Dec. 2: Drammers Philadelphia......
Hello Philadelphia Drammers!
Our next rare whisky and spirits tasting will be Monday, December 2nd at 7pm. We've got 8 new expressions for you to try, a great mix of Scotch, bourbon, rye, American single malt and even an armagnac! You can read more about all of them below. A big thank you to Andrew for hosting (we will follow up to confirm the location). We’ll order in light food (likely pizza, which is included), and as always, arranging a ride home is highly recommended.
Cheers,
Drammers Club
BOTTLE LINEUP:
Russell's Reserve - Drammers Single Barrel Bourbon. Earlier this year, a group of our chapter heads came together at the Wild Turkey Distillery to select this single barrel of Russell's Reserve. The barrel we selected was distilled Oct. 1, 2014, dumped on May 14, 2024 and bottled on June 11, 2024. Barrel #23-0035, aged in Warehouse TY-K, Floor #4, aged 9 years, 7 months, 13 days. Bottled at 55% abv / 110 proof (as many distilleries do these day — instead of cask strength, they pick a number just below cask strength so they don’t have to refile the label with the TTB for each single barrel). The barrel yielded 186 bottles.
Wilderness Trail - Drammers Single Barrel Bourbon. Next up is our single barrel from Wilderness Trail — barrel no 771648, aged 5 years, 3 months, aged in an ISC (Independent Stave Co.) classic #4 barrel, rickhouse E-N25-10-4, Yeast strain FP1. Wilderness Trail as many of you know specializes in wheated bourbon, which is the case here, and they also use a sweet mash process (so they do NOT use backset from prior distillations in subsequent mashes, unlike most distilleries). Drammers had selected a single cask of Wilderness Trail a couple years ago that was accidentally lost by the distillery (they accidentally used it in a small batch blend, ha, which does happen from time to time). So, this is a barrel we’ve been waiting for for a long time now. The barrel yielded 204 bottles.
Stock Exchange Club of Los Angeles - Bourbon. Next up we’ll try a bourbon and a rye from a distillery in el Segundo, Los Angeles (the R6 Distillery). With the slowdown in whisky sales in the last 18 months they, like so many craft distilleries of late sadly, stopped distilling over a year ago, and have no new plans to restart distilling. They launched this new label to work through their existing whisky stocks, and we made a point to be first in line to support them. But don’t let that backstory fool you, this is good bourbon, aged 5 years, they just did a better job of making it than marketing I guess you could say. 60% abv.
Loch Lomond - Glengarry Single Malt Scotch 10yo. This is our second single barrel with Loch Lomond Glengarry, this time aged all 10 years in a Sauternes cask. Single malt Scotch from a distillery just barely far enough North to qualify as a Highlands distillery. Our last single cask with them (aged in a Bordeaux cask) was recently named the #1 single cask of Scotch in the world for 2024 at the San Francisco Spirit Awards, and maybe we're biased -- but we think this single cask is just as good, sweet, if a little brighter.
Kilchoman - Batch Strength - Islay Single Malt Scotch. Hard to believe that in 19 years since their founding, Kilchoman has only released 2 regularly-available “core range” expressions — until now. Although they have loads of limited edition and other special releases, this new “Batch Strength” release that they released last month is only the third expression that they’ve committed to make regularly available. Our club was proud to be part of the launch for it, hosting two events in NJ last month with James Wills, their Director of Sales and Marketing and the son of distillery founder Anthony Wills. If you’re not familiar with Kilchoman, they make heavily peated/smokey whisky on Islay — the famous island in the Southwest of Scotland that is home to most of the big smoke and peaty whiskies. 57% abv
Westward - American Single Malt - Drammers Pick. This distillery is based in Portland, Oregon and is not only our favorite distillery in that city, it's one of the most important American single malt distilleries in the country. Our Portland members selected this single cask, an exceptional version of their flagship, which has huge malty notes. The distillers behind this distillery came from a brewing background, and you can taste that in their whiskies. Bottled at cask strength, as always.
L'Encantada 12yo Armagnac Single Cask. This company exploded on the scene during covid, bringing special single casks of Armagnac to the world at cask strength. Armagnac is of course a grape brandy produced under strict rules in that region of France, and most of it goes into lower-proof blends, making these cask strength release single casks particularly sought-after. At a recently online tasting with their Cellar Master Vincent Cornu, this release emerged as a particularly tasty release of the 6 we tried.
Plus one more bonus pour!