Aug. 21: Drammers Las Vegas......
Hello Vegas Drammers!
You’re invited to join our next whisky & spirits tasting in Las Vegas on August 21st at 7pm. We’ve got a fun lineup — a mix of bourbon, rye, Scotch and a new tequila, all of which you can read more about below. We’ll order in light food (likely pizza, which is included) and as always, we strongly recommend that everyone arrange a ride home. We hope you can join us! Please feel free to reach out with any questions!
Cheers,
Charlie, Bob and Drammers Club
BOTTLE LINEUP FOR THE EVENT:
3 Expressions of Bourbon, Rye and “American Whiskey” from Premier Drams. These are hot off the presses — the owner of the legendary whiskey bar Jack Rose Saloon in DC has launched this new bottling line of 7yo bourbon, rye and rye aged in a used barrel, hence “American Whiskey”. We are fortunate to call Bill a good friend — Drammers Club has hosted numerous events with him over the years and we’re very proud to say he carries many of the Drammers barrel picks behind the bar. Now, we’re thrilled to announce that we split 3 single barrels with him that will only be available at The Jack Rose Saloon and to Drammers Club members at www.DRINQY.com/drammers. Ok, so what is this exactly? Bill’s not allowed to say who distilled it, though we think it’s pretty obvious (not many brands command $219/bottle at 7yo, so that’s a big hint). There are some reviews out there that are pretty blunt about where they think it was distilled. One review at District Drams notes: “Bill Thomas has a famously good relationship with Willett […] the long and short of it is this is supposedly contract distilled Willett aged at Castle and Key.” That’s certainly the consensus view. All bottled at cask strength, 50% to 53% abv.
Bardstown Bourbon Co. - Amrut Collaboration. Next up, we’ll try the newest release from Bardstown Bourbon Co. Their collaboration series is arguably more robust than any in the industry, and this newest collab with the Amrut distillery in India is hot off the presses. We’re huge fans of both distilleries (and have in fact bought single barrels from both), so naturally we’ve been anticipating this one for a while. To create this bottling, they took KY rye, finished it in ex-Amrut Indian single casks, then blended that with KY bourbon to arrive at this flavor profile — the distinct honeyed / tropical fruit notes really come through on the finish. 55% abv. More info here.
Compass Box - Extinct Blends Quartet - Metropolis. Compass Box, king of the premium blended Scotch, launched this four-part series in August of 2022. The idea was to reimagine four of their favorite blended Scotches of yesteryear, recognizing that tastes and flavor profiles change over time — blended Scotches of the 70s, 80s and 90s tasted very different from what we find today. They claim to have assembled these limited edition blends out of their “rarest and most idiosyncratic stocks of whisky”. For this 3rd release, “Metropolis” (launched in September of 2023), we are told they were recreating a “recently lost” premium blend “with a long history”, though we don’t know exactly the brand. It is assembled from a mix of sherry cask-matured whisky along with grain whisky and a small amount of highly aged single malt whisky. This series also shows their relatively new “lead whiskymaker” James Saxon (he’s been at it at Compass Box for a while now, but the founder John Glaser only stepped down from the company in March of this year. 5,910 bottles created for the release, globally at around $300/bottle. 49% abv.
Compass Box - Drammers Exclusive “Single Marrying Cask”. A single cask program is tricky when your brand is all about blends, but it can be done — creating a blend and then recasking it, in this case in an ex-Cameronbridge (single grain Scotch) cask. We recently learned that Compass Box had decided to shut down the Single Marrying Cask program, and they were nice enough to let us select one last cask before they shut down the program, we’re told for good. This is a variant of their flagship “Glasgow Blend” series, which is why we wanted to pair it with their more premium “Metropolis” release in the Extinct Blends Quartet, as it too is credited as taking inspiration from the city of Glasgow, whose preferred blending profile was a little more robust in the early 1900s, featuring a wee bit of peat in the mix. We get huge cocoa nuts on this — think Cocoa Puffs, right out of the box without milk. Exclusive to Drammers Club at $55/bottle.
Goza Anejo Tequila. This is fun - a new tequila brand from our friends Paul Hletko (founder of FEW Distillery in Chicago) and Dave Schmier (creator or Redemption Rye a million years ago, and more recently The Senator, Tumblin Dice etc.). With so many adulterated tequilas out there, it’s nice to know there’s another one we don’t have to worry about. Made from 100% Weber Blue Agave, distilled in small batches at GOZA’s distillery in Jalisco, Mexico, aged for 18 months.
One More Bonus Pour. There are honestly like 10 more we really want to pour for you. The new Lagg Distillery whisky? The new Lochlea? Did you know that Indri Indian single malt is now allocated?! Alas, we can’t pour them all, so we’ll keep one slot open to surprise you with.