Nov. 7: Drammers Raleigh/Durham...
Hello Raleigh Drammers!
Our next Drammers Raleigh meeting will take place on November 7th. We’re in the process of finalizing the bottle lineup and the venue now (we’re looking at some possible locations in downtown Raleigh or downtown Durham), and will update this when we know more. In the meantime, please feel free to sign up so we can get a sense of the headcount!
Cheers,
Drammers Club
BOTTLE LINEUP FOR MONDAY:
Here's the lineup for tomorrow, drumroll please...
New Riff Bourbon - Kentucky Bourbon Fest Single Barrel. Our club recently attended the Kentucky Bourbon Festival and each morning of the festival they released a limited number of single barrels selected by each distillery (there were probably 10 or so single barrels total. One of them was this single barrel #8214 from the New Riff distillery. Distilled 1/17/18, bottled 6/29/22. We're excited to pop it open and try it! 52.75% abv.
Single Malts of Scotland - Clynelish 10yo. This single barrel was selected by our friends at Single Malts of Scotland from the famously "waxy" distillate of the Clynelish distillery in the Highlands of Scotland. 60.4% abv.
Green River - First Bourbon Release. What is today called the Green River distillery, located in Owensboro Kentucky has a long and storied history, importantly going back to 1885, and was for a long time the home of the Medley family distillery. It had fallen off people's radars for a while, but has recently been rebooted, and this is their first release since the reboot. Green River Kentucky Straight Bourbon. DSP-KY-10. The distillery was recently bought by Bardstown Bourbon Co. btw. 45% abv.
Medley Bros. Exclusive Selection - LA Pick. Since we were trying the Green River release, we figured for fun we'd compare it to one of our barrel picks from their famous old owners -- the Medley family. Today the Medley family is owned by Sam Medley, a longtime friend of the club, and we did 3 barrel picks with Sam to kick off our barrel program in 2019. Today his whiskey is sourced somewhere in Kentucky (we know it is not Green River). In 2019, he had a private barrel program where he set aside 25 barrels to be picked by the 25 whiskey clubs across the country that he hand-selected, and we were proud to receive 3 of those 25 barrels for our chapters in Denver, NYC and this barrel pick selected by our Los Angeles chapter. 63.32% abv.
Westward American Single Malt - Rum Cask Finish. This distillery is based in Portland, Oregon and is the favorite of our Portland chapter -- we're actually in the process of picking a single barrel from them for the club. This was a special release only available at the distillery as part of their private whiskey club, a take on their American Single Malt (so, made like a Scotch, but here in the US) and matured in a rum cask. We have yet to try it ourselves and are excited to pop it open. 50% abv.
New England Barrel Co. - Bourbon Stout Beer Finish. Our Boston members selected this barrel from New England Barrel Co., the independent bottlers based in New Hampshire. They sourced this barrel from the Green River distillery and then transferred the liquid into a barrel that used to hold a stout beer from the local Lord Hobo brewery in Boston. To me the result tastes like a Milky Way candy bar with stout overtones. He made I believe 3 or 4 of these barrels, and we liked these the best of them. 56.9% abv.
Comparison of our 1792 Full Proof Bourbon - Charlotte Pick vs. Boston Pick. Next up, we'll compare two barrel picks our club did of 1792 Full Proof bourbon from the Barton 1792 distillery in Bardstown. While technically not "cask strength", they're pretty close, bottled at 62.5% abv. We were given the opportunity to select 2 of them, and we think you'll agree the subtle nuances between the barrel picked by our Boston chapter vs. the barrel picked by our Charlotte chapter are very noticeable.
That's our lineup! We hope you can join us.