July 3: Drammers Berlin Launch Party!...

Fellow Drammers,

We're thrilled to announce our kickoff Drammers Club meeting in Berlin this Saturday, the 3rd of July! We had initially announced doing something in April of 2020, which of course we had to postpone due to the pandemic, so this has been a long time in coming, and we're very grateful to our friend Keenan Popwell for hosting at his apartment. We've put together a fantastic lineup that we'll be tasting:

• Glen Grant 23yo Single Barrel. First up is an independent bottling of this famous single malt scotch, billed "The Maltman" from Meadowside Blending Co. Ltd., was distilled in July 1995 and bottled in August 2018, making it 23 years old, matured entirely in an oloroso sherry butt. This is a fantastic warm-up bottle for our upcoming online event with their master distiller on July 31st! 53.5% abv.

• Loch Lomond 21yo Cadenhead's Bottling. The team at Cadenhead's always picks amazing barrels, so we made a point to stop by their shop here in Berlin to pick up this gem, aged for 21 years, technically from 2 casks, a blend of two ex-bourbon hogsheads. 51.5% abv

• Bruichladdich Octomore 10.2. Next up, Bruichladdich will be bringing the heat with their famous super heavily peated Octomore line, this one a travel retail only release (everything in the ".2" line is). Bottled at a delightful 56.9% abv, and again a nice warm up for our upcoming online event with their distillery team in August!

• Glenmorangie The Tayne. Speaking of Travel Retail exclusives, our friends at The Glenmorangie Company have this doozy out on the market, part of their travel retail-only Legends Collection. The wizard that he is, Dr. Bill Lumsden, their Director of Distilling and Whisky Creation, took Glenmo initially aged in ex-bourbon barrels and then finished them in Amontillado sherry, part of the bottle's tribute to the Spanish Armada. 43% abv.

• Glen Moray Polish Bottling. Last weekend our club hosted an event with our longstanding Warsaw chapter, where we welcomed a guest speaker involved with Poland's "Lodge of Gentlemen" whisky club. We tried 5 single barrel picks they did, and this was one of them, a 15yo bottling of Glen Moray featuring a fairly rare-for-Glen Moray Chardonnay Cask Finish, cask #99272. 52.8% abv.

• Germany's Own St. Killian! It wouldn't feel right to kick off our Berlin chapter without at least one bottle from one of Germany's many exciting distilleries. We swung by the fantastic Whisky Market Berlin to ask their advice, and they recommended this -- a special single malt whisky release from St. Killian distillery, the first in their Signature Edition series. Whisky Market Berlin did an event just yesterday comparing the different releases in this series (7 to date) and it sounds like this first release was particularly special. 45% abv.

• Don Mateo Cupreata Mezcal. Last, but certainly far from least, we’ll switch things up and try a special mezcal. Although we mostly focus on whisky here at Drammers Club, we also like to try other special spirits, especially when it comes to mezcal. We recently discovered a fantastic Tortilleria and taco shop here in Berlin (Tortilleria Mexa). In addition to opening the first true tortilleria in Berlin that we know of, the owner (who hails from Mexico City) also sells hand-picked mezcals. His favorite of the bunch is this release, which is special for a couple reasons. Nearly all mezcal you will find commercially today is made in Oaxaca using the most efficient and easy-to-grow of the agave varietals — the espadin agave. But there are many other agave types that produce very different flavors, and (perhaps even more interesting) the terrain where the agaves are produced makes a shockingly big difference on the flavor. That makes this mezcal, which uses cupreata, a wild agave, particularly special, and the fact that it is made in the province of Michoacan is especially rare. 46% abv.

That's our lineup! We hope you can join us! We'll have some pizza on hand to make sure nobody's drinking on an empty stomach. Please let us know if you have any questions. Of course, as you might expect given the times, this event is limited to people who have been fully-vaccinated.

Cheers!
Drammers Club