Jan. 5: Drammers Indianapolis!...
Fellow Drammers!
We’re excited to kick off our first Indianapolis chapter event of the new year on Wednesday, January 5th (doors at 6pm, we start at 7pm), and a big thank you to Jim and Mary Butler for hosting! Their address is 8203 Windhaven Circle (46236).
We’ve put together a fun lineup for us to taste, drumroll please…
13yo Rosebank. Our headliner is a fun one from a closed distillery once considered one of the best of the Lowland Scotch distilleries. This bottling was done by Duncan Taylor, aged 13 years in a sherry cask. The distillery dates back to 1798 but was mothballed in 1993, apparently because new environmental standards for the waste water treatment needed to comply with European standards would have cost too much to upgrade, so the owners at the time (United Distillers) shut it down. There was a massive effort to build a new distillery in the same town (Falkirk) using the old stills, but the original stills were stolen by metal thieves of all things. In August, I actually met with the man (George Stewart) who had been trying to save the old equipment, and he told me a little about what happened, sounds insanely frustrating. He went ahead and built what is now the Falkirk Distillery, which I had a chance to tour, and they saved as much of the old Rosebank equipment as they could. In any case, the good news is that Ian Macleod Distillers bought the name from Diageo (and the land) and are re-establishing the distillery which is expected to reopen in July 2022. In the meantime, old Rosebank bottles have become pretty hard to come by, so we’re excited to have been able to track this one down. 46% abv.
23yo Glen Grant – The Maltman. Next up is a single malt Scotch from the Speyside region, aged 23 years in a sherry butt (distilled 1995), and bottled at a delicious 53.5% abv. This was a leftover from our Glen Grant event with their master distiller Dennis Malcolm back in July.
Glenmorangie Legends – The Duthac. Next to the Highlands, with a fairly rare Glenmo bottling finished in PX sherry and virgin oak casks. 43% abv.
Paul John – Drammers Exclusive Peated Single Cask #5882. Our 37th barrel pick was selected by our US members (our Mumbai members also picked a cask), and was unusual because it was one of the few barrels they’ve released from their famous underground warehouse (which is not surprisingly fairly small). We toured it as part of our online event last year when we selected the barrel. This cask of 100% peated single malt barley was also in a 2nd fill cask, whereas almost all of Paul John’s barrels are aged in first-fill casks. 56.5% abv.
St. Cloud Bourbon (Batch #2). St. Cloud sources bourbon from Kentucky on a hybrid pot-column still (bourbon that includes a high malt mashbill) and ages it in new French oak barrels. Non-chill filtered and bottled at cask strength. These were done at a small scale, making them somewhat hard to come by (we picked this up at K&L in California, which got the entire allotment for California of only 90 bottles).
Michter’s 10yo Rye. Michter’s needs little introduction – in just a few years they have risen to become one of the most highly sought-after new whiskies in the market. Of course, Michter’s as a brand in PA dates back to the golden age of Pennsylvania rye, but when that market collapsed, the brand was abandoned, and only recently resuscitated. Everything released to date by the new brand was sourced, including this single barrel of 10yo Kentucky Straight Rye. But they have done a remarkable job of selecting tasty barrels.
Dakabend 4yo Oaxacan Rum. This barrel is an exclusive barrel pick by our club and it is the only barrel of aged Dakabend rum that has ever been made available anywhere — the only place you could have gotten it prior to now 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 just 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. 49% abv.
That’s our lineup, we hope you can join us! A big thank you to our chapter head Sean Crain for organizing. Please let us know if you have any questions.
Cheers!
Charlie, Sean and Drammers Club
When: Wednesday, January 5th, doors at 6pm, we start at 7pm
Format: In Person
Address: 8203 Windhaven Circle (46236)
Cost: $40/person for Drammers Members / $50/person for Drammers Observers
Food included (likely pizza)