Feb. 25: Drammers San Diego......
Hello San Diego Drammers!
Our next rare whiskey and spirits tasting will be on Sunday, Feb. 25th at 5pm at the Simone, Little Italy (address: 1401 Union St, San Diego, CA 92101). We’ll be tasting a fun mix of new boubons, scotches, French whisky, an unusual hopped whisky, and two very special mezcals (details on what we’ll be drinking below).
We hope you can join us! We'll order in some light food (included, likely pizza), and as always we highly recommend that everyone arrange a ride home.
Cheers,
Charlie, Steven and Drammers Club
WHAT WE’LL BE DRINKING AT THE EVENT:
Bardstown Bourbon Co. - Single Barrel Bourbon. This single barrel just arrived, part of the launch of the first-ever single barrel program from Bardstown Bourbon Co. They selected only 100 barrels of their Origins profile (60% corn, 36% rye, 4% malted barley), all aged 6 years, for the entire US, and it only yielded a surprisingly low 138 bottles. Bottled at cask strength exclusively for members of Drammers Club. 61.5% abv.
Green River - Single Barrel KY Straight Bourbon. This single barrel also just arrived from Bardstown’s sister distillery (Bardstown acquired the historic distillery in 2022 and both launched their single barrel programs at the end of 2023, though reportedly only something like 40 barrels were released as part of their inaugural year). This was also aged 6 years, but it is so different, with big eucalpytus / minty notes going into the finish. It is technically “Full Proof” - 59.5% abv / 119 proof (in other words, close to cask strength, but diluted slightly so they don’t have to submit TTB labels for approval for each barrel). Damn fine bourbon. The barrel yielded 156 bottles. We're confirming, but we believe the mashbill is 70% Corn, 21% Rye, 9% Malted Barley).
Barleycorn Magic from Atelier Vie. This expression is normally only available in person at this distillery, located in New Orleans. The distiller behind the project, Jedd, is as dedicated as it gets with craft spirits. For example, he grows his own wormwood to make two distinct absinthe types. This particular expression is fascinating -- a hopped whiskey made from an assortment of beers from a nearby brewery (Zony Mash) -- it’s notoriously hard to make a hopped whisky that is balanced, but Jedd has pulled it off. Needs to be tasted to be believed. 42% abv.
Loch Lomond's Glengarry 12yo. Our newest Drammers pick single barrel just arrived, a 12yo single malt Scotch from the Highlands distillery Loch Lomond. Distilled in 2010, bottled in 2023, unpeated, matured in a 1st fill Bordeaux red wine barrel -- the barrel yielded 281 bottles. 55.0% abv. Of course non-chill filtered and no color added. Cask #21/546-6. Exclusively available to Drammers members.
Version Francaise - Eddu 2011. Have you heard of the Eddu distillery? Neither had we until our friends at La Maison du Whisky started releasing their Version Francaise line of new French whiskies, many from distilleries we'd never heard of before. This bottling of 2011 single malt French whisky was only released at the LMDW shops in Paris, where we were fortunate enough to pick one up. 48% abv, made in the Bretagne region. We recently hosted an online discussion with the LMDW team about their recent very limited number of their first releases here in the United States, which you can see here if you'd like to learn more about them.
Copper & Kings Brandy - Finished in a Tequila Cask. This barrel pick recently arrived from Copper & Kings distillery in Louisville, Kentucky. They specialize in American brandy and here we've got a single barrel of their grape brandy aged in a tequila cask, bottled at cask strength of 62.5% abv. It’ll be fun to compare this to the grape brandy finished bourbon from Starlight! It is available exclusively to members of our club.
Rezpiral - Simeon Ramirez Mezcal Ensamble of Mexicano Agaves. We had the pleasure of selecting a batch a few years ago that Simeon did with his father Apolonio, that time from a tobasiche agave, which was dominated by vegetal and mineral notes. That pick was a big hit, so we selected a new batch that just arrived -- a mix of 4 varietals of the Mexicano agave, it has a dominant lemon-lime custardy-sorbet flavor, backfilled with vanilla. Yum. Details here, and available exclusively to members of Drammers for $120/bottle, 50.8% abv.
Rezpiral - Tobasiche Mezcal by Simeon and Apolonio Ramirez. We picked this batch of mezcal from Simeon three years ago, a batch of the tobasiche agave that Simeon made with his father Apolonio (our newest batch is made by Simeon by himeself). This earlier batch is very nearly sold out, which is both why we selected a new batch from him, and we our bringing out some of our last bottles of our earlier batch for one last hurrah. 50.9% abv, yummy stuff. Exclusively available to Drammers Members.