Dec. 4: Drammers Austin......
Hello Austin Drammers!
We’re excited to announce that our next Drammers Austin whisky tasting will be on Sunday, December 4th at 6pm. Fellow Drammer Juan Garcia, who has been a regular visiting from McAllen but has now moved full time to Austin (congrats Juan!) has generously offered to host. He’s located in Westlake near Cedar Creek Elementary, close to Downtown (exact address is: 3301 Thousand Oaks Cove). Now, on to what we’ll be drinking…
Ardbeg Smoketrails. This one is hot off the presses. It was just released at Travel Retail and we had the opportunity to pick up a couple bottles at Heathrow last week. This release marries whisky matured in American oak casks with whisky matured in Manzanilla Sherry casks from Sanlúcar de Barrameda on Spain’s Atlantic coast. 46% abv.
Glen Grant Single Malt Scotch 1982 5yo. We picked up this next bottle at auction -- an interesting 5yo version of their whisky that is only available in Italy. This expression has long been a super popular staple in the Italian market, so much so that it ultimately led Italian parent company Campari to buy the brand outright! This was distilled in 1982 and bottled in 1987. We picked it up at auction a few fears ago for a few hundred dollars. An exciting piece of history. 40% abv.
FEW - 3 Exclusive Single Barrels. FEW Distillery has emerged as not only Chicago’s leading craft distillery, but also one of the most respected craft distilleries to emerge in the United States overall, and in fact they were recently acquired by the major US bourbon producers Heaven Hill! We’ve long been fans of this distillery, and have had the pleasure of welcoming their founder Paul Hletko both online and in person at a number of our events. One of those events was a massive online barrel pick event where we set out to buy 2 barrels of their whiskey, but liked what they had so much that we ended up buying 3 barrels! They are all unique, one-of-a-kind experimental whiskies. Of course, under American whiskey laws, bourbon and rye needs to be aged in a new oak cask, so all three of these whiskies started their journey there. Then all three were transferred into a barrel that used to hold something else — one used to hold an unpeated Scotch, one was a barrel of Vermouth, the other (the rye) was transferred into a barrel that previously held Malbec wine. Although those barrels were empty, they still had soaked up nearly 10 liters of their previous contents into the wood, so as the bourbon/rye expanded and contracted as it got hold and cold each day, it expanded in and out of the wood of those barrels and absorbed some of those flavors. We had all 3 barreled at cask strength, all nearly 60% alcohol. These are delicious, fierce whiskies that need to be tasted to be believed.
3 Super Anejo Scorpion Mezcals. Our 3 newest Drammers Club barrel picks are from Scorpion Mezcal, and they have just arrived to our retail partner. We're proud to say are some of the oldest aged mezcals ever released:
Espadin Aged 12 Years in oak ($280/bottle)
Tobala aged 7 years in oak ($180/bottle)
Barril aged 6 years in oak ($150/bottle)
If you search online, you'll see that (tequila aside), these are easily among the oldest mezcals ever released (by far - "extra Anejo" is by definition at least 3 years old).
That’s our lineup, we hope you can join us!
Cheers,
Charlie, Dan and Drammers Club