Rob Roy Holiday Style, which was found on the CocktailDB.

Rob Roy Holiday Style

50 ml scotch
8 ml sweet vermouth
8 ml dry vermouth
8 ml Drambuie
Stir. Cocktail glass. Garnish with a maraschino cherry.

Actually the Rob Roy Holiday Style is magnificient cocktail. It has very balanced strong and sweet taste with wide whisky palate. I use one of my new bottle - Teacher`s Highland Cream, in result I have very smooth an? delicious cocktail.

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Rob Roy

Malt Advocate’s John Hansell called this whiskey the “American Whiskey of the Year” (20o9), a heavy honor from a man who samples hundreds of whiskies a year and certainly knows his stuff. I finally tracked down a bottle — not an easy task — to see what all the fuss was about.

The idea: To celebrate master distiller Park Beam’s 50th anniversary as a whiskeymaker, whiskey from each of Parker’s five decades in the biz is included in the blend. At 100 proof, this is hot stuff, and it easily benefits from a splash of water. A deep amber color, it also opens up as you let air get to it, revealing some of the charms that Hansell is so enchanted with.

Lovely apple fruit, vanilla, and rounded wood tones are the highlights here, with a dessert-like sweetness that Hansell astutely terms as “nougat” like. The finish is easygoing but harkens back to wood — remember there is at least some 40-plus-year-old whiskey in this thing but evaporates with hints of pie crust and biscuits, sugar and spice.

Whiskey of the year? That’s hard to say. I remain enamored with Old Rip Van Winkle’s 23 Year Old… though Parker’s Golden boy is awfully close on its heels.

A / $150 / bardstownwhiskeysociety.com

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Parker’s Heritage Collection Golden Anniversary Bourbon Whiskey