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Hello Phoenix Drammers!
You’re invited to join us for a special tasting of rare whiskey and spirits on Wednesday, June 24th at 7pm. A big thank you to our chapter head CJ for organizing and hosting (address: 7641 W Windrose Dr, Peoria AZ). We’re thrilled to welcome as our guest speaker Brian Dvoret from the great importer Impex! Impex is importing many of the most exciting craft distilleries from around the world, and while most of that is in the Scotchy-side of things, for our bourbon friends, fear not — I’ll have at least 3 bourbon and rye releases with me for you to try as well. But for purposes of announcing this event, I want to keep the focus on our guest speaker’s portfolio. He will be walking us through a whopping NINE new single malt whisky distilleries, including:
Filey Bay - Flagship British Single Malt. A Yorkshire Distillery making single malt whiskey in the UK (but outside of Scotland!). Ex-bourbon cask, 46% abv.
Lochlea: Our Barley. One of the more impressive distilleries to be founded during the recent whisky boom, they even managed to recruit the then-Distillery Manager away from Laphroaig for a few years! This expression is aged in a combination of bourbon, sherry and STR casks.
Nc’nean - Organic single malt Scotch from the Highlands. There is a lot to say about this distillery which we can get into at the event, but for now, suffice it to say that it is one of only a small handful of B-Corp certified distilleries in the world!
Ardnamurchan: Cask Strength - This single malt Scotch distillery in the Highlands was founded by the team behind the legacy independent bottlers Adelphi. I still think of them as a “new distillery” even though they’ve now got whiskey that is over 10 years old! Look for a mix of unpeated and lightly peated expressions from them. 84% peated malt, 58.7% abv.
Isle of Raasay: Hebridean Single Malt - This island distillery is also relatively new and has been making waves. Their flagship Scotch is made from 6 different recipes they distill in-house: Two Isle of Raasay spirits – peated and unpeated – are matured separately in first fill Rye whiskey, fresh Chinkapin Oak and first fill Bordeaux red wine casks.
Wolfburn: Northland. Yet another exciting new Scotch Distillery. This expression sees their distillate aged in ex-Islay American Oak quarter casks. 46% abv.
The GlenAllachie - 12yo. Although this distillery has been around since 1967, when legendary whiskymaker Billy Walker bought this distillery a few years ago, he did what he does best — massively upgrading their wood program to make sure the distillate was aging in the best possible casks, and the results are palpable.
Kilchoman - Batch Strength. It’s hard to believe that this upstart distillery on the smoky-whisky capital of Islay is now inching up on nearly 20 years of distilling. As a farm distillery, they grow a lot of the grain they end up using in their whisky, but they long resisted the trend towards high proof/cask strength whisky, until finally relenting last year by making this part of their core range at 57% abv.
M&H Elements - Pomegranate. Now for something completely different — as if Israeli single malt wasn’t enough to get our attention, this special release is matured in ex-pomegranate casks. Pomegranates are a staple is Israeli food, but to our knowledge, this is the first time a pomegranate cask has been used to make whisky!
That’s our lineup, we hope you can join us! 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, CJ and Drammers Club