May 11: Drammers Indianapolis......
Hello Indy Drammers!
Our next in person Drammers Indianapolis event will be on Wednesday, May 11th (doors at 6pm and we'll start the tasting at 7pm). A big thank you to Joe Gerdom for hosting (address: 2586 Forest Hills Blvd., Greenwood, IN 46143). We've had a bunch of our club's big single barrel picks land since our last event, so we've got a particularly fun lineup:
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 Glen Scotia 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)
M&H Israeli Single Malt - Fortified Red Wine Cask Finish. We selected three M&H Israeli Single Malt casks last year, and they’ve just arrived. Our US members selected 2 barrels, and our Tel Aviv chapter selected one. All three were matured for just over 3 years (closer to 3.5), and bottled at cask strength, which ended up being particularly high. This is the lowest abv of the three at 64.7% abv! This one is also the one that is most affected by adding a few drops of water. Neat it tastes delightful, and the bright red wine notes are there though it’s maybe a little more dry than you might expect (this doesn’t have the sweetness you sometimes associate with a fortified wine cask finish). But when you add a few drops of water it is transformed — mint notes dominate a suddenly much longer finish, bordering on peppermint some say. This was the first choice of our USA members during the barrel pick.
M&H Israeli Single Malt - Ex-Rum Cask Finish. This was narrowly the second favorite of the options given to our USA members, and it came with big expectations — the SCN M&H ex-rum cask release was arguably the highlight of the SCN M&H releases to date, and we went in with all eyes on this sample. It didn’t disappoint — is it something about M&H that makes their single malt particularly well suited to a rum cask finish? At the recent tasting of our Barcelona chapter, this was the favorite of the members there by a longshot, though nearly everyone preferred this one before adding water. And hey, 66.7% abv doesn’t hurt.
M&H Israeli Single Malt - STR Cask Finish. Our Tel Aviv members selected this single barrel, easily the smokiest of the bunch, even has notes bordering on peat. This was the favorite of Scotch purists among our European members who tasted it last week. And again, check out the abv — 69.4%!
Sazerac Rye - Las Vegas Chapter Pick. This is a private single barrel pick that we had the honor of doing with the Sazerac company, 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 Las Vegas selected, and it only just arrived, so our members in Indy will be among the first to try it. 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.
Sazerac Rye - Los Angeles Chapter Pick. As a fun comparison, we'll try the Las Vegas pick, side by side with the barrel picked by our Los Angeles chapter, which is completely different -- the LA pick has more of a citrus orange peel undercurrent, compared to the sweeter Las Vegas pick! Also 45% of course.
Eagle Rare 10yo Bourbon - Indianapolis Chapter Pick! Perhaps the headliner of the night will be this -- the barrel picked by our members in Indianapolis, and it has been a huge hit (it sold out to our members in just over 24 hours). Time to do a victory lap!
That’s our lineup, we hope you can join us! As usual, we’ll have pizza on hand to make sure nobody is drinking on an empty stomach. And anyone who has been to one of our events is welcome to invite their friends to join in the fun.
Cheers!
Charlie, Sean and Drammers Club