Jul. 16: Drammers Indianapolis - Scotch Tasting...

Fellow Drammers!

Our next Drammers Indy meeting will be on Friday, July 16th, and after a few months of focusing on Garrison Bros, Kings County, blind rye and corn whiskey tastings — well, let’s face it, we’re overdue for some Scotch! We’ve just finished a tour of our chapters in Warsaw, Berlin, Barcelona and Paris, and happily we brought back a bunch of fun bottles, most of which you can’t find in the States, check out our lineup…

• Caol Ila, Single Malt Scotch, Aged 11 Years, “Rambler” bottling. First up, we’ll start with a few bottles from our members in Warsaw. One of our members there is part of the “Lodge of Gentlemen”, a group that does barrel picks, and he was our guest speaker at our Warsaw chapter event a couple weeks ago. Of course, none of these bottles have been released outside of Poland. First up, we’ve got a bottling from the Caol Ila distillery on Isla, known of course for their especially peaty and smoky scotches. This one was aged 11 years in an ex-bourbon hogshead. 1 of 243 bottles released. 58.1% abv.

• Benromach Single Malt Scotch, Aged 10 Years, Single Barrel. Next up from our friends at The Gentleman’s Lodge, we’ll try this bottling — a Speyside Single Malt Scotch, distilled in 2008 and bottled in 2018, matured in a first-fill bourbon cask, one of 226 bottles released. 59.8% abv.

• Craigellachie, Single Malt Scotch, Aged 10 Years, Single Barrel. Another selection from our friends at The Gentleman’s Lodge, this one from the celebrated Craigellachie distillery, distilled in 2007, aged for 10 years and bottled at 52.1% abv, 1 of 252 bottles released. Their trademark “meaty” note comes through loud and clear on this one.

• Loch Lomond 21yo Cadenhead's Bottling. Next we’ll turn to a pair of bottles we picked up in Germany — this one we picked up at the Cadenhead shop in Berlin in advance of our meeting there a couple weeks ago, aged for 21 years, technically its aged from 2 casks rather than a single barrel (a blend of two ex-bourbon hogsheads). 51.5% abv

• Glen Scotia - 2021 Campbeltown Malts Festival Botting! This one is hot off the presses, presumably it will get to the USA soon, but again, this is a bottle we picked up during our recent event in Berlin — in fact, the owner of arguably the best whisky shop there (Whisky Market Berlin) was generous enough to donate the bottle for our event! Of course, we're huge fans of this famous distillery, located in the Campbeltown region of Scotland, and we’re eagerly awaiting the 2 barrel picks we did with them last year. Each year in May, Glen Scotia and Springbank host a festival for the area's whisky, and we tried the Glen Scotia festival releases from the last couple years during our barrel pick event. This year's bottling is equally good, a 10 year old, unpeated single malt, finished in first fill Bordeaux red wine casks. Bottled at 56.1%, this single malt combines the Glen Scotia distillery’s classic maritime notes, spice, red berries, citrus and honey.

• Bruichladdich Octomore 10.2. Next up, Bruichladdich will be bringing the heat with their famous super heavily peated Octomore line, this one a travel retail only release (everything in the ".2" line is), that we picked up during our meetup in Dubai a couple weeks ago. Bottled at a delightful 56.9% abv, and again a nice warm up for our upcoming online event with their distillery team in August!

• Glenmorangie The Tayne. Speaking of Travel Retail exclusives, our friends at The Glenmorangie Company have this doozy out on the market, part of their travel retail-only Legends Collection. The wizard that he is, Dr. Bill Lumsden, their Director of Distilling and Whisky Creation, took Glenmo initially aged in ex-bourbon barrels and then finished them in Amontillado sherry, part of the bottle's tribute to the Spanish Armada. 43% abv.

• Don Mateo Mezcal - Cupreata Agave. Last, but certainly far from least, we’ll switch things up and try a special mezcal. Although we mostly focus on whisky here at Drammers Club, we also like to try other special spirits, especially when it comes to mezcal. One of the members of our Berlin chapter is from Mexico City and opened the first true tortilleria in Berlin (Tortilleria Mexa), where he also sells hand-picked mezcals. His favorite of the bunch is this release, which is special for a couple reasons. Nearly all mezcal you will find commercially today is made in Oaxaca using the most efficient and easy-to-grow of the agave varietals — the espadin agave. But there are many other agave types that produce very different flavors, and (perhaps even more interesting) the terrain where the agaves are produced makes a shockingly big difference on the flavor. That makes this mezcal, which uses cupreata, a wild agave, particularly special, and the fact that it is made in the province of Michoacan is especially rare. 46% abv.

That’s our lineup, or at least we think it is, ha — it’s rare, but there’s always a chance a problem my interrupt our plans as we attempt to transport these bottles to Indianapolis, but if so we’ll be sure to replace it with something even better. We hope you can join us! A big thank you to Jeff and Dee Timi for hosting us again! The address for the event is:

16028 Farr Hills Drive
Westfield, IN 46074
(we’re going to have plenty to drink, so always a good idea to get an Uber!)

As a reminder, we rely on (and encourage!) our existing members to recommend new members, so feel free to invite a friend. We’ll get some pizza for the event, which is included in the price. Looking forward to seeing everyone soon!

Cheers!
Sean, Charlie and Drammers Club