Aug. 23: Drammers Barcelona!...

Fellow Drammers!

We’re excited to announce that our next Drammers Barcelona event will take place on Monday, August 23rd, starting at 19:00. A big thank you to the team at Jacob and the team at Braeburn Whisky for generously agreeing to host us! (Address: C/Consell de Cent 295, 08007, Barcelona). Braeburn, btw, in addition to being a whisky cask investment and portfolio management company, is also an affiliate of Cask 88 who we’ve had the pleasure of doing an event with at our NYC chapter. We’ve got a fantastic lineup we’ll be tasting through at the event:

• 1984 Glen Grant 5yo. This is a fun bottle of single malt Scotch from the iconic Glen Grant distillery. It was distilled 37 years ago exclusively for the Italian market. Our club recently held an online event with their master distiller who explained this fascinating phenomenon of how the 5 year old expression of Glen Grant had become this icon in the Italian whisky market, ultimately playing an important role in why. 40% abv.

• Craigellachie 10yo from Single Cask Nation. Next we'll look at two releases from our friends the independent bottlers Single Cask Nation. This first one is from their commercial release (available in stores), a single malt scotch from the revered Craigellachie distillery, currently owned by Bacardi. The name means "rocky hill" and refers to the cliff that overlooks the Spey across from the Macallan distillery. 67.3% abv.

• Single Cask Nation Islay Blended Malt 9yo. We don't know which distilleries, but we know they are on the iconic Islay (which means "island") where the smokiest and peatiest whiskies in the world can be found -- the likes of Ardbeg, Laphroaig, Lagavulin, etc. This one was aged in a single cask (we're guessing it was "teaspooned"), aged 9 years in a first fill bourbon barrel. Bottled at a delightful 58.9% abv.

• Hammer Head Czech Vintage Single Malt, 23yo. This one has a crazy story behind it - distilled in 1989 behind the iron curtain. We're told the Soviets demanded that this brandy distillery (Pradlo) make whisky, and so they did, but they didn't know how -- literally taught themselves out of books and finally figured it out and ended up making pretty good stuff. Then the iron curtain fell, and these barrels, maturing in an obscure basement, were completely forgotten, only to be discovered decades later. This has been available in the Barcelona market in the past, though we believe it is not currently available. 40.7% abv.

• Starward Australian Single Malt. We continue our journey through world whisky with this entry from Melbourne, Australia. Founder David Vitale, who trained at the famous Lark Distillery, set out to make something more accessible, at times joking he was trying to do everything he could to make Starward "not like Scotch", ha. He decided to make the house signature that they would age in big red Aussie wine barrels, often very freshly dumped. This was a private barrel pick we did just for our club, and we're very proud of it (they've only released a handful of private barrels into the world to date). 55.5% abv.

• Balcones American Single Malt - Stout Beer Finish. Next we turn to American whiskies, all three single barrel picks exclusively for our club. This first one is made in the Scotch style from 100% malted barley, but down in Texas, where it matures MUCH faster given the hot climate, reaching a nearly coffee-color in a mere 3.5 years. We're big fans of this distillery and bought 4 barrels from them last year, including this very fun experimental one that is matured in 3 different barrels. First it was matured in new American oak, then in an ex-stout beer cask, and finally in an ex-rum barrel. The result is stunning, and the stout malt notes really stand out loud and clear. 62.4% abv.

• High West Double Rye, Cognac Finish. Next we'll try two whiskies from the High West Distillery in Utah. They make their own whiskey but also source whiskey mostly from MGP distillery in Indiana, and then expertly blend the two (hence the term "double rye"). But since the ultimate blend is what they're proud of, making single barrels available poses a bit of a puzzle, and their solution has been to only offer single barrels that have profound finishes on them, in this case 8 months in a cognac barrel. The result is amazing, with a long minty finish. 48.3% abv.

• High West American Prairie Bourbon - Rivesaltes Wine Cask Finish. This is from the same distillery, though we believe most if not all of it is sourced for this product. Nevertheless, they follow the same approach, only offering single barrels that have fun finishes on them. In this case, the bourbon is finished for 8 months in a Rivesaltes (fortified) wine cask. 49.9% abv.

In any case, we hope you can join us!

Cheers!
Drammers Club