Apr. 24: Drammers Las Vegas......
Hello Vegas Drammers!
We’re coming into town for the Nth Ultimate Whiskey Experience, and wanted to celebrate with a Drammers Las Vegas event on Sunday the 24th at 6pm. We’ve got a new location (Monzu Italian Overn and Bar, 6020 West Flamingo Road, Suite 10, 89103). And even though it’s only been a few weeks since our last event, we’ve already got a ton of big Drammers barrel picks to catch up on. Check out our lineup:
Sazerac Rye - Los Angeles Chapter Pick. Made by our friends at the Buffalo Trace Distillery, this doesn’t carry an age statement but is broadly known to be aged 6 years, and features a mashbill with plenty of corn in it, making for a sweeter rye than say your average 95/5 MGP variant. Our L’A chapter picked this barrel, and it is very different than the barrel that our members in Warsaw picked. The Warsaw barrel had bright powdered sugar notes, but this one is more subtle. Orange peel, some lemon — there is a distinct citrus undercurrent lying beneath the typical Sazerac Rye notes, which is particularly fun. 45% abv
Eagle Rare Single Barrel - Indianapolis Chapter Pick. This is the first of two Eagle Rare single barrel picks, and we can’t wait to do a side by side of this bottle alongside the barrel our members in San Francisco picked. Of course, this too is made at Buffalo Trace, and carries a 10 year age statement. We weren’t given the opportunity to have it bottled at cask strength, sadly, as Sazerac insists that all their single barrels are bottled at 45% abv.
Buffalo Trace Single Barrel. We’ll be able to compare Buffalo Trace’s 10yo Eagle Rare against this, a single barrel of their entry level (yet still all too often allocated!) Buffalo Trace bourbon, which is aged between 6 and 8 years. As for this single barrel, we selected it not because it had a particularly unusual note, but rather because it felt like a bolder version of their usual core range flavor profile, more pronounced caramel, maple, vanilla, etc. The circumstances that led to us getting this barrel were such that we weren’t able to do it as a group pick, so Charlie ended up picking this one as best he could on his own. 45% abv.
M&H Israeli Single Malt - Fortified Red Wine Cask Finish. We selected three M&H Israeli Single Malt casks last year, and they’ve just arrived. Our US members selected 2 barrels, and our Tel Aviv chapter selected one. All three were matured for just over 3 years (closer to 3.5), and bottled at cask strength, which ended up being particularly high. This is the lowest abv of the three at 64.7% abv! This one is also the one that is most affected by adding a few drops of water. Neat it tastes delightful, and the bright red wine notes are there though it’s maybe a little more dry than you might expect (this doesn’t have the sweetness you sometimes associate with a fortified wine cask finish). But when you add a few drops of water it is transformed — mint notes dominate a suddenly much longer finish, bordering on peppermint some say. This was the first choice of our USA members during the barrel pick.
M&H Israeli Single Malt - Ex-Rum Cask Finish. This was narrowly the second favorite of the options given to our USA members, and it came with big expectations — the SCN M&H ex-rum cask release was arguably the highlight of the SCN M&H releases to date, and we went in with all eyes on this sample. It didn’t disappoint — is it something about M&H that makes their single malt particularly well suited to a rum cask finish? At the recent tasting of our Barcelona chapter, this was the favorite of the members there by a longshot, though nearly everyone preferred this one before adding water. And hey, 66.7% abv doesn’t hurt.
M&H Israeli Single Malt - STR Cask Finish. Our Tel Aviv members selected this single barrel, easily the smokiest of the bunch, even has notes bordering on peat. This was the favorite of Scotch purists among our European members who tasted it last week. And again, check out the abv — 69.4%!
Westward Two Malts - Chocolate Malted Rye. Last but far from least is another single barrel, but not a Drammers barrel pick this time. Instead, it was a special experimental release that our friends in Portland put out through their private whisky club. Here, the experiment was adding 2.5% of chocolate malted RYE to an otherwise malted barley mix. A few of our members who are brewers have shared that apparently adding a couple percent of chocolate malt is not that unusual in the brewing world, instantly making for a darker looking beer. Here the result is pure candy — the whiskey equivalent of a hot chocolate with marshmallows. Yum. And a fun chance to try something we’re unlikely to see again anytime soon. 45% abv.
That’s our lineup! As usual, the price ($40/person for Drammers Members / $50/person for Drammers Observers) includes food — this time we’ll be ordering from our new friends at Monzu Italian who are hosting us). There’s always a small chance that the lineup will change (if a bottle breaks in transit etc., but if something happens, we’ll just replace it with something better. And as always, anyone who has been to one of our meetings is welcome to invite friends to join in the fun. We hope you can join us!
Cheers,
Charlie, Bob and Drammers Club