We are all familiar with the “best of” awards that happen every year.  Its nice to see what is best in town, but usually those results are extremely subjective and do not rely on any objective information.  For that, cVillain has created the “Ultimate” list for wining and dining in town, and The Upstairs is the first on our list to take the “Ultimate Spirit Selection In Town”.

We attended what we thought would be a whiskey/bourbon tasting that turned into an all out spirit tasting earlier this week, and all we can say is….nothing; we are still speechless.   That staff at The Upstairs is so knowledgeable about spirits, of every kind, we were in awe and at the same time intimidated….no one told us beforehand we were enrolling in Spirits 101.  We sampled extremely tiny pours of the best the old and modern world has to offer.  We wish we had read Highland Park Distillery’s “How to Nose and Taste” document beforehand.  Created by Highland Park’s Brand Ambassador Gerry Tosh, its a step by step on how to taste what you drink.  It would be great if The Upstairs had laminated copies of this available with the drink menu.

Round 1:  Kentucky Bourbon- The Legend of Pappy Van Winkle

What sat before us was described as the “Rolls Royce” of bourbon.  We were looking at the Pappy Van Winkle 23, 20 and 15 year aged Bourbon.  This is the most rare and desired of all Kentucky Bourbons.  How is it that The Upstairs finagled its stash?  Owner Mark Brown went to high school with one of the Van Winkle boys and well, lets just say its a friendship that keeps on giving.  We began with the 20 year old bourbon ($25/2 oz pour, $133/bottle retail).  This batch is also the #1 rated bourbon in the world according to the Beverage Tasting Institute.  Sitting in a tiny low-ball glass in front of us, maybe 2 feet away, its sweet aroma tickled our noses.  The next thing you notice is its color.  What distinguishes one bourbon’s color from another?  Its all in the aging process.  Pappy makes his bourbon in charred mountain oak barrels.  In the summertime the wood expands due to heat and humidity and absorbs the bourbon in process.  In the winter it expels the bourbon.  This process continues on for a long time.  In this case, 20 years.  The more controlled the temperature fluctuation throughout the fermentation process the better.

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As you may or may not know, there are a wide variety of low-end fortified wines available in the Charlottesville area. While none are locally produced, they all pack a particularly interesting wallop and are quite distinct in their own way. I managed to convince 6 Cvillains to be brave enough to help me evaluate them and determine which is the best. Here are the results.

I went shopping on Friday afternoon and hit two convenience stores to get the goods. At the Shell station on Preston I picked up the first 4 bottles – Night Train, Wild Irish Rose ‘Red’, ‘Wild Grape’, and ‘Wild Fruit’. When I put them on the counter at the register the cashier looked at me and said “Wow.” I replied that it was for science and she told me that if it was for anything else I was about to spend the next 2 days in the bathroom “both ways”. I hurried the plastic and paper bags back to my car before anyone saw the massive amount of fortified wine I was buying.

After a few more unsuccessful (re: they only sold REAL wine, like from a vineyard) stops I found a few more bottles at the Estes Market on Cherry Avenue. It was here that I bought Thunderbird, Cisco ‘Black Cherry’, and Wild Irish Rose ‘Green Apple’. There were a lot of varieties of Cisco, no doubt made with different grapes, but in order to limit the scope of this wine review (and be easy on my volunteer tasters) I elected to only sample the Black Cherry. I was surprised that none of these wines were as cheap as I’d expected. A 750ml bottle of each was $4.99.

And now the results… »Read More