A Few Notes About My Upcoming Reviews

While in Brazil on my most recent trip, my in-laws had me sample various cachaças from the family stash. (And it is quite a stash.) I had very different impressions of each.

Before I share those impressions, a little background...

Before starting a decade in Silicon Valley PR, I was an intern at Brown-Miller Communications, a boutique PR shop in Martinez, Calif. The clients at the time included the Livermore Valley Winegrowers' Association, the California Tomato Growers' Association, the Cling Peach Advisory Board, Gills Onions, and others.

At a wine-related event, I asked someone how they developed their palate. I was intimidated at the time by the mellifluous prose that waxed rhapsodic about "raspberry undertones", "hints of blackcurrant", or a "crisp finish".

"At the end of the day, there are only three kinds of wine," I was told. 'Good', 'Sucks', and 'More Please.'"

I never forgot it.

I can only hope to share my impressions of the cachaças I've sampled, with the thought that my tastes aren't so coarse as to be useless. Since my in-laws are quite involved in the community of cachaça aficionados in Rio, I hope to share my experiences with various labels that we may never see in the U.S.

So here's my one-to-five rating system:

• Five barrels: Baptize your kid with this. Immediately.
• Four barrels: This should be in your special stash. Hide it from your uncle and the guy who keeps wanting to borrow your truck.
• Three barrels: Decent.
• Two barrels: Almost guaranteed to turn into a four-barrel-rated cachaça after the third one. Cocktail-mixture is absolutely essential.
• One barrels: If Wolverine from the X-Men wanted to go on a serious bender with this stuff, his mutant healing-factor would come in quite handy.
• Zero barrels: Your engine block probably needs cleaning, doesn't it?

More to come soon.