Aug. 10: Drammers Oaxaca!......

Fellow Drammers!

We're returning to Oaxaca for our next in-person event on Monday, August 9th, and we're delighted that our friends at Ofrenda have agreed to host us! The cost is 500 pesos/person (approximately US$25) and we'll be tasting through seven fantastic whiskies:

• 2 Types of Jura Single Malt Scotch. First up we'll taste our way through two bottles in the core range of the Jura distillery, trying their single malt scotch aged for 10 years and 12 years. Our club hosted Richard Paterson, the master blender for Whyte & Mackay, which owns Jura, back in December for an in-depth online tasting, and we'll share with you some of the highlights of what we learned at that event.

• Kilkerran Heavily Peated Single Malt Scotch. This whisky was initially released in 2019 to much acclaim in the United States, where it sold out instantly as demand far exceeded the limited number of bottles they made available. They’ve released 3 more batches since then (we’ll be drinking batch #4), which we picked up as soon as it was released last year. Kilkerran is made at the Glengyle Distillery in Campbeltown, which is also home to Springbank (same ownership as Glengyle) and Glen Scotia. We’re big fans of all 3 distilleries, but the Kilkerran bottlings are the newest and least well-known — which is a shame because they are fantastic! Bottled at a delicious 59.3% abv.

• Balcones Single Malt - Stout Beer Finish. Next up, we'll try a single malt made in Texas. This is made exactly like a scotch, using 100% malted barley, and then they put the whiskey in a series of barrels that used to hold rum and even a special stout beer. Inevitably, if you use a barrel that used to hold something else, there will still be some of the previous contents soaked into the wood, which will affect the flavor of the whisky, making this an extraordinary, and unusual whisky with beer and rum flavors! Our club bought the entire barrel just for our members, so you won't find this anywhere else. Bottled at cask strength.

• FEW - Bourbon. Next up, we'll try two whiskies made at the FEW distillery in Chicago, which was one of the earliest distilleries to join the craft whisky boom that took place between 2008 and 2010. We're big fans of this distillery, and managed to buy three barrels from them in a special online tasting last year with their founder and head distiller Paul Hletko. We'll be trying the two bourbons that we picked -- both of them "finished" in a barrel that used to hold something else (similar to the Balcones bottle above). The first is a bourbon finished in a cask that used to hold unpeated scotch, making for a very unusual combination of bourbon and scotch flavors. The second is even more experimental -- a bourbon matured in an ex-vermouth cask! We were skeptical when we first heard about it, but wow does it taste good. Both bottled at cask strength.

• Barrell Craft Spirits - Amaro Cask Finish. We'll end the tasting with possibly the most unusual whiskey yet. Barrel Craft Spirits is an independent bottler, which means they don't have a distillery or make their own whiskey. Instead, they seek out and buy special batches from various distilleries, and then they usually blend them to arrive at a specific flavor, or experiment with finishing it, as they did here. This time, they took a Kentucky whiskey (effectively a bourbon) and finished it in an Amaro cask from Brooklyn. Cocktail fans will immediately recognize the powerful amaro notes, which arguably make this a kind of "cocktail in a bottle". We promise you one thing -- you'll never find another bottle like this!

That's our lineup! We hope you can join us! Please feel free to contact us with any questions.

Cheers,
Drammers Club