Jan. 23: Drammers Denver......
Hello Denver Drammers!
You're invited to a Drammers tasting on Tuesday, January 23rd at 7pm at Whiskey Bar (address: 2203 Larimer St). The reason? Well, we've got a great new lineup of bottles for you, but as always, the real reason to get together is never the drinks -- no matter how good they are, and they are damn good, ha -- rather, the reason to get together is always the people, right? And on that front we've got great news.
One of our longtime wonderful friends has just moved to Denver, and we want to introduce him to the group. I'm talking about our friend Vince Oleson -- for a longtime he was the head distiller at the vaunted Widow Jane distillery in Brooklyn, which is when we first got to know him. He was then recruited to launch a new distillery in Manchester in the UK, the Bankhall Distillery, and we went out to Manchester to visit him and host a pop up Drammers event in Manchester. He's going to kill me for including this photo, but I can't help myself, hehe. Scroll down to see one of the ads they ran of him at the Bankhall Distillery, ha.
They made great whisky there btw, a "bourbon style" whiskey in the UK, good stuff. Well, he's just moved to Denver, and we can't wait to see what he does next. But more importantly, we can't wait to see him, give him a hug and introduce him to the rest of the Drammers Denver crew.
In any case, we hope you can join us. 7pm at Whiskey Bar on Larimer Street, Tuesday the 23rd. We've got a great lineup, (see below, we've announced 7 of the pours so far, at least one more to come). As usual, we'll order in pizza.
Cheers,
Charlie, Josh, Clarke and Drammers Club
(Bottle lineup below the ridiculous picture, hehe).
BOTTLE LINEUP FOR 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.
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, mashbill: 70% Corn, 21% Rye, 9% Malted Barley).
Atelier Vie Brown Rice RIZ Whiskey - Drammers Exclusive Single Barrel. This new Drammers barrel pick just arrived. A barrel of brown rice whiskey from our friends at the Atelier Vie distillery in New Orleans -- their first ever brown rice variant on their popular RIZ - Louisiana Rice whiskey. Bottled at cask strength of 59% abv.
Atelier Vie Euphrosine #9 Aged Gin. While we're here, let's try another expression from this distillery, yeah? Aged gin had a hot moment several years ago, and has largely been ignored since, which is a shame, because it's a fun category. Our same friends in New Orleans who made the brown rice whiskey above also make this, their Euphrosine gin, and they do a limited edition version aged in casks. Definitely worth checking out.
Starlight Bourbon Finished in a Grape Brandy Cask. Last month we tried two single barrels our club picked at this distillery, and we recently picked up a 3rd barrel, this time a bourbon finished in Grape Brandy casks and bottled at cask strength. Delicious stuff.
Rolling Fork Brazilian Rum. This was selected by our Drammers Indy chapter, 12yo Brazilian rum distilled at the Epris distillery. It wasn't finished in an amburana cask, rather it was partially matured in an amburana cask -- as amburana casks can be overpowering, they later transferred it to an ex-bourbon cask to mellow out a bit before bottling. Bottled at cask strength, naturally.
Soka by Empirical. This company is bonkers -- everything they make is "uncategorized" -- it's not whiskey, it's not gin, it's rum, it's just a "distillate". And it's used by literally MOST of the top Michelin starred restaurants and top cocktail bars in NYC. Originally founded in Copenhagen, they're moving to Brooklyn, planning to launch there in March. This is an unaged sorghum distillate, made with a Thai rice chong yeast. Flavors: Fresh cut grass, green apple, silage. Needs to be tasted to be believed. We have an online tasting with their founder on Jan. 29th.
Those are 7 of the 8 expressions we'll be pouring, we'll add at least one more (likely a mezcal, but you never know, hehe...).