Feb. 22: Drammers Indianapolis......
Hello Indianapolis Drammers!
Our next tasting of rare whiskey and spirits will be on Saturday, February 22nd at 7pm. We’re excited to say that the event will be hosted at Harry’s new bar = The Vault Indy (1542 S East St, Indianapolis, IN 46225). Thank you Harry! Also a huge thank you to Sean for organizing. We’ll be tasting through 8 great expressions at this tasting, one of which will be a surprise pour and 7 we’re announcing now:
Octomore 15.1 - Heavily Peated Single Malt Scotch. This is the most recent wave from Bruichladdich’s famously peaty single malt Scotch line, and we’re going to dig in to the measuring stick in the series — edition 15.1. This whisky was aged for 5 years in a combination of first-fill bourbon barrels and re-charred ex bourbon casks, and in all respects is a slightly more mellow edition compared to last year’s 14.1 edition. Unlike last year’s release, which was matured entirely in new oak, here some refill casks were used. And while it was bottled at a hefty 59.1% abv, that’s a slight drop from last year’s 59.6%. Perhaps most significantly, this new release features 108.2 PPM of peat, which is a noticeable drop from last year’s 14.1 (which clocked in at 128.9 PPM!).
Angel’s Envy Bourbon - New Drammers Single Cask Pick. This only just arrived, and you will be some of the first in the club to try it! A single cask pick from the Angels Envy Distillery, bottled at 55.5% abv (110 proof). Angel’s Envy deserves credit for normalizing the concept of “finishing” American whiskies, which simply means that at the end of its aging process, the whisky was transferred to a barrel that used to hold something else (in this case, Port wine barrels. Although the barrel has been emptied of Port, there can still be up to 10 liters of it soaked into the wood, and so if you fill that with bourbon, over the course of about 3 months it’s going to absorb some of that port flavor and color. This has long been a thing in the Scotch world but until Angel’s Envy came along in 2006, it was fairly unusual — in fact some people questioned whether it could even be called bourbon at all! That issue has since been settled, and finished bourbons and ryes are part of the regular whisky landscape.
Paul John Christmas Edition 2019. With the holidays still in mind, we thought it would be a nice moment to revisit the 2019 edition of Paul John Christmas Edition, an annual special release from this distillery based in Goa, India. This whisky is made like a Scotch in the sense that it is double-distilled on a pot still, made from 100% malted barley, and would otherwise meet the definitional requirements of making Scotch if it were entirely made in Scotland. It does differ though in a couple key respects. The biggest difference is the climate — the hot temperatures in Goa ensure that whisky matures there at a MUCH faster speed than it does in Scotland, as the hot temperatures cause the whisky to expand farther into the wood, and so it extracts (and evaporates!) much faster. You’re never going to have a 20 year single barrel of Indian whisky — the whole barrel will have evaporated likely around the 12 year mark! There is also an interesting technical difference in that India uses locally-grown 6-row barley as opposed to the 2-row barley that is universal in Scotland. We’ll get into all that at the tasting. The company puts out a special edition each year for the holidays, and we are particularly fond of this 2019 edition. This edition features a mix of their lightly peated whiskies aged in ex-Bourbon casks for at least 5 years and then finished for at least two years in ex-PX sherry casks. 46% abv
JJ Corry “An Ban Rion” Irish Single Pot Still Whisky - Drammers Exclusive Private Blend. Our first-ever Drammers pick of Irish whiskey has arrived, not a single barrel but a private blend! Our members in Charlotte, NC got together last Summer to create this blend, ultimately settling on only using Irish Single Pot Still samples (so, whiskeys made from a mash bill of at least 30% malted barley, at least 30% UNMALTED barley, and no more than 5% other grains), and all the samples are ex-sherry cask, with a heavy dose of PX Sherry and a very small — transformative — amount of amontillado sherry cask to bring that some nutty flavors to the mix. 57% abv.
Kilchoman - Loch Gorm (2024). This is the 2024 edition of this annual limited release from our friends at Kilchoman. Loch Gorm is the name because it is their annual sherry matured bottling, and the idea is the dark color the spirit gets from the sherry is akin to the dark waters of the large freshwater lake that borders the distillery. If you’re not familiar with the Kilchoman Distillery, it makes heavily peated Scotch on Islay, and it was the first “new” distillery on Islay in 124 years when it was established in 2005 (and is still the only farm distillery — they operate a large farm that grows a lot of the barley they distill). 46% abv
Foursquare Rum - Magisterium. This “Mark XXVI” is the most recent in the “Exceptional Cask” line, considered by many rum enthusiasts to be the ultimate limited releases from one of the most respected rum brands in the world and often finding a bottle can be tricky. Even for Foursquare, this is a big one, featuring a 16-year-old Single Blended (Barbados) Rum. These releases are hand-picked by Foursquare’s founder and Master Blender Richard Seale as “one-of-a-kind” releases that he chooses when he finds casks of “exceptional quality”. This features a mix of 3 component rums, all made at the same distillery and aged for 16 years. 58% abv
Reina Sanchez - Ensamble Mezcal. Reina Sanchez is one of the reigning queens of mezcal in Oaxaca, and we've been proud to bring in batches of her mezcal for our members and visit her in person at her palenque (distillery) in Oaxaca, Mexico. This new ensamble (blend of agaves) is part of Series 7 from our friends at Rezpiral, and it is especially tasty, featuring a mix of jabali, madrecuishe and cuishe agave varietals and bottled at 47.8% abv.
That’s our lineup, we hope you can join us! We’ll order in light food (likely pizza, which is included), and as usual we strongly encourage everyone attending to arrange a ride home (keep in mind that just about everything we’ll be drinking will be at cask strength). Please let us know if you have any questions!
Cheers,
Charlie, Sean and Drammers Club