Sep. 20: Drammers Raleigh Launch......
Hello Raleigh Drammers!
We’re excited to invite you to the launch of Drammers Raleigh — the newest chapter of our club (we also meet in 40+ other cities around the world)! Our first meeting will be on Tuesday, September 20th at 7pm, and a huge thank you to our longtime friend and fellow Drammer Mike Epstein for hosting and organizing! We’ll be tasting through an array of approx. 8 rare spirits. We’ll order in some food (likely pizza) and we’ll talk a little bit about each of the whiskeys and hang out! We also do events in over 40 other cities around the world and there's more info about our club below (and at Drammers.com).
LOCATION: Our plan going forward generally is to host events in various places around the Raleigh / Durham area, so some events will be in the center of the city, and some will be in a suburb like this one (Mike has generously agreed to host and his address is 93 Red Cedar Way, Fuquay Varina, NC 27526). A quick note about the address - 93 Cedar Way doesn't always pop up on Google/Apple Maps, so you may want to put in 555 Lafayette Road, Fuquay-Varina NC 27526, and Mike's house is 4 houses in on the left. If you have any issues, feel free to text Charlie at 646 245 8400.).
We'll be tasting at least 8 expressions, including 6 whiskies, a special mezcal and a special rum, many of them quite rare, which are detailed in depth below.
The event cost is $50/person which includes food (likely pizza). We also have an optional annual membership for $99/year which you certainly don't have to sign up for, but if you do, the event cost is a little less ($40/person) and the membership gets you access to our private barrel program and discounts to our in person and online events.
And if you're not able to join this time, let us know if you'd like to be added to the invite list for future Raleigh tastings (our plan is to host them every 6 to 8 weeks). We look forward to sharing a dram with you in person, whether its at the event coming up on the 18th or soon thereafter!
Cheers,
Charlie, Mike and Drammers Club
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Bottle Lineup for the Event:
We'll kick things off with 2 single barrels of Glen Scotia Campbeltown Single Malt Scotch (one peated, one unpeated):
Glen Scotia Single Malt Scotch - 8yo Unpeated Campbeltown Single Malt Scotch, Single Barrel #740: (Drammers Exclusive). If you’re not familiar with Glen Scotia, they’re based in the Campbeltown region in the South of Scotland alongside their most famous neighbor Springbank. We’ve long thought they were an under appreciated distillery, but in the last year they’ve really been on fire. Earlier this year the Scotch Whisky Association named them Distillery of the Year, and the San Francisco International Spirits Competition named their 25yo single malt Scotch as the “best in show” whisky across all categories and prices — two major, major awards. Happily we’d done a bunch of events with them in 2020, and earlier this year both of the single barrels we selected arrived — 2 of only 4 private barrels they've allowed out (in the US at least) in the last few years. This unpeated expression clocked in at 56.1% abv (cask strength).
Glen Scotia 10yo Peated Campbeltown Single Malt Scotch, Drammers Exclusive Single Barrel. 55.6% abv. (see above)
Leopold Bros. 3 Chamber Rye - First Release. This is a historic release — the first whiskey produced on a 3 chamber pot still since prohibition. Hard to believe that this type of still was the dominant still type before prohibition, and yet was forgotten by the distilling world until Leopold Bros.’ Master Distiller Todd Leopold discovered the designs in some old tax filings. They resurrected it painstakingly, and after 4+ years (it is “Bottled in Bond", 50% abv), it is finally here! So, how is a three chamber still different from a regular still? Well, for one thing, the process extracts more oils, which lends to more rose petal and other floral notes, and generally makes it feel like a much more full-bodied whiskey than you would expect from other whiskies of a similar age. Another key fact Todd uncovered was the evolution of grain — back when these stills were dominant, the grains used for distillation had something in the range of 60% to 65% starch. Over the decades, the industry has sought out higher and higher yield grains, so that today most whiskey is made with grains that have over 80% starch —resulting in higher yield, but by definition less flavor (starch doesn’t have any flavor). To address this, Todd sought out and found a rye varietal (abruzzi rye) that closely follows the earlier, lower-yield style (62% starch). This again results in higher oil content, which plays perfectly with a 3 chamber still, what Todd describes as an “oil extraction machine”. The mashbill is 80% rye, 20% barley. And, remarkably, this whisky is going into the barrel at a very low 100 proof, which allows it to come out at 100 proof which is also cask strength! More info on this process can be found at the link below. The result is remarkable, and you need only do a quick google search of reviews of this release to confirm for yourself how special and well-regarded it is. For this special collector’s edition first release, they released only 5,280 bottles. Thankfully, we have a chapter in Denver, where the distillery is located, and made a point to visit the distillery back in 2019, and then followed up by welcoming Todd as a guest speaker for our first Zoom event in April of 2020. Todd had a great experience with us, and made a point to set aside 100 bottles just for our club members. If you want to know more about this release, Todd and the Leopold Bros. team created this video to explain what makes the 3 chamber still so unique, which you can see here.
Stellum Rye “Serpens”. The team at Barrell Craft Spirits is know for their exceptionally creative and unusual releases such as Armida, Segrass, Dovetail, etc., so we were curious when they launched this new line why they changed the branding to "Stellum". Turns out they are targeting a high end product that is closer to the core flavors that we think of when it comes to bourbon and rye and at a lower price point. A little over a year ago our members met online and in person and tried a range of samples before ultimately settling on this special barrel of rye. They have category names to distinguish the mashbills, and the barrel we picked is their “Serpens” mashbill, which features (perhaps unsurprisingly) the iconic 95% rye / 5% malted barley first popularized by the artists formerly known as MGP. As usual, we had our selection bottled at cask strength, for an extra-spicy and bold release.
[As a heads up, we’re going to add two more whiskies to the lineup, which we’re finalizing now and will update this when we have them locked down.]
Dakabend 4yo Mexican Rum. This is one of only 2 barrels of aged Dakabend rum that has ever been made available anywhere — the only place you could have gotten it prior to now with our club is if you made the 4.5 hour drive from Oaxaca Centro up into the Sierra Norte mountains, which is what we did in 2020 when we learned that as an experiment a little over 4 years ago, they aged 3 barrels of rum. Master Distiller Edgar Ramirez and his cousin Elisandro Ramirez learned rum making from Edgar’s father when they were children, and although most of their time today is spent on the rockstar mezcal brand they started (Mezcal Tosba), they also produce an unaged Dakabend rum which is available for sale in the US. But this, 4yo aged version is another beast altogether, truly jaw dropping. Our members had a chance to try it during an online tasting earlier this year with Edgar and Elisandro (a recording of which you can see up in our video library, where they discuss this in depth). The rum is made from 100% pure sugar cane, harvested and pressed the same day. To say this is rare is one helluva understatement. Btw, the word “Dakabend” in their village means “the ones who don’t listen”, and is a reference to how the people in their town saw Edgar and Elisandro after they announced they wanted to start a distillery and everyone told them it was a bad idea and thought they were foolhardy to continue with the plan. Well, when you taste this rum, we think you’ll be glad they didn’t listen too.
Reina Sanchez Madrecuishe Mezcal. We’re incredibly proud to have selected this special batch of the madrecuish agave, which took over 15 years to grow before they were mature enough to be distilled. It was distilled by the great maestra mezcalera Reina Sanchez, who we visited in person at our Day of the Dead festivities last year in Oaxaca. This is the first time we’ve selected a batch of madrecuish exclusively for our members — it is in the Karwinskii family of agaves, which are easy to recognize because, unlike the other agave varietals, they grow in an oblong shape like a tree trunk. This uncertified mezcal was bottled by Rezpiral, who we've worked with a lot in the past (in addition to this bottling, we just announced a rare bottling of cucharillo by the late great Tio Chico, and in past years we've done bottlings with Rezpiral of tepextate by Berta Vasquez, espadin by Abel Martinez, tobasiche by Simeon and Apolonio Ramirez, Tobala con frutas with Aureliano Hernandez, and also a capon espadin with Aureliano which is now sold out). We love working with Rezpiral for many reasons -- first and foremost we think they take seriously our golden rule (don't screw over the producers). They even give back 30% of their after-cost profits to the producers, which is unheard of in this industry. You can learn more about Rezpiral here.
That's our lineup, we hope you can join us!
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What is Drammers Club?
If you’re new to Drammers, welcome! We organize regular tastings like this in over 40 cities around the world, currently extending from LA and Mexico City to Tel Aviv and Mumbai). We are an invite-only club, which is mostly just to make sure that everyone is on the same page about drinking responsibly and being friendly. Anyone who has been to one of our events is welcome to invite their friends to join, including at our other cities around the world.
If you know a lot about whiskey, you’ve come to the right place, there are a lot of us here, ha. But it’s okay if you don’t know anything about whiskey too — we can teach you that easily enough. We try to host events in each of our chapter cities approximately every 6 to 8 weeks or so in person, and we also host regular online events and group trips for a chance to meet some of your fellow Drammers around the world, which you can see below.
We also do barrel picks — a lot of them! We’ve done 85 barrel picks in the last couple of years, with a lot more in the works, that are available exclusively to members of our club.
You’ll see on the Membership page that we have 3 membership options: you can join for free as a Drammers Observer, or you can join as a Member for $99/year which gives you access to our single barrel program of rare barrel picks, and discounts to our events (both online and in person). With our Drammers Subscriber option, which is $198 every 2 months, you’ll receive 2 of our past single barrel picks every 2 months, plus you get free shipping on all additional orders.
We look forward to sharing a dram with you in person, whether its at the upcoming event or soon thereafter!
Cheers,
Charlie, Mike and Drammers Club