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Hello NYC Drammers!
You’re invited to join us this Tuesday, Oct. 6th at 7pm as we open up a legendary bourbon dusty bottle with Sam Medley, the owner of Medley Bros. bourbon, and the heir of a centuries-old heavyweight family in the bourbon industry. As everyone knows, we recently celebrated the 250th anniversary of the US, and many limited edition bourbons were released to commemorate that. Well they did they same thing 50 years ago at the 200th anniversary — America’s Bicentennial, and back then (1976) Medley Bros. was the king of the bourbon landscape, with the #1 selling bourbon brand in Kentucky. They released a Bicentennial banjo-shaped bottle to commemorate the big day, and recently when Sam was going through the basement of his father (longtime bourbon-hall-of-famer Charles Medley), he found an unopened bottle of the 1976 Bicentennial banjo bottling, an 8yo Kentucky bourbon made at the distillery that the Medley family then owned in Western Kentucky, what today is known as the Green River Distillery.
Longtime Drammers will remember our love of the Medley family, which traces their American whiskey roots to the 1700s (btw, if you had a Pappy rye in the early 2000s, guess who Julian was buying the whiskey from? The Medleys!). When we launched the Drammers Club single barrel program back in 2019, our very first single barrel bourbon pick was from the Medley Bros. Sam picked out 50 of his best single barrels back then, and selected a group in each state to select a barrel — we were selected for NYC, Los Angeles and Denver, and each chapter picked a “Private Select” single barrels of their bourbon (no age statement, but reportedly 12yo). They were stunning, and we’ve pulled out some of the remaining bottles from those picks to taste at this event. The lineup will include:
The 1976 Bicentennial Medley Bros. Banjo Bottle, 8yo, 43% abv. These are very rare. No bottles have come up at auction in the last year (one bottle went up at auction in April 2025 — and who knows when the last time one of these was actually opened and drank!
Charles Medley Master Distiller Diamond Collection. On any normal day, this would be far and away the headliner, but this is not a normal day, ha. This expression was never available for sale, only 450 bottles were made and hand numbered (Sam once told us that he had written down the numbers of every bottle he ever gave to people, so he could track it down if one ever went up at auction, ha. I believe these were created in honor of Charles being admitted to the bourbon hall of fame, but we’ll have to confirm with Sam about that (it was around that time in any case). 91.71% proof
Another Dusty Bourbon from Medley Bros.! We picked this bottle up at auction years ago and have been saving it for a special occasion. We don’t know a ton about it, at least dates back to the 1980s, probably more like the 60s. We’ll see if Sam has any insights into it. 40% abv
Drammers NYC Pick - Medley Exclusive Batch Bourbon (2020 release)
Drammers LA Pick - Medley Exclusive Batch Bourbon
Drammers Denver Pick - Medley Exclusive Batch Bourbon
Medley Bros. Bourbon - of course we’ll have their everyday flagship on hand to taste as well!
Wathen’s Bourbon - Not everyone knows that this is actually another core range bourbon brand owned by the Medleys.
That’s our lineup, we hope you can join us! As always, we organize these events at cost, there is not profit from the events. Your ticket includes light food (Joe’s Pizza). Charlie and Summer are hosting at their apartment: 250 Mercer St, Apt C512, between 3rd and 4th streets near Washington Square Park. Please let us know if you have any questions!
Cheers,
Charlie, Mike and Drammers Club