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Fellow Drammers,
We are delighted to welcome you to the kickoff of our newest Drammers Club chapter here in Princeton — the event will be on February 24th at 7pm. More information about our club is available at www.drammers.com, but essentially we’re an invite-only club of over 1200 people who appreciate fine whisk(e)y, mezcal, and other spirits. We gather monthly in cities around the world from Los Angeles to Mumbai to appreciate the good stuff, often joined by leaders in the industry as guest speakers.
And we're kicking things off with a bang -- our guest speaker is none other than Robin Robinson, an accomplished whisky expert on many fronts. Formerly the brand ambassador for the prestigious Compass Box line of scotches, he went on to launch a consulting business that helped bring numerous new craft whiskies to market, and today he travels the country giving some of the most educational and entertaining whiskey talks around. Most recently, he's the author of "The Complete Whiskey Course", a powerhouse new book on our favorite liquid. Robin will be joining us in Princeton for the kickoff, and everyone who comes will receive a copy of his book, which he's happy to sign.
We'll also be opening 6 exciting bottles, most of which are long-out-of-print bottles that we sourced at auction, plus a couple of special Drammers-exclusive bottles that our club selected.
- Cadenhead Bladnoch 1990 26yo -
First up, we have a single malt scotch from the little-known Bladnoch Distillery, the southern-most distillery in all of Scotland, founded in 1817. It is one of 6 remaining "lowland" distilleries, though as you'll hear from our guest speaker, those "highland", "lowland", "speyside" etc. monikers might not mean much. It has mostly stayed open since its founding in 1817, with a few hiccups (WWII, a brief shutdown in the 1940s and again in the 1990s...). It's most recent iteration reopened in 2000 and put out its first Single Malt in 2009, but the bottle we'll be drinking pre-dates that, having been distilled in 1990, aged for just over 26 years and bottled in 2017. This bottle was released by Cadenheads, an independent bottler that does an excellent job of selecting particularly good casks from various distilleries. This was matured in a bourbon hogshead, and bottled at cask strength of 49%, 1 of 246 bottles.
- Teaninich 1984 17yo -
Next up is another little-known single malt and, as coincidence would have it, this distillery was also founded in 1817, this time by Hugh Munro at his Teaninch Castle estate (in the Highlands). The distillery bounced around between different owners, including some who also had stakes in the Tamdhu and Linkwood distilleries, and today it is owned by Diageo, who announced a big new renovation of the place in 2013. Today the distillery mainly produces malts for blending in Johnnie Walker Red and the like, and in fact there are no official bottlings of the malt, so to say the least it is a rare treat to try a 17 year aged version of this spirit, especially because it was matured for all of that time in a sherry butt (a slightly larger cask, so this is 1 of 838 bottles). This bottle was released by another well regarded independent bottler (Signatory Vintage), distilled in 1984, bottled in 2001, bottled at 43% ABV, with no added color.
- Poit Dhubh Blended Scotch 21yo -
Next up is a blended Gaelic whisky from the Isle of Skye in Scotland! Produced by Praban Na Linne, "Poit Dhubh" is pronounced Potch Goo and is Gaelic for Black Pot, which is a gaelic name for an illegal still, and this particular juice won a Gold Medal at the 2008 International Wine and Spirits Competition. We know some consider a "blended" scotch to be a dirty word, but we disagree -- a properly done blend can be exquisite (hey, Pappy Van Winkle is a blend!) and reportedly this one is delicious. We have yet to taste this at our club, but from reviews we can expect an earthy and slightly sweet nose, with smoke and plenty of sherry (of course) on the palate, capped off with a long finish. This is the oldest in the Gaelic Whisky Company's Poit Dhubh range and to our knowledge is not available anywhere in the US currently. Unchillfiltered, 43% ABV.
- The Glover by Adelphi 14yo -
Next, we'll switch things up a bit - a blend of a Japanese whisky with a scotch! This wildly unusual blend was created in honor of the "Scottish Samurai" Thomas Blake Glover, a Brit who moved to Japan and became a big figure in the industrialization of Japan, and in 1908 became the first foreigner to receive the Order of the Rising Sun. He apparently had a fascination with samurai clans, hence the nickname. Anyway, this was one of two very limited bottlings that were put out by the independent bottlers Adelphi -- this 14 year old version that we'll be drinking is 1 of only 1,500 bottles that were produced. They also put out a 22yo version, which included some of the most sought-after Japanese whisky of all time (Hanyu), and sadly a bottle costs more than the entire budget of our event, ha. But this bottle is exciting too, and honestly this is probably the only chance any of us will have to drink it. 44.3% ABV.
- Drammers-Exclusive Bottling - Westland Cask #3240 -
Next up are two bottles that our club selected based on past events, so these are exclusively available to Drammers members. We are big fans of the Westland Distillery, and had the honor of hosting their master distiller Matt Hoffman at our NYC chapter a while back. In addition to their core range offerings, they were running a private barrel select program of unique barrels bottled at higher proofs, and when we heard they were going to shut down the program for 5 years, we immediately reached out and they did us a favor, setting aside their very last two single casks for us at Drammers, including this one, Cask No. 3240. Between this and the other one (cask #430) this one is noticeably more smokey and definitely more peaty — it packs a punch, in contrast cask #430 is more lightly peated, a little more buttery notes in there. Cask No.3240 is aged for 42 months in a first-fill ex-bourbon cask, and the barrel yielded 204 bottles total at a whopping 60.2% ABV. Oddly enough, the other cask #430 is aged for a longer period (59 months), same cask type, but is actually lighter in color for some reason, funny how that works. They don’t call out the barley varietals they use in their exclusive cask program, but most likely it’s the concerto varietal. Anyway, this is an exciting chance to try what Westland can do at these higher proof points, and (if nothing else), since for the next 5 years, the public will only be able to buy the core range Westland bottlings which are delicious but only available at 46% ABV. Only Drammers Members will be able to access these last two single cask releases.
- Drammers-Exclusive Bottling - Rezpiral “Capon” Espadin -
Last but far from least, we're proud to present our first mezcal. Rezpiral is the brainchild of Alex White, who we've had the pleasure of visiting with in Oaxaca the last 2 years, and even volunteered a day transplanting baby tobala agave from his nursery to raised beds so they could continue to grow! When we did our event with him in NYC, we came to learn about what makes a "capon" mezcal so special. As a favor to Drammers Club, Alex hand-wrote a 7 page entry by Catarina Illsley about the Capon process, a copy of which will come with each bottle. Another thing to note is that this mezcal was rested in glass for over 6 months before it was bottled, which my fellow mezcal nerds know has an enormous impact on making a mezcal that much more tasty. We picked this batch of mezcal both because it tastes amazing, and because we are huge supporters of what Alex does -- his work is entirely funded by sales to support and empower single-family mezcal producers to sell their mezcal at fair market prices, and his Rezpiral brand was created to enable that. We had the honor of meeting the mezcalero behind this gem, Mr. Aureliano Hernandez when we were in Oaxaca this past August. Each bottle comes with a hand-written sticker that reads "In solidarity with the macroeconomy and the micro political, this mezcal selected for the Drammers Club".
That’s our lineup! And I’m sure our guest speaker will have plenty to say about each of them! And you never know with us, we might show up with an extra surprise or two. Btw, a huge thanks to fellow Drammer Matan Edvy for organizing this and agreeing to be our Princeton chapter head! In any case, we hope you can join us! Speaking of which...
HOW TO RSVP: Go to our website www.drammers.com and register, then you’ll be prompted to pick a membership level. “Drammers Observer” is free and enables you to sign up for our events, including our launch event in Princeton. The other tier, “Drammers Member” is $99/year and is a suggested (but voluntary) donation to support the costs of running the club (the events themselves are done at cost), and also includes certain perks like being able to buy our exclusive bottlings.
COST FOR THIS EVENT: $75/person (you can pay thru the website using credit cards, Apple Pay, or Paypal). Like all of our events, this is priced at cost.
LOCATION: Tiger Labs, 252 Nassau Street, Princeton, NJ 08542
Please let us know if you have any questions!
Sincerely,
Charlie and Matan