Nov. 9: Drammers Phoenix......
Hello Phoenix and Peoria Drammers!
You're invited to join us for a tasting of rare whiskies and other spirits on Saturday, November 9th at 6:30pm. This will be the kickoff event for the Phoenix chapter of Drammers Club, a spirits and whisky club that hosts regular in person events in over 60 cities around the world, plus online events, group trips and more. At this event, we'll be tasting 8 expressions, a great mix of Scotch, bourbon, rye, American single malt and even an Armagnac, all of which you can read more about below. A big thank you to CJ for hosting and organizing (address: 7641 W Windrose Dr, Peoria AZ). We’ll order in light food (likely pizza, included), and as always, arranging a ride home is highly recommended.
Since this will be our first event in the Phoenix/Peoria area, we’re looking to help get the word out — if you know anyone you think might be a good fit for the club, please let us know. And please feel free to reach out with any questions.
Cheers,
Charlie, CJ and Drammers Club
BOTTLE LINEUP:
Russell's Reserve - Drammers Single Barrel Bourbon. Earlier this year, a group of our chapter heads came together at the Wild Turkey Distillery to select this single barrel of Russell's Reserve. The barrel we selected was distilled Oct. 1, 2014, dumped on May 14, 2024 and bottled on June 11, 2024. Barrel #23-0035, aged in Warehouse TY-K, Floor #4, aged 9 years, 7 months, 13 days. Bottled at 55% abv / 110 proof (as many distilleries do these day — instead of cask strength, they pick a number just below cask strength so they don’t have to refile the label with the TTB for each single barrel). The barrel yielded 186 bottles.
Wilderness Trail - Drammers Single Barrel Bourbon. Next up is our single barrel from Wilderness Trail — barrel no 771648, aged 5 years, 3 months, aged in an ISC (Independent Stave Co.) classic #4 barrel, rickhouse E-N25-10-4, Yeast strain FP1. Wilderness Trail as many of you know specializes in wheated bourbon, which is the case here, and they also use a sweet mash process (so they do NOT use backset from prior distillations in subsequent mashes, unlike most distilleries). Drammers had selected a single cask of Wilderness Trail a couple years ago that was accidentally lost by the distillery (they accidentally used it in a small batch blend, ha, which does happen from time to time). So, this is a barrel we’ve been waiting for for a long time now. The barrel yielded 204 bottles.
Stock Exchange Club of Los Angeles - Bourbon. Next up we’ll try a bourbon and a rye from a distillery in el Segundo, Los Angeles (the R6 Distillery). With the slowdown in whisky sales in the last 18 months they, like so many craft distilleries of late sadly, stopped distilling over a year ago, and have no new plans to restart distilling. They launched this new label to work through their existing whisky stocks, and we made a point to be first in line to support them. But don’t let that backstory fool you, this is good bourbon, aged 5 years, they just did a better job of making it than marketing I guess you could say. 60% abv.
Stock Exchange Club of Los Angeles - Hazmat Rye. Same distillery, this time it’s a rye, also aged 5 years, and this one clocked in at an astounding 72.7% abv. Bottled at cask strength.
Loch Lomond - Glengarry Single Malt Scotch 10yo. This is our second single barrel with Loch Lomond Glengarry, this time aged all 10 years in a Sauternes cask. Single malt Scotch from a distillery just barely far enough North to qualify as a Highlands distillery. Our last single cask with them (aged in a Bordeaux cask) was recently named the #1 single cask of Scotch in the world for 2024 at the San Francisco Spirit Awards, and maybe we're biased -- but we think this single cask is just as good, sweet, if a little brighter.
Compass Box - Glasgow Blend, Drammers Exclusive Single Marrying Cask. Compass Box is famous for making BLENDED Scotch premium again, creating ultra-high end blends of malt whisky and grain whisky. They recently announced they were shutting down their single cask program -- where they create a blend and then "Marry" it in a single cask, in this case an ex-Cameronbridge cask. We were proud to get one of the last (possibly *the* last) single cask in that program, which (we might add) is very reasonably priced.
Westward - American Single Malt - Drammers Pick. This distillery is based in Portland, Oregon and is not only our favorite distillery in that city, it's one of the most important American single malt distilleries in the country. Our Portland members selected this single cask, an exceptional version of their flagship, which has huge malty notes. The distillers behind this distillery came from a brewing background, and you can taste that in their whiskies. Bottled at cask strength, as always.
L'Encantada 12yo Armagnac Single Cask. This company exploded on the scene during covid, bringing special single casks of Armagnac to the world at cask strength. Armagnac is of course a grape brandy produced under strict rules in that region of France, and most of it goes into lower-proof blends, making these cask strength release single casks particularly sought-after. At a recently online tasting with their Cellar Master Vincent Cornu, this release emerged as a particularly tasty release of the 6 we tried.