Jun. 16 - Drammers St. Louis......
Hello St. Louis Drammers!
Our next rare whiskey tasting is coming up on Friday, June 16th starting at 7:30pm at the Tuxedo Park B&B (700 Tuxedo Blvd, Webster Groves, MO 63119). We’ll be tasting through at least 8 different expressions, including:
Hazelburn 2023 Springbank Open Day - Distillery Exclusive. Every year, Springbank hosts an “open day” as part of the Campbeltown Malts Festival that they started, and they release a special small batch release, only available to those who make the trip to Scotland for the festival. We had a group of over 15 of our members at the festival from all over the world - Istanbul, Tel Aviv, London, New York, San Francisco, Chicago and more, and we picked up one of these bottles for us to try at our event in St. Louis on the 16th. 300ml, 14yo Oloroso casks, 49.8% abv.
Loch Lomond's Glengarry 12yo. One of our newest Drammers picks (single barrels) just arrived, a 12yo single malt Scotch from the Highlands distillery Loch Lomond that was selected by our Dallas members. 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.
Barrell Craft Spirits - Private Release - Amaro Cask Finish. Our NYC members picked this unusual single barrel of American whiskey finished in a St. Agrestis Amaro cask. They call it “American whiskey” to be safe, though it likely started as bourbon. As we understand it, they obtained something like a tanker full of bourbon that had become available, and which certainly tasted like (good!) bourbon, but they couldn’t prove the barrels weren’t technically corn whiskey, so they called it American whiskey to be in full compliance, but it was very likely bourbon. They then recasked that whiskey in a wide range of unusual experimental casks, and ultimately our club selected two of them (this one finished in an Amaro cask, and a 2nd one finished in a pear brandy cask. The Amaro notes are huge here, and basically make it taste like a high end pre-made cocktail, ha. 56.93% abv.
High West - American Prairie Bourbon - Drammers Single Barrel Pick. High West makes plenty of their own distillate, but from the beginning they have also sourced whiskey from MGP, and they’ve said that they plan to continue releasing American Prairie as a 100% MGP-sourced product going forward, so that’s certainly what this is. They are proud of their blending skills at High West, making a “single barrel” program an interesting puzzle. How do you show off your blending skills in a single barrel? Their solution was to never release a single barrel as is, instead their single barrel program features premium finishes in contrast to their core range products. This single barrel of their American Prairie bourbon was finished in a Rivesaltes fortified red wine cask and bottled at cask strength of 49.9% abv.
High West - Double Rye Drammers Pick. Our club also selected a single barrel of their Double Rye, which was finished in a Cognac cask for 8 months (barrel #17753) and bottled at 49.7% abv. As the name implies, this is a blend of the rye that High West makes in-house at their distillery in Park City, Utah, and the rye whiskey they source from MGP in Indiana.
Paul John Indian Single Malt - US Chapters Pick. This barrel was a long time in coming, selected by our members at an online tasting during covid. This was a very unusual barrel, aged in a 2nd fill ex-bourbon cask, but more importantly aged in their small underground warehouse, which was designed to try to slow down the aging process (the climate in Goa puts so much pressure on the barrel, it normally loses up to 18% of its volume in the first year alone). A rare treat and we're not aware of any other single barrels having been released from their underground warehouse. Cask strength.
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.
We’ll include at least one more expression, which we’ll announce closer to the date of the event.
We hope you can join us! As usual, we’ll have light food on hand (likely pizza and light snacks), which is included. The price is $40/person for Members and $50/person for Drammers Observers and non-members. Please let us know if you have any questions.
Cheers,
Charlie, Pat, Bill and Drammers Club