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Hello Portland Drammers!
You’re invited to join us for another tasting of rare whiskey and spirits on Saturday, April 11th at 7pm. The tasting will feature some exciting new single casks that our club picked, which have just arrived, plus some other cutting-edge new releases, all of which Charlie will walk us through. Specifically, the lineup will include:
Ardnamurchan Peated 6yo - Peated 6yo Drammers Single Barrel Pick #110. Distilled at the Ardnamurchan Distillery, which has been around now for over 10 years, but they are still arguably one of the hottest of the newer crop of young Scotch distilleries. Cask #1520, distilled in 2018, matured in a Peated First Fill Oloroso Sherry Hogshead, 1 of 320 bottles, 58.6% abv. Wait until you see how dark this liquid is (no color added of course!).
Linkwood Distillery 14yo (Independent Bottling by Adelphi). This is another single cask pick selected by Drammers Club (pick #111), and it’s not a coincidence that they arrived at the same time (Adelphi is the parent company that built and owns the Ardnamurchan distillery, so we picked these casks together). This pick is also ridiculously dark. Matured in a 1st Fill PX Sherry Cask. Distilled in 2011, Bottled in 2025, 1 of 217 bottles, 53.5% abv.
Found North - 12yo - Madeira Cask Finish (Drammers Pick #115). 57.5% abv
Found North - 12yo - Cherry Liqueur Finish (Drammers Pick #116). The next two expressions are from the hottest name in Canadian whisky. Founded during COVID, Zach and Nick Taylor started experimenting with creating their own blends from some of the oldest-available stocks of Canadian whisky (unlike in the US, the Canadian whisky industry distills and ages each grain separately and then blends them together at the bottling stage). The result has been one of the biggest phenomenons in whisky — the Found North releases almost never touch a shelf, all heavily allocated, and often selling out in mere seconds. All of which makes it particularly flattering that they let us select these two single barrels. They created a base using a mix of 49% rye, 48% corn and 3% malted barley, with a mix of components aged 12, 15, 17, 21, 22 and 25 years old. They then broke that blend off into separate experimental finishing casks. We tried a bunch of them and settled on these two picks for the club. 58.05% abv.
Nikka - From the Barrell - Limited Edition “Extra Marriage” Release. This one is hot off the presses, the new limited edition release in honor of the 40th anniversary of this famous whisky. We recently hosted an online tasting with Emiko Kaji, who is Nikka’s Leader of Global Business Strategy, Education and PR. The tasting centered around this special one-off release, which emphasizes the importance Nikka puts on letting whisky “settle” after they create their signature, ultra-complicated blends. Here they let the vatting settle in used casks for a total of 6 months (double the usual time). The result is distinctly different than their usual “From the Barrel” release. Some folks like it better, some like the original better. But one thing’s for sure — these are now sold out, so it’s unlikely you’ll get another chance to try this. 51.4% abv.
5 Sentidos Uncertified Mezcal - Drammers Pick #112. This exceptional mezcal was made in a tiny batch on a clay pot still in Oaxaca (the distillation yielded only 65 bottles!). It is an ensamble or blend of different agave types, which is how all mezcal was made until only 10 or so years ago (basically mezcaleros would just use a mix of whatever agaves were ripe and ready for harvest rather than isolating different varietals). In this case, this mezcal is made from a mix of Bicuixe Verde, Espadin and Bicuixe agaves by Mezcalero Jose Garcia. 50.5% abv.
5 Sentidos Uncertified Mezcal - Drammers Pick #113. This is a very special treat - mezcal fermented in cowhide or “de cuero” (in a cured animal skin). We had the opportunity to go to Oaxaca to visit this producer last August, and it is very, very hard to find mezcaleros making mezcal in this older style that dates back to a time when producers needed to be more mobile to be able to hide from authorities who were trying to stop what they were doing. As may be obvious, fermenting in tiny tanks made by stretching cowhide over logs is much less efficient than usual mezcal, and so very few distillers have maintained these old production methods. This Espadin de Cuero is by Reynaldo Alejandro, the distillation yielded only 54 bottles, and it was bottled at 46.1% abv.
Plus one more surprise pour!
That’s our lineup, we hope you can join us! A big thank you to David McEldowney for hosting us (address: 242 S California Street, Portland, 97204).
We’ll order in light food which is included in your ticket (likely pizza) and as always we ask that everyone arrange a ride home — after all, we’ll be drinking a bunch of high proof stuff.
Cheers,
Charlie and Drammers Club