Mar. 2: Drammers NYC - Glen Grant with Robin Coupar, Global Whisky Advocate for Campari...
NYC Drammers!
Big news — Robin Coupar, the Global Whisky Advocate for all of Campari (including Glen Grant, Wild Turkey, Forty Creek…) is coming to NYC on March 2nd for a special Drammers Club tasting in person! The event will focus on Glen Grant Single Malt Scotch whiskies and we’ve tracked down some fun rare bottles at auction, which we’ll taste alongside their core range. We of course had the great honor of welcoming their Distillery Manager Dennis Malcolm for a huge online tasting last year, where we got into some of the incredible history of this great distillery, and no doubt we’ll get into that at the event too. Ok, on to the bottles, check out this lineup:
25yo Glen Grant, Gordon & Macphail Bottling. We picked this up at auction and have been saving it for just such a special occasion. This is an appropriate headliner in part because Glen Grant has such a special relationship with this local (and obviously very well known) independent bottler, which has been bottling their whisky since at least the 1930s. UK tax stamp, 40% abv.
24yo Glen Grant, Whisky Fair Bottling. We’ll turn up the heat with a similar age statement at a much higher abv -- 50.6% abv, so presumably likely cask strength. Distilled in July of 1995, bottled in February of 2020, Cask #19461, bourbon barrel matured, 1 of 129 bottles released. We’re not intimately familiar with the Whisky Fair, but apparently there’s more info about it at Whiskyfair.com - certainly looks fun. 70cl
Glen Grant 170th Anniversary Bottling. Original bottling, released in 2010 for the anniversary, non-chill filtered. Glen Grant described it as being blended from the distillery’s most valuable casks. Long since sold out and unavailable. 46% abv.
Original Bottling, 5yo Pure Malt. This is a dusty, but not too old. We don’t have a release year for it, but guessing 1990s, and since its a 5yo it’s very likely an Italian market release (the extraordinary popularity of the 5yo in Italy is arguably the reason Campari bought the brand!). It will be fascinating to contrast this lightly aged Glen Grant with the revamped US line of older age statements. 40% abv.
Glen Grant 18yo. It’s been fun to watch what Campari has done with the brand since acquiring it in December 2005, and part of that has been to upgrade to more premium offerings include a revamp of the core range in 2016, which saw the welcome release of this 18yo expression. This is big Speyside, raisins, vanilla, caramel - lots of layers, lots of complexity.
Glen Grant 15yo Batch Proof. We do tend to like higher proof whiskies here at Drammers, and so this is heavily favored to be a crowd favorite of the night, bottled at 50% abv. The batch uses only whisky matured in first fill bourbon casks. Look for more orchard fruit and malt flavors here.
Glen Grant 12yo. Our warm up dram was the first release in the 2016 revamp, upping the bar from their previous 10yo entry. Citrus, apples, even some biscuit here. This one in particular has won a lot of awards for the company. 43% abv
That’s our lineup, we hope you can join us! We’ll also have pizza on hand.
Cheers,
Charlie
WHEN: Wednesday, March 2nd, starting at 7pm
WHERE: Charlie’s Apt in NYC (250 Mercer ST, Apt C512, between 3rd and 4th streets in the village)
FORMAT: In person
PRICE: $45/person for Drammers Members / $65/person for Drammers Observers