Mar. 8: Drammers NYC - Blackadder and Amrut with Raj Sabharwal
Fellow Drammers!
We’ve got some fun news — on March 8th, we’re thrilled to welcome back Raj Sabharwal to Drammers NYC. We’ve had the privilege of welcoming Raj a number of times over the years, and we’re guessing he needs no introduction, but for newcomers to the group — he’s a longtime friend, fellow Drammer, and or course one of the founding partners of the great Glass Revolution Imports, which imports Amrut, Blackadder, Bimber, Waterford, Murray McDavid, and too many more great ones to list here, but obviously a lot of our favorite brands! For this tasting, we’ll be trying a combination of Amrut and Blackadder expressions. Here’s our lineup, drumroll please…
Blackadder 31yo Clynelish Raw Cask Statement Single Malt Scotch. 1 of 194 bottles worldwide and only 12 of them came to the USA. Clynelish is obviously one of the most sought after single malt scotches, and we were proud to have tracked down a single barrel for the club aged 20 years in 2020, but this is a whole other level of rare at 31 years old, distilled in 1989. Suggested retail price on this bottle is $1,430 btw. 46.8% abv.
Blackadder 31yo Glentauchers Single Malt Scotch. 1 of 215 bottles, and since this is part of their RAW cask offerings, you know the bottle will have plenty of their unique cask sediment floating around the glass, meant to recreate the early days when bottles were filled directly from barrels behind the bar. Also distilled in 1989, 41.3% abv.
Blackadder Chimera Blended Malt #1. The first release in the Blackadder Chimera concept, technically a blended whisky, though they prefer the term vatted malt (and nothing wrong with a premium blend/vatting from our perspective here at Drammers, see e.g. Compass Box…). Chimera is a great name for a blended malt (in mythology, a Chimera was a monster made up of multiple animals). Chimera #1 is a mix of four different Single Malt Whiskies. One is a Single Islay from refill cask, One is from First Fill ex Bourbon cask, one is a Sherry Cask Highland and one is a Sherry Cask Speyside. Apparently the plan for future releases is to have each one be different/unique. 59% abv.
Blackadder Raw Cask Peat Reek 10yo Islay Single Malt. The name tells it all here — they’re using casks that previously held heavily peated whisky to mature in, and apparently they’ve done an official analysis to confirm it comes in at 20 PPM! 1 of 344 bottles, bottled in July 2021, a USA exclusive release. 57.7% abv.
Blackadder Amrut (Finished in a 30yo Jura Cask). How fun is this? A Blackadder take on Amrut! This time finished in an unpeated 30 year old Jura cask (to be clear — the Amrut is not 30yo — that doesn’t exist, ha — but the barrel used to mature the Amrut formerly held 30yo Jura. 1 of 201 bottles, 61.3% abv
Amrut Aatma Fino Sherry Cask. We believe this one is new, so we don’t have as much info about it, but we’ve had Aatma releases at past Drammers events, and they’re always great. They’re essentially single cask offerings selected by Glass Rev as particularly collectible and bottled at cask strength.
Amrut Spectrum 004. Amrut’s Spectrum series is always a crowd favorite. Initially matured in Ex-bourbon barrel, the single malt is transferred to a custom-built, unique barrel that is constructed out of four varieties of oak - American Oak with level three charring, French Oak with slight toasting, Ex-Oloroso Sherry Stave and Ex-Px Sherry Stave. The result is a complex single malt that will both engross and delight you in equal measure.
Amrut Bagheera. Classic Amrut finished in a Sherry cask. 46% abv.
Amrut - Drammers Barrel Pick! Of course we had to include our Drammers-exclusive Amrut barrel pick! Aged in an ex-rye cask, we picked this in part because a few years ago we fell in love with a similar ex-rye cask selected by our friends at La Maison du Whisky in Paris. 1 of only 150 bottles, it was distilled in July 2015 and bottled in June of 2021 at 60% abv.
That’s our lineup, we hope you can join us! We’ll have pizza on hand as usual. Please feel free to contact us with any questions.
Cheers!
Drammers Club
WHEN: Tuesday, March 8th, starting at 7pm in person (online portion starts at 8pm EST)
FORMAT: In person only (we may stream the event, but are not currently offering to send out tasting kits)
WHERE: Charlie’s Apt (250 Mercer ST, Apt C512, between 3rd and 4th streets in the village)
PRICE: $75/person for Drammers Members / $95/person for Drammers Observers