Jun. 27: A farewell to the Lost Spirits Distillery with founders Bryan Davis and Joanne Haruta (Online Tasting)...
Fellow Drammers,
On June 27th, at 5pm Pacific / 8pm Eastern, please join us for a special online tasting — a final farewell to the late, great Lost Spirits Distillery with founders Bryan Davis and Joanne Haruta. We have been fans of the distillery for many years, and were heartbroken to see it close its doors for the final time on April 29th.
Lost Spirits was initially founded by Bryan and Joanne in 2010 in Salinas, CA, and quick drew the attention of the whisky world with their extraordinary innovations and experiments, as they experimented with cutting-edge technology to rapid-age their spirits. After a few iterations, they opened a distillery in Los Angeles in 2016 where it quickly earned a reputation as one of the most fun and creative distillery tours anywhere in the world. Initially they sold their spirits nationally, but as their tours at the facility in LA began to sellout months in advance, they could barely keep up with sales out of their own gift shop. Over time they incorporated more and more theatricality into their tours, even launching a super-high-end dining experience in the distillery (that was also sold out for months).
When a fire sadly destroyed the distillery in early 2019, they ended up getting an offer to rebuild the operation in Las Vegas at the Area 15 facility, which opened in August of 2021. We met with them in November of that year, and it was incredible to see what they had built. Over time, that operation morphed as well, eventually incorporating a major dining experience like they had in LA and becoming (if I understand correctly) the largest theatrical immersive experience in Las Vegas history, incorporating a small army of Cirque du Soleil type-performers. On the spirits side, a quirk in the laws in Nevada sadly prevented them from continuing their experiments with whisky, so they shifted their focus to rum. At this tasting, we’ll be taking a look back at all of it: their whisky, their rum, and some of their most legendary experimental releases:
Leviathan II. American Peated Single Malt. “Stored under 4 years in reused cooperage” (late harvest). Cask strength 53% abv. Monterey county, California.
Abomination. Heavily Peated Malt. Finished with late harvest Riesling seasoned American oak staves. 54% abv.
Umami. Fermented in salt water! American peated single malt, aged in reused cooperate (sherry seasoned French oak). Cask strength 59% abv.
Calafia. Heavily Peated American Single Malt, distilled from 100% malt barley and matured exclusively in Hungarian oak casks. 58% abv.
Bohemian Bonfire. Heavily Peated American Single Malt, distilled from 100% malt barley and matured exclusively in French oak casks. 59% abv.
Navy Style Rum. Fermented from Grade A molasses and distilled in a pot still in Las Vegas, Nevada. Matured with white oak. 61% abv.
20,000 Leagues Under the Sea. Heavy pot still rum. 42.2% abv. Made in Nevada (Grade A molasses, pot still), white oak).
Japonisme Rum. Same heavy pot still rum, except using Okinawa black sugar. Batch 1. 49% abv.
Pineapple Rum. Made in Nevada with pineapple, cane sugar and American oak. 47.2% abv.
Creme de Cerise. Made with American oak and Montmorency cherries.
We hope you can join us!
Zoom Link / Meeting ID: 895 9948 3512 / Passcode: 062724