Month: December 2021

On Monday, a report by The New York Times revealed damning intel about CNN host Chris Cuomo: New documents showed that he been move involved in his brother Andrew’s attempts to deal with sexual harassment claims than he’d previously revealed. That night, Chris’ weeknight show aired as usual, as though everything was hunky dory. What a difference a day makes.

As per The Hollywood Reporter, CNN has suspended Cuomo indefinitely after the report, which detailed, among other things, how he used his connections to help dig up dirt on some of his brother’s accusers.

“The documents, which we were not privy to before their public release, raise serious questions,” a CNN spokesperson told THR. “When Chris admitted to us that he had offered advice to his brother’s staff, he broke our rules and we acknowledged that publicly. But we also appreciated the unique position he was in and understood his need to put family first and job second. However, these documents point to a greater level of involvement in his brother’s efforts than we previously knew. As a result, we have suspended Chris indefinitely, pending further evaluation.”

Earlier this year, the younger Cuomo claimed he had played a small role in helping his brother. The report, however, showed that he did far more than that. He phoned into strategy meetings, and even told investigators from the New York AG’s office that he would “reach out to sources, other journalists, to see if they had heard of anybody else coming out.” Ultimately it was for nought: Cuomo resigned in disgrace in August, to the surprise of many.

What he didn’t do, Cuomo said, was try to influence how stories about the case were reported on CNN. But that may not be enough to save his relationship with his longtime employers.

(Via THR)

When you think of single malt whisk(e)y, your brain almost automatically thinks of Scotland. I think you can be forgiven for that slight to other whisk(e)y producing nations — Scotch absolute does dominate the sector. But single malt doesn’t have to come from Scotland. Anyone can make it from Kamchatka to Chile. That’s why, today, we’re blind tasting and ranking eight iconic single malts made all over the world.

Full disclosure, this was the hardest blind ranking I’ve done. Period. Every one of the whiskies I tasted in this blind taste test was very good. They were varied and nuanced and I really, really liked all of them. Alas, there couldn’t be an eight-way tie for number one so I did rank them but the distance between these rankings is paper-thin.

Our lineup today:

• Kavalan Sherry Oak Single Malt Whisky
• Slyrs Bavarian Single Malt Whisky
• Balcones Pilgrimage Texas Single Malt Whisky
• Penderyn Rhiannon Single Malt Welsh Whisky
• Rampur Asava Indian Single Malt Whisky
• Cragganmore Distillers Edition Speyside Single Malt Scotch Whisky
• Waterford Dunmore 1.1 Irish Single Malt Whiskey
• Nikka Whisky Single Malt Yoichi

Let’s get tasting!

Part 1: The Taste

Taste 1

Tasting Notes:

This is pure Christmas cake on the nose with sticky prunes, tons of holiday spice, orange oils, and marzipan. The taste has a subtle nutmeg with creamy vanilla that leads towards a soft and almost rummy plum pudding with a hint of sweet oak in the background. Hints of dark chocolate dust lead towards a hot and spicy tobacco leaf buzz on the end that’s very reminiscent of a hard-hitting, high-ABV bourbon.

Taste 2

Tasting Notes:

Stone fruit dominates on the nose with a nice medley of orange wedges, cellar must, and savory papaya skins. The taste moves towards rose-water heavy marzipan with caramel sauce, old leather, and thin malts that leads towards a spicy Red Hots finish.

Taste 3

Tasting Notes:

This opens with a mix of rich honey, soft leather, pears, red grapes, and a touch of stewed peach. The palate has a slight maltiness that’s cut with pear candies, more honey, and pecans floating in syrup. The mid-palate takes on a little nutmeg as an apple soda vibe arrives late and leads you towards a mild chocolate-tobacco finish.

Taste 4

Tasting Notes:

This hits hard, with a big oak char that immediately fades towards red and blackberries plus a hint of pear that’s then emboldened by creamy walnut sauce from a Chiles en Nogada on the nose … I mean, it’s exactly that sauce. The taste touches on rich marzipan and walnut cake as a creamy caramel leads towards plums, more berries, chocolate-covered espresso beans, and a hint of dry oak.

Taste 5

Tasting Notes:

Ripe apricots mingle with fresh pineapple, blackberry, and a hint of fruity tobacco. The palate leans into a honey sweetness as a thin line of vanilla and red wine staves drives the taste. The end has a slightly warm and woody tobacco note that touches on clove and nutmeg.

Taste 6

Tasting Notes:

Apples grilled with fresh fennel and raisins draw you in on the nose with a slightly honeyed edge. The taste pings between mild and soft oak, powdery white pepper, fresh figs, and hard pear candies. Vanilla pops in late as that pepper brings about a savory green herb finish that’s almost oily.

Taste 7

Tasting Notes:

Grapefruit pith and vanilla beans sit next to brand new leather notes on this nose. Apple taffy with the wax paper still on drives the palate as dried roses, pinewood panels, and honey-soaked pecans add a nice balance to the taste. The mid-palate goes from a spicy zucchini bread to focus on the walnuts in that bread with a dry note on the finish that’s closer to the walnut shells.

Taste 8

Tasting Notes:

This is so mild you really have to take a moment to figure out the nose. There’s a sense of an old Weber BBQ that’s been left out in the rain by the sea that accent hints of rich marzipan, orange oils, freshly ground nutmeg, and a hint of ginger candy. The taste starts off with a bright melon candy next to almonds and walnuts with a light maltiness. The mid-palate brings dark plums into the mix, with smoked pears and apples adding a tine twinge of savoriness and smoke before the finish gently lands on earthy menthol tobacco leaves.

Part 2: The Ranking

8. Slyrs Bavarian Single Malt Whisky — Taste 2

ABV: 43%

Average Price: $60

The Whisky:

The whisky is all about local, Alpine craft. The Bavarian Summer barley is grown and malted in the foothills of the Alps. The juice is aged in new American oak tuns (huge barrels). Finally, the whisky is proofed with local spring water from those very Alps.

Bottom Line:

I really liked this (I’m going to say that a lot on this list). But if you forced my hand to reach for a 9th dram right after this tasting, I’d likely reach for this one last. So… here it is.

7. Waterford Dunmore 1.1 Irish Single Malt Whiskey — Taste 7

ABV: 50%

Average Price: $104

The Whiskey:

Waterford might be the most interesting whiskey maker in the world right now. The interesting bit about this distillery is found in the barley. The short version of the story is that Waterford sources barley from just over 40 farms across Ireland and then makes a single estate whiskey from each, to highlight how massively important terroir is to whiskey.

Bottom Line:

This was complex and tasty. It was just slightly less nuanced than some of the others on the list and ranked a little lower.

Still, it’s a damn fine dram.

6. Rampur Asava Indian Single Malt Whisky — Taste 5

ABV: 45%

Average Price: $100

The Whisky:

Rampur Asava is distilled and aged in the shadow of the Himalayas. The whisky is aged in both ex-bourbon and finished in Indian Cabernet Sauvignon casks before vatting and proofing with water from those Himalayan peaks.

Bottom Line:

This is where we really start splitting hairs. This is tasty, unique, yet familiar. I wrote in my notebook, “Oh, this is nice.”

5. Balcones Pilgrimage Texas Single Malt Whisky — Taste 3

ABV: 58.5%

Average Price: $76

The Whisky:

This single malt starts with Golden Promise malted barley in the mash with proprietary ale yeast and local Texas water. The distilled juice is then loaded into used barrels like all of the world’s great single malts. After a few years of aging under the hot Texas sun, the whisky is transferred into French Sauternes casks, bringing a distinct dessert wine vibe to the juice. Finally, the whisky is bottled at cask strength from very small, one-off batches.

Bottom Line:

This landed a little more into my palate but also really fit in with the rest of the lineup. It was nutty, fruity, funky … everything I wanted in a single malt was there.

4. Cragganmore Distillers Edition Speyside Single Malt Scotch Whisky — Taste 6

ABV: 40%

Average Price: $100

The Whisky:

Cragganmore is an iconic Scottish distillery. The whisky is matured in sherry casks for 12 years. It’s then transferred into American oak casks that held port for a final maturation phase before proofing and bottling.

Bottom Line:

This is the biggest outlier and that’s why it’s in the middle. This was so different and so much greener and more herbal that I didn’t know if it should be number one or eight. So, here it is.

3. Nikka Whisky Single Malt Yoichi — Taste 8

ABV: 45%

Average Price: $100

The Whisky:

This single malt from Nikka’s famed Yoichi Distillery by the sea blends its single malts into the final product that highlights both the distillery and region in the bottle. The whiskies are very lightly peated malted barley whiskies that are made with peat heated with dry coal fires. The no-age-statement whisky is then proofed with local spring water and bottled.

Bottom Line:

This was a delightful dram. It’s so subtle and, really, gentle. The fact that this is peated could be completely lost on some whisky drinkers. It’s really an amazing sip of whisky for this price point.

2. Penderyn Rhiannon Single Malt Welsh Whisky — Taste 4

ABV: 46%

Average Price: $90

The Whisky:

This Welsh whisky is part of the distillery’s “Icons of Wales” line. The seventh release in that series is a malted barley whisky aged in sherrywood grand cru barrels and proofed with local Welsh spring water. The bottle is named after the Celtic horse goddess which means “Great Queen.”

Bottom Line:

This blew me away. That walnut cream sauce vibe on the nose was both wild and really enticing. The taste didn’t quite live up to the uniqueness of the nose and that’s the only reason this isn’t number one.

1. Kavalan Solist Sherry Oak Single Malt Whisky — Taste 1

ABV: 54%

Average Price: $210

The Whisky:

This big, award-winning whisky is made from 100 percent malted barley. The distillate is aged in Olorosso sherry casks for an undisclosed amount of years. That whisky is then bottled as-is without any coloring, filtration, or cutting with water.

Bottom Line:

This was a dream to drink. It also really appealed to my bourbon-soaked palate, which certainly helped in hitting number one. This is a bottle I definitely need more of, especially as the holiday season sets in.

Part 3: Final Thoughts

This is a great example of how varied single malts from all over the world can be, while also having a real throughline. Nuts, fruits, wintry spices, and woody notes came up in almost every bottle except, oddly, the one from Scotland.

That being said, there were so many surprises and unique nuances between drams that they each stood out. And that’s always nice when tasting something blind and trying to rank them. Overall, I think I need to dive into Kavalan a lot more in the coming year. That Sherry Oak is a masterstroke of whisky making and deserves a lot more attention.

When it dropped in 2018, Tierra Whack’s Whack World took hip-hop by storm. Who was this unknown twenty-something rapper out of Philadelphia presenting this flawlessly produced 15 minute album of 15 one-minute songs with 15 separate unique visuals? It was jaw-dropping stuff and Whack has rightfully soared ever since, her voice gracing collaborations with her hometown Philadelphia 76ers, a powerful Janelle Monáe track, even the Madden 22 soundtrack. There have been a lot of singles released in the past few years, but no official album release since Whack World. Until now.

Announced today, Rap? is an EP from Whack, and she has announced a few shows surrounding the release as well. She’ll be in Brooklyn on the day of the release, December 2nd, and in Los Angeles on December 10th. There’s a third date whose location has yet to be announced, but a hometown show in Philadelphia would make sense.

Whack has also announced her first ever fashion collaboration, with an official Vans sneaker and apparel line — an ’80s style collection that Whack and her stylist Shirley Kurata have helped design. All of the pieces will feature the mantra “Weird Hype And Creative Kids” (as in “WHACK”).

Rap? is out on 12/02. Purchase/pre-save it here.

The Los Angeles Lakers will be without the services of LeBron James for an unspecified period of time. According to the team, James will miss at least Tuesday night’s game against the Sacramento Kings after being placed in the NBA’s health and safety protocols.

While James is vaccinated, it is unclear whether or not he tested positive for COVID or is simply a close contact. The NBA’s rules state that he will need to miss a minimum of 10 days if he tests positive for COVID-19. Over the next 10 days, the Lakers have games against the Kings, the Los Angeles Clippers, the Boston Celtics, and the Memphis Grizzlies. The team also has tilts against the Oklahoma City Thunder on Dec. 10 and the Orlando Magic on Dec. 12.

The team has played a number of games without James this year, as the All-Star forward has missed 11 of the team’s 22 games due to injuries. They have not, however, been particularly successful when he sits — Los Angeles is 4-7 when James does not play this season and 7-4 when he does not. As a result, the team sits in seventh place in the Western Conference. When he has played during the 2021-22 campaign, James has averaged 25.8 points, 6.8, 5.2 rebounds, and 1.8 steals in 36.9 minutes a night.

The Samantha-less Sex and the City reunion, And Just Like That…, is set to premiere on HBO Max in a little over a week, and while there’s going to be plenty of familiar faces, it’s clear this isn’t a straight nostalgia trip. The New York City that Carrie and gang treated like a playground is not quite what it was the last time we saw them a decade ago. The carefree world they once inhabited is no longer so carefree. Whole episodes — like the one where Carrie freaks out because her latest boy toy is bi — would no longer fly. But a new trailer suggests it’s going to try to fit in with changing times.

The trailer, which arrives shortly after a not-much-shorter teaser, finds Sarah Jessica Parker’s Carrie, Cynthia Nixon’s Miranda, and Kristin Davis’ Charlotte still wealthy New Yorkers, but with some differences. Carrie is a podcaster now, it seems? There’s also more diversity than the very white original show ever showed. There are dating apps, there to frustrate the young and not-so-young alike. Also, one of them tried to run for governor of the state and lost to a guy who had to resign anyway, at least in real life.

There’s also jokes about Barney’s (RIP), plus longtime beaus Mr. Big (Chris Noth), Henry (Evan Handler), and Steve (David Eigenberg), all a little older, and at least one ambiguously maybe or may not still married to one of our main threesome. The revival only runs 10 episodes, the first two available on Dec. 9, and surely that’s enough time to see if a show that used to be a valentine to a very rich version of New York City — and inspired shows like Girls, which showed it up as the fantasy it is — can change with the increasingly changing times. Maybe we’ll wind up getting a Samantha Jones solo spin-off, too.

And Just Like That…premieres on HBO Max on Dec. 9. You can watch the trailer above.

This past April, Kehlani came out as on an Instagram Live video. “I am gay, g-gay, gay, gay,” they later said on TikTok back then. We might learn more about this lifestyle embrace when their new album, Blue Water Road, is released at some point this winter. In fact, Kehlani has even said that the new music “feels vastly different than anything I’ve ever created before.”

The press rounds in the lead up to Blue Water Road have begun and in a cover story with beauty and style magazine Byrdie, the R&B star said that the new album “talks about love and coming into gayness.” In the revealing interview, Kehlani talks about notions of beauty, motherhood, fame, writing love songs, and of course, identity. Early on in the story, Kehlani addresses pronouns and how while “she” is acceptable, “they” just feels better.

“I don’t mind when people say ‘she’ at all, but something feels really affirming when people say ‘they.” For Kehlani, using non-binary pronouns feels like an earned respect. “It feels like… you really see me.”

It’s great to see Kehlani embracing who they are and how they would like to be seen. You can read the full profile here.

Kehlani is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

Kanye West has a new humanitarian project, and this one is a very noble cause. For a man who has been extremely obsessed with how his own houses look, it makes sense that eventually Kanye would consider the crisis of the unhoused as a serious concern. According to a report from TMZ, Kanye had a meeting with Reverend Troy Vaughn, CEO of LA Mission to talk about his ideas for supporting the community. Ye dropped by The Mission last week to donate 1,000 meals, and during that visit he sat down with Vaughn to outline his thoughts.

Kanye reportedly has a four-step plan for helping the unhoused, starting off with creating a network between all the organizations in the city that currently focus on feeding those in need. Next, he wants to use his Donda network of companies to help give access to education, jobs, and housing for those who are struggling. Next, he thinks that the weekly Sunday Service platform can be used to inspire and uplift –— which is actually a pretty good point because the mental/spiritual health of the unhoused is rarely discussed, if ever. Lastly, according to TMZ’s report Kanye wants to “partner with other groups tackling the crisis and combine their efforts with his ability to provide a bold and innovative vision for the future. Together, he believes they can eliminate the homeless situation.”

Listen, I’d take a solution for the homelessness crisis in LA over another Marilyn Manson collaboration any day, so Kudos to Yeezy for focusing on something that has a huge impact on the entire city. Check out some of his speech at the LA Mission below: