May 17: Drammers Portland...
Hello Portland Drammers!
Delighted to report that fellow Drammer Courtney Knapp has generously offered to host, so we're on for our Drammers Portland tasting this Tuesday! (Thanks Courtney). She's based in Southwest Portland and I'll forward the exact address to folks who RSVP. We've got a fun lineup to taste, drumroll please:
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%!
Sazerac Rye - Las Vegas Chapter Pick. This is a private single barrel pick that we had the honor of doing with the Sazerac company, made of course at the legendary Buffalo Trace distillery. It uses the base 6yo rye, same recipe as goes into their normal release, but this is a single barrel that our members in Las Vegas selected, and it only just arrived. Of course, we would have had it barreled at cask strength if we’d been given the chance, but Sazerac only allows people to bottle at 45% abv, which is what we’ve got here.
Sazerac Rye - Single Barrel Pick by our Los Angeles Chapter. For extra fun, we'll compare the Sazerac rye picked by our Vegas chapter against the one picked by our LA chapter. The LA chapter bottle is completely different -- not as sweet, and with subtle undercurrents of orange peel and other citrus notes. 45% abv.
Eagle Rare - Single Barrel Pick by Drammers Indianapolis. We were so proud to be able to pick this special barrel. This is a single barrel version of their normal core range release, which is aged 10 years. 45% abv.
Morocco's Lost "Mahia" Fig Spirit. This distillery (Nahmias et Fils) in Yonkers, NY is the only distillery in the US to make Morocco's national spirit, mahia, a fig eau-de-vie.
Legs Diamond Bourbon. The same distillery also makes this delightful Legs Diamond bourbon, so we figured while we're at it, would be fun to try it. Neither this nor the Mahia is easy to find outside of Yonkers, so a fun chance to try it.
That's our lineup, and knowing us we very well might add more to it (we'll be coming to Portland from our events in LA tonight with Rare Character bourbon and rye and another event in San Fran on Monday, so there's a very good chance we'll have some extra bottles to try for those who want to keep going. :).
Hope you can join us!