Mar. 13: Drammers Austin......
Hello Austin Drammers!
A quick reminder that our Drammers Austin tasting is tomorrow, Sunday March 13th at 6:30pm. A big thank you to Dan Salter, the head of our Austin chapter, for organizing and lining up a venue (incredibly during the opening weekend of SXSW!). The address is 1600 Toomey Road, and you'll have to text us for us to let you in (you can text Charlie at 646 245 8400). As for what we'll be tasting, we've put together a great lineup, including:
Glenmorangie Highland Single Malt - The Lighthouse 12yo (Distillery Exclusive). Glenmorangie just opened a new highly secretive experimental distillery — they ran the first distillation on it just two weeks ago! In honor of its opening, they released a special bottling only available at the distillery itself in the Highlands of Scotland. Happily, we went out there for the opening and picked up a bottle for us to try in Boston (bottle #985 of 4782). It’s a 12yo blend of ex-bourbon and ex-sherry casks, arguably making it a more nuanced version of their popular Lasanta release. 48% abv.
New England Barrel Company - Stouted Bourbon. We'd love your input on a decision we need to make - should be buy a barrel of this whiskey? Our members in Boston turned us on to the New England Barrel Co. last year, and they're clearly making some waves in the industry with their barrel picks. At our Boston event a little over a week ago, James Saunders, the Founder of NEBCo, gave us a bottle of this special stouted bourbon that he had created, using sourced bourbon from the Green River distillery in Kentucky. We've been offered one of the 2 barrels he has of it, and we need to make a decision -- so we're excited to get your input on it.
Glen Scotia 8yo Unpeated Campbeltown Single Malt Scotch, Single Barrel #740: (Drammers Exclusive). So excited about both of our single barrels, 2 of only 4 private barrels they've allowed out (in the US at least) in the last few years. And the timing is particularly good because GlenScotia was just named a month ago as Distillery of the Year by the Scotch Whisky Association! We’ve got a fun event coming up with their master distiller Iain McAllister in February, but in the meantime we’ll get a sneak peak of these tonight! 56.1% abv (cask strength).
Glen Scotia 10yo Peated Campbeltown Single Malt Scotch, Drammers Exclusive Single Barrel. 55.6% abv. (see above)
High Country American Single Malt by High West. This is an interesting one -- it's about to be released nationwide, we're told, though we haven't seen it start to land anywhere. We picked it up at the distillery in January 2020, just a few weeks before the pandemic, and it's a significant milestone for the distillery in part because it's made entirely in house (most of what they release is either sourced, like American Prairie, or a blend of whiskey they sourced and made themselves, like Double Rye. This is lot 19L04, 44% abv. Interestingly, we understand that they tweaked the release a bit between when we picked up this bottle and the release that is available now in stores.
Westward American Single Malt Pinot Noir. For a fun comparison, we'll also taste an American Single Malt from our friends at the Westward Distillery in Portland. We had a great event with their head distiller Miles Munroe at our tasting in Los Angeles a couple night ago, and we saved some of this, their Pinot noir-finished expression, for our tasting.
Sazerac Rye - Warsaw Chapter Pick. Our first private barrel pick from the Sazerac company, this one made of course at the legendary Buffalo Trace distillery. It uses the base 6yo rye, same recipe as goes into their normal release, but this is a single barrel that our members in Warsaw, Poland selected. Bright confectionary sugar notes on the front end (much more pronounced than their usual release), and if you let it sit for awhile, it gives way to orange marmalade notes that we don’t usually associate with Sazerac Rye. Of course, we would have had it barreled at cask strength if we’d been given the chance, but Sazerac only allows people to bottle at 45% abv, which is what we’ve got here. This barrel sold out quickly, but we set aside a few bottles for tastings like this one.
Reina Sanchez Madrecuishe Mezcal from Rezpiral. We had the pleasure of visiting Reina, widely recognized as one of the greatest mezcal producers, and one of only a small handful of women recognized as such, during our recent group trip to Oaxaca this past October. We'll have some great photos and stories to share from her palenque. This is as good as it gets for mezcal, and one of our two newest Drammers exclusive batches. 46.6% abv
That's our lineup! We hope you an join us! We'll provide some food as well (likely pizza).
Cheers,
Charlie, Dan and Drammers Club
WHEN: Sunday, March 13th
WHERE: 1600 Toomey Road (78704)
FORMAT: In person tasting
PRICE: $40/person for Drammers Members / $50/person for Drammers Observers