Jul. 9: Drammers Orange County - Pop Up
Hello Orange County Drammers!
We’re hoping to get a chapter of our Drammers Club started in Orange County, so this Sunday (July 9th) at 3pm we're hosting a tasting of assorted Scotch, Bourbon, Mezcal and other treats. A big thank you to Keith for hosting, his address is: 133 11th Street, Seal Beach, CA 90740.
What We’ll Be Drinking at the Event:
Loch Lomond's Glengarry 12yo. This Drammers single barrel pick 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.
Starward Australian Single Malt - Drammers Single Barrel. We've long been fans of Starward, and have had the pleasure of welcoming founder David Vitale as our guest speaker numerous times both in person and online over the years. This all culminated in our purchasing a barrel of their single malt, and we settled on this gem of a barrel, cask #3329, finished in a 2012 American oak fresh ex-red wine barrique from Demptos Cooperage in the Barrossa Valley. 55.5% abv.
FEW Distillery - 3 Very Unusual Single Barrels of Bourbon and Rye! FEW has emerged as not only Chicago’s leading craft distillery, but also one of the most respected craft distilleries to emerge in the United States overall, and in fact they were recently acquired by the major US bourbon producers Heaven Hill! We’ve long been fans of this distillery, and have had the pleasure of welcoming their founder Paul Hletko both online and in person at a number of our events. One of those events was a massive online barrel pick event where we set out to buy 2 barrels of their whiskey, but liked what they had so much that we ended up buying 3 barrels! They are all unique, one-of-a-kind experimental whiskies. Of course, under American whiskey laws, bourbon and rye needs to be aged in a new oak cask, so all three of these whiskies started their journey there. Then all three were transferred into a barrel that used to hold something else — one used to hold an unpeated Scotch, one was a barrel of Vermouth, the other (the rye) was transferred into a barrel that previously held Malbec wine. Although those barrels were empty, they still had soaked up nearly 10 liters of their previous contents into the wood, so as the bourbon/rye expanded and contracted as it got hold and cold each day, it expanded in and out of the wood of those barrels and absorbed some of those flavors. We had all 3 barreled at cask strength, all nearly 60% alcohol. These are delicious, fierce whiskies that need to be tasted to be believed.
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.
5 Sentidos - Tobala by Tio Pedro. The Maestro Mezcalero behind this mezcal, Tio Pedro, has worked for many top mezcal producers over the years and recently set out on his own, where among other things he produced this small 92 liter batch. This is only just arrived and features wild tobalas he collected and distilled in Oaxaca in June of 2022. He then rested is in glass until December 2022 adjusting with heads and tails to reach the desired flavor and bottled at 47% abv. This batch was selected by our members on our annual trip to Oaxaca for Day of the Dead last year and is available exclusively to members of the club.
That's our lineup! We hope you can join us! Please let us know if you have any questions.