Jul. 29: Drammers Phoenix......
Hello Phoenix Drammers!
Our next rare whiskey and spirits tasting in Phoenix will be on July 29th at 7pm. We’ve just had some big bourbon single barrels arrive, plus some fun new rye, Scotch, American Single Malt and tequila, so we’ll have a lot of fun things to sip on. A big thank you to CJ for organizing and hosting us again - (address: 7641 W Windrose Dr, Peoria AZ). Check out our lineup:
Elijah Craig Single Barrel - Our first Drammers-exclusive single barrel of Elijah Craig bourbon has arrived, and you’ll be our first Drammers chapter to taste it! Aged 9 Years, Kentucky straight bourbon, cask strength. Drammers Pick #105, Barrel Serial #: 7078370, 59.9% abv.
New Russell’s Reserve Drammers-Pick Bourbon Single Barrel. When we went down to Kentucky to pick the barrels, the initial plan was to pick just one Russell’s Reserve. Then when we tried all the barrels at Wild Turkey, we fell in love with THREE of the barrels. They’re all 8 year Wild Turkey single barrels, but one had a distinct cherry note that we loved. Another had an unusual milky/creamy note that we couldn’t pass up, and the third had a delicious black tea / English Breakfast tea thing going on. So after much debate and hand-wringing, we started a discussion. Was there any world in which we could get an allocation of all 3 Russell’s barrels? It took some phone calls and a lot of promising, but in the end they made it work for us. We’ll bring at least one of these to taste at this event. 55% abv.
Wilderness Trail - Single Barrel Rye. On that same trip where we picked the single barrel of Russell’s Reserve at Wild Turkey, we also made the trip over to Campari’s sister distillery Wilderness Trail. Since last year we selected a single barrel of their bourbon, this year we zeroed in on a barrel of their spectacular rye whiskey. We settled on this one, which again has just arrived. 53.2% ABV / BARREL NO: 751059 / AGED: 5 Years, 11 Months /Barrel Type: ISC Classic #4 / Yeast Straing: 048.
Tenmile Distillery - Little Rest American Single Malt (Export Cask). Tenmile is an important new distillery that is serious about American Single Malt. The distillery was founded in 2017, first started making whisky in 2020 and only released their first single malt in 2023. Everything they do is made in-house in Upstate New York, using locally-grown barley (as in 30 miles away) that is malted in New York. To accomplish all this, they brought in a heavyweight distillery, Shane Fraser. Shane has a remarkable resume, having worked as a distiller at Oban, then he went on to be the Distillery Manager at Glenfarclas of all places for nearly 6 years, followed by another 6 years as the Distillery Manager at the Wolfburn Distillery, before the Tenmile founders managed to poach him and bring him to New York, where he has overseen the operation from the launch. And now comes the exciting part, their whisky has come of age and they’re starting to roll it out to the world. They have been tinkering with the barrel makeup for their flagship “Little Rest”, and this recent “Export Cask” version seems to be a bit of Eureka! moment for them (80% bourbon casks / 20% sherry casks in the blend). 46% abv.
Tenmile - Little Rest Pinot Noir Cask - Cask Strength. For comparison, we’ll try their oldest whisky to date. Again, they only started distilling in 2020, and this release is their first product that has been aged 5 years. We thought it would be fun to compare their flagship 46% abv expression again something they’ve released at cask strength (here is a more robust 61.5% abv). This is a marriage of two Williams Selyem barrels together.
Highland Park Cask Strength 13yo. Highland Park is Scotland's Northernmost distillery, located on the island of Orkney, and is known for a distinct "heather" note in the local peat they use to peat their barley. This particular single barrel offering, a Drammers pick, was not finished in a sherry cask, rather it was aged all 13 years in a sherry cask (a butt). Distilled in 2006, bottled in 2019 at a whopping 63.9% abv.
G4 Reposado Tequila. Traditionally aged for at least six months in very old George Dickel Tennessee whiskey barrels, now often blended with some new barrels for enhanced character, Our Reposado is an expression of the landscape, with flavors influenced by the floral, herbal, and citrus plantings we grow at Rancho El Pandillo.
Plus one more surprise pour!
We hope you can join us! We’ll have light food on hand (pizza) which is included. As always, we must respectfully insist that nobody drive home after the event, so please arrange a ride home or plan to get an Uber etc. — after all, we’ll be drinking a lot of high proof whisky!
Cheers,
Charlie, CJ and Drammers Club