Image 1 of 1
Fellow Drammers!
We're excited to announce this special event on Wednesday, October 14th starting at 8pm EST / 5pm Pacific with our friends at PM Spirits and their founder Nicolas Palazzi as our guest speaker. We've done a ton of events with them in the past, so we suspect most of you are already familiar with them, but just in case not, they are one of our favorite distributors specializing is high end craft spirits, so basically the kind of stuff we love here at Drammers (recent events include Wilderness Trail, Mal Bien Mezcal, Deadwood, etc.).
Anyway, this event is particularly special and -- frankly -- personal. It features 6 expressions (3 single malts from Arran, 3 Cognacs including a 50yo), but it is the single malts that require some special attention here because of the deep personal meaning they have for PM Spirits founder, and our friend, Nicolas Palazzi. He bought them in 2012 to celebrate the birth of his first daughter Jane, and since then she has overcome some incredible challenges. As described on the back of the 7yo bottle in Nicolas' own words, "This bottling is a tribute to the most courageous little girl I have met, who fought for her life in 2017, went through brain surgery on Jan. 17th, 2018 and is slowly but surely taking her life back. #janeonfire #epilepsywarrior."
It feels kind of silly to say anything beyond that, but for what it's worth, the 3 whiskies we'll be drinking at this event are "single malt whiskies" not "scotch" because -- although they were distilled in Scotland at the celebrated Arran distillery -- when Nicolas bought them, he had them shipped to where he was in the Cognac region of France to age there (to qualify as Scotch, they would need to have been aged entirely in Scotland).
A little more context for you here -- Nicolas Palazzi grew up on a family farm with close ties to the Cognac region, so brandy practically runs through his veins, and it had a big impact on him. To this day, his biggest influencers are in Cognac, where he trained and eventually acquired a cellar of stellar brandy. Along the way, Nicolas tasted and snapped up a bunch of casks and demijohns of Cognac plus a few incredible casks of single malt scotch from Isle of Arran that he stowed away and has been aging for years, and they're finally ready for the grand debut. So, setting aside the 50yo L'Artisan du Cognac No. 50 for a moment, here are the other 5 pours we'll be drinking on the 14th:
23yo Arran. Distilled in 1996, aged at the Arran distillery until 2012 and then shipped to France where it continued to age, this time in ex-cognac barrels in a cellar in the Cognac region.
7yo Arran "Jane". Nicolas bought this as new make to celebrate the birth of Nicolas' first daughter Jane. It aged for 7 years in one of the only 200 liter casks in the world made from oak from the Reno Valledieu forest (made by hand by the celebrated French cooper Jean-Noel Pelletan as his masterpiece for his Maitre Artisan Tonnelier diploma). 45.6% ABV.
6yo Arran. This one is a blend of 3 casks of new make (one peated), two first fill ex-bourbon casks (one of which held the peated new make), and a first fill ex-sherry hogshead. 46.8% abv.
Cognac XO. This is 20-25yo cognac. The cask was picked up by Nicolas a decade ago and further aged by him. 42.6% abv.
Cognac Hommage. A tribute to Yves & Jean-Noel Pelletan, with juice distilled between 1925 and 1965. 43.8% ABV
These bottles are the new PM Spirits Project bottlings. Separate from that we'll also be tasting:
50yo L’Artisan du Cognac. A rare 50 year old Cognac Grande Champagne (the L'Artisan du Cognac, cask strength and unfiltered, bottled in 2012 (43.6% abv).
And we’ll have Nicolas and Leo on hand to tell us all about these special bottles. Needless to say, this promises to be a special night. We hope you can join us!
$35/person for Members
$50/person for Observers