May 4: Drammers Stamford CT......
Hello Stamford Drammers!
We’re delighted to welcome you to our next Drammers Stamford tasting on May 4th at 7pm, and a big thank you to Bradley Lowenstein for hosting! We’ve got a bunch of fun spirits for you to try — mostly whiskies, but also a mezcal and a Mexican rum in honor of Cinco de Mayo being the following day. Check out our lineup:
Glen Scotia 8yo Unpeated Campbeltown Single Malt Scotch, Single Barrel #740: (Drammers Exclusive). So excited about both of our single barrels, 2 of only 4 private barrels they've allowed out (in the US at least) in the last few years. And the timing is particularly good because Glen Scotia was just named a month ago as Distillery of the Year by the Scotch Whisky Association! We’ve got a fun event coming up with their master distiller Iain McAllister in February, but in the meantime we’ll get a sneak peak of these tonight! 56.1% abv (cask strength)
Glen Scotia 10yo Peated Campbeltown Single Malt Scotch, Drammers Exclusive Single Barrel. 55.6% abv. (see above)
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, so our members in Stamford will be the first to try it. 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.
Dakabend 4yo Oaxacan Rum. Produced by the makers of Mezcal Tosba, which is available in the US alongside an unaged Dakabend rum, made from pure cane sugar (as opposed to the more common molasses -- so this arguably more in the "rhum agricole" vein of rums, though the 4 years of barrel aging has rounded the palate our enormously. As an experiment they aged 3 barrels of it 4 years ago, which we stumbled upon when we visited their distillery in October of 2020, and they were kind enough to sell us one. These are the only bottles of this to ever leave their distillery in the Sierra Norte mountains, and even if they start making more now, their won't be any for at least 4 years. Hard to get much rarer than that. 49% abv.
That’s our lineup, we hope you can join us! As usual, we’ll have pizza on hand to make sure nobody is drinking on an empty stomach. And anyone who has been to one of our events is welcome to invite their friends to join in the fun.
Format: In-person tasting
Address: 55 Fieldstone Road, Stamford CT 06902
Price: $40 for Members / $50 for Observers