May 18: Drammers Fort Mill / Charlotte......
Hello Charlotte and Fort Mill Drammers!
Our next Drammers tasting of rare whiskey and spirits is coming up next Thursday, May 18th at 7pm, and this month we're bringing the party back to Fort Mill -- Nick Wade has generously offered to host (thanks Nick!). His address is: 336 Montmorenci Xing, Fort Mill, SC, 29715. We've assembled a fun lineup of 8 expressions, a nice mix of bourbon, rye, scotch, rice whiskey and mezcal, all of which you can read about in more detail below.
Cheers!
Charlie, Perry and Drammers Club
BOTTLE LINEUP FOR THE EVENT:
Atelier Vie RIZ - Louisiana Rice Whiskey. Back in April our club was in New Orleans for the New Orleans Bourbon Festival, and we stopped in at our favorite craft distillery there: Atelier Vie. Their founder/distiller Jedd is a bit of a mad genius, and plays around with everything from growing his own wormwood to make absinthe, to making hopped whiskies, but he’s really made a name for himself with this one — RIZ, a Louisiana rice whiskey. One of the most interesting things we’ve learned about Atelier Vie is how they play around with barrel sizes, moving fluidly from 53 gallon barrels to 10, 15 and 30 gallon barrels and back again, depending on how it’s aging. He has a couple variations on this, and the one we’ll be trying (slightly different than the photo btw) is aged 4 years and bottled at 50% abv.
High West - Drammers Single Barrels. Somehow we never got around to bringing our two Drammers High West picks to our Charlotte/Fort Mill chapter! Well, it's about time we fixed that. High West has a theory that since they are distinctly proud of their blending skills, they could never release a simple barrel of bourbon or rye that would accurately represent High West. We might quibble with that theory if it weren't for the delightful result that they only released finished versions of their core range as part of their single barrel program, which suits us just fine.
High West - American Prairie. This single barrel of their American Prairie bourbon was finished in a Rivesaltes fortified red wine cask.
High West - Double Rye. Our single barrel of their Double Rye was finished in a Cognac cask.
Starward Australian Single Malt. Starward is made in downtown Melbourne, specializing in maturing single malt whisky in casks that used to hold big Aussie red wines. Our club selected this barrel and had it bottled at a whopping 55.5% abv. Cask #3329, which was Starward’s signature single malt finished in cask sourced from the Barossa Valley, a 2012 American oak fresh ex-red wine barrique from Demptos Cooperage.
Loch Lomond's Glengarry 12yo. One of our newest Drammers picks (single barrels) just arrived, a 12yo single malt Scotch from the Highlands distillery Loch Lomond. Distilled in 2010, bottled in 2023, unpeated, matured in a 1st fill Bordeaux red wine barrel -- the barrel yielded 281 bottles. 55.0% abv. Of course non-chill filtered and no color added. Cask #21/546-6. Exclusively available to Drammers members.
Kilchoman Drammers Single Barrel - STR cask finish single malt. As you would expect from (most) Islay whiskies, this single barrel our club selected is plenty peaty and plenty smoky. It was finished in an STR cask, which stands for "shaved, toasted and recharred" -- essentially a fancy way of saying they rejuvenated a barrel that had already been used several times by shaving a small layer of wood out from the inside of the barrel to get to active wood, and usually this is done using ex-red wine casks. Bottled as always at cask strength of 53.4% abv.
Rezpiral - Simeon Ramirez Mezcal Ensamble of Mexicano Agaves. We had the pleasure of selecting a batch a few years ago that Simeon did with his father Apolonio, that time from a tobasiche agave, which was dominated by vegetal and mineral notes. That pick was a big hit, so we selected a new batch that just arrived -- a mix of 4 varietals of the Mexicano agave, it has a dominant lemon-lime custardy-sorbet flavor, backfilled with vanilla. Yum. Details here, and available exclusively to members of Drammers for $120/bottle, 50.8% abv.
5 Sentidos - Tobala Mezcal by Tio Pedro. The Maestro Mezcalero behind this mezcal, Tio Pedro, has worked for many top mezcal producers over the years and recently set out on his own, where among other things he produced this small 92 liter batch. This is only just arrived (which is why it's not pictured above) and features wild tobalas he collected and distilled in Oaxaca in June of 2022. He then rested is in glass until December 2022 adjusting with heads and tails to reach the desired flavor and bottled at 47% abv. This batch was selected by our members on our annual trip to Oaxaca for Day of the Dead last year and is available exclusively to members of the club.