Categorie: Whisky nieuws

Elijah Craig “Toasted Barrel” Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whiskey

(750ml)

$54.99

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93 points Wine Enthusiast

 This needs a few minutes to open up to reveal a rich caramel aroma. The palate is markedly sweet and spicy, showing vanilla, caramel and a mix of cinnamon and cayenne. Adding water tones down the heat and brings a flavor or cinnamon red-hot candies wrapped in caramel squares. A vanilla accent smooths over the long exit. It’s a small-batch Bourbon finished in toasted new oak. (KN)  (7/2021)

Whisky Advocate

 Initially reticent on the nose, with time this reveals gooey caramel, pralines, Hershey’s milk chocolate, and a touch of charred mint leaves. It’s chewy and occasionally sharp on the palate, with oodles of roasted nuts, polished oak, mint, peppery spice, dark chocolate, licorice, tobacco ash, and char. The medium-length finish holds tingling white pepper, unsweetened chocolate, and more polished oak. (SSB, Fall-2020) 

K&L Notes

This is a different take on Elijah Craig’s classic and beloved Small Batch Bourbon. A judicious application of a new toasted barrel take the well-known profile of one of our best-selling bourbons and kicks it up several notches. This whiskey is a new offering from the brand and was recently launched on an allocated basis, making it highly desirable yet difficult to find. From the distillery: “The process begins with fully matured Small Batch, which is dumped and then re-entered at barrel proof into a second, custom toasted new oak barrel designed in partnership with Independent Stave Company. Made with 18-month air dried oak, the finishing barrel is first toasted and then flash-charred using a moderate toast temperature and toast time. An extensive research and development process resulted in a final barrel toast profile bringing forward dark sugar flavors within the wood to create a balance of smokiness and sweetness after months of finishing.”

Email: wine@klwines.com
Phone: (877) KL-WINES (Toll Free 877.559.4637)
K&L Wine Merchants 3005 El Camino Real Redwood City, CA 94061 USA
San Francisco, Redwood City, Hollywood CA

B.C. pre-orders for our limited-edition whisky are closing soon! Aged for a minimum of three years in American white oak barrels, this latest batch of Canadian rye speaks to a mash bill of exclusively B.C. grains, traditional distillation methods, and the pure love of making whisky.

It’s robust, full-bodied — and we can’t wait to raise a glass with you! ⁠ Orders are shipping out in March — click the button below to secure your bottle now.⁠

LEARN MORE AND RESERVE WHISKY

North Port/Brechin 1970 G&M, 40%

Closed distilleries still carry a mystique for a lot of us whisky drinkers, but some are better than others. Some are more interesting historically. Some are lauded in the correct manner, but where’s does North Port sit in all of this?

A Highland distillery that once shadowed Glencadam and the owner of numerous different names over the century and a half that it existed, it is one of the lesser known ‘lost’ distilleries that now sits in Diageo’s record books of stock that they just don’t know what to do with.

This sample was purchased by Mark Littler for the purposes of this review, and you can also find a written review on his website blog.

Utah’s High West made a name for itself as a company that was refreshingly transparent about its sourced whiskeys at a time when many whiskey nerds had a fever-pitch obsession with the allegedly deceptive practices of Non-Distiller Producers. However, becoming a fan favorite on the basis of creative blending and transparency had the perhaps unintended effect of making those same nerds forget the other significant point of High West: it was a trailblazer of the practice of building a brand with sourced whiskeys while working on a distillery, then navigating the transition to in-house production.

Now High West has unveiled their first in-house bottled in bond whiskey, joining the swelling ranks of small producers with bonded expressions. This is a four year old bonded rye, made from a mash bill of 80% rye and 20% malted rye, and offered at $79.99 a bottle.

By Richard Thomas

St. Patrick’s Day has grown from being the feast day commemorating the death of Ireland’s patron saint into an international (often unofficial) holiday celebrating all things Irish. There is no better time to expand your knowledge of the surging Irish Whiskey scene and get acquainted with some new expressions. I’ve drawn up a list of seven such new Irish whiskeys, each interesting in its own right and collectively representing the whole price range.

Blackwater Peat the Magic Dragon Single Malt (€96/$105)
Released only two months ago, this one is as new to shelves as they come. Blackwater Distillery is one of the many craft scale distilleries that have sprung up in Ireland in recent years, located in what used to be a hardware shop on the banks of their namesake, the Blackwater River. Their whimsically named Peat the Magic Dragon is an Irish single malt, single barrel release made with barley that was grown, malted and smoked with peat/turf all on and from the same sight. Blackwater details all this in a way that would make the heart of any militant purist sing. They matured it in a French oak barrel that had seen a previous use aging cherry liqueur. It’s also a rare one: the yield of the one cask was just 350 bottles (and those are 500 ml bottles at that) at 49% ABV. This bottle was only released in Ireland, but the few retailers who still have it ship to the US.

Boann Winter Solstice Preston’s Mashbill (€150/$163)
This one is also brand new, having been released just in the last couple of months. Boann Distillery is located in the Boyne Valley, and what they’ve done is recreate a whiskey using a 140 year old grain recipe from Preston’s, a famous Drogheda negociant from the heyday of Irish Whiskey. What that mash is exactly Boann won’t say, but they put the new make into a Oloroso hogshead for this single barrel, cask strength (59.9% ABV) release. So, Winter Solstice Preston’s Mashbill is also a limited edition with a small production run, and it’s also something you’ll need to acquire as a special import unless you happen to be reading this from Ireland.

Bushmills 25 Year Old Single Malt ($900)
Since St. Paddy’s 2023, the world’s oldest licensed distillery has expanded their permanent line-up with two ultra-aged expressions, a 25 and 30 year old single malt. As the 25 year old is the more approachable of the two, that is the one chosen for this list. Previously (and going back decades), the oldest Bushmills in regular release had been their 21 year old. This whiskey started life as pretty typical Bushmills, spending five years in ex-bourbon and ex-Sherry casks. What sets it apart is it then went on for a dominant, extraordinary secondary maturation of twenty years in first-fill ruby Port pipes. These are available in the US, UK and Europe in the 700 ml format.

Keeper’s Heart 10 Year Old Single Malt ($100)
I will hopefully head off an ignorant comment by stating that while O’Shaughnessy Distillery is in Minnesota, not Ireland, this one is sourced and is an Irish Whiskey. Once we get past that pedigree (because Irish Whiskeys sourced by for a US-based label are pretty rare), this single malt has a more ordinary story: aged for 10 years and finished in Malaga wine casks before bottling at 43% ABV. Just keep in mind the crew behind it includes Brian Nation, former Master Distiller of New Midleton, so O’Shaughnessy certainly has the expertise to do this right.

Method & Madness 7 Year Old Single Malt (€95/$103)
New Midleton is where Jameson, Powers, Redbreast and the Spots are all made, but if you think about those brands, the one thing none of them do is a single malt. It just isn’t something Irish Distillers is known for, so it shouldn’t be surprising that when the company put out a single malt, it came from their experiments Method & Madness brand. Most Method & Madness whiskeys are made in New Midleton’s in-house craft distillery, and this first-ever 7 year old single malt is an example. Aged in ex-bourbon and ex-Sherry casks, it’s bottled at 43% ABV.

Midleton Very Rare Forêt de Tronçais ($5,000)
The very rare, very expensive entry on this list is also from New Midleton. That distillery’s Kevin O’Gorman was their chief wood and maturation specialist before becoming Master Distiller in 2020. It was in that preceding role that O’Gorman was in France in 2017, looking for cask stock. That was when he explored oak from the Tronçais forest in central France, built into casks by the Taransaud cooperage, typically a supplier to the wine and Cognac industries. They made what are called T5 casks for O’Gorman, with that French oak air-seasoned for five years before the cask is made.

The actual whiskey is (like Midleton Very Rare) a marriage of single grain and single pot still whiskeys, drawn from a range of ex-bourbon barrel aged stock distilled between the 1980s and 2000s. Reading between the lines, that means the minimum age on the marriage is over twenty years, and some of the whiskeys could be older than forty years. Then it went to those new T5 casks for an additional three years before bottling at 48% ABV.

Waterford Peated Woodbrook (€94/$104)
Waterford Distillery has taken peated Irish whiskeys to a new level with two new expressions, the first- and second-most peated Irish malts of modern times, with Woodbrook being the title holder. Waterford specializes in relatively young, grain-forward whiskeys that rely on flavorful, estate-grown choices in barley. So, this malt was made with barley from Woodbrook farm in County Dublin. The barley was peated up to 74 ppm, and to put that into perspective, a typical Laphroaig malt is peated to between 40 and 50 ppm. This smoky take on Irish Whiskey is bottled at a healthy 50% ABV.

Bardstown Bourbon Company “Discovery Series #9” Blended Whiskey (750ml) (Previously $120)

$87.99

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Disco #9 is here and K&L has exclusive first rights to sell it in California. Aptly named, the series has always been about unique combinations of whiskies that are impeccably blended to maximize deliciousness. They often include rare ingredients in unusual combinations, but they always taste amazing. The 9th edition features a backbone built on a mysterious 8 year old Georgia produced Bourbon with a unique four-grain mashbill: corn 80%, wheat 10% / rye 5% / malted barley 5%. This makes up 35% of the blend. The next largest component is 12 year old KY Bourbon weighing in at 31% of the blend. The mashbill for this gives a few clues, but of course, nothing about the source ingredients is confirmed. corn 75% / rye 13% / malted barley 12% happens to be the same as Beam’s Booker’s mashbill and Wild Turkey’s mashbill, so either of those are a likely contributor. 19% of the blend is 17 year old TN distillate with a mashbill of corn 84% / rye 8% / malted barley 8% — surely this is George Dickel. And the final 15%? 100% corn whiskey from Ontario offering a big pop of oak and sweetness. Bardstown’s Notes: “A decadent bouquet of cocoa nib, plum, and cedar box is highlighted by lively orange peel. Vanilla cream with cinnamon spice takes the lead on the palate, building to an indulgent, sublime finish.”

Email: wine@klwines.com
Phone: (877) KL-WINES (Toll Free 877.559.4637)
K&L Wine Merchants 3005 El Camino Real Redwood City, CA 94061 USA
San Francisco, Redwood City, Hollywood CA

Vic Cameron, one of our whisky lecturers says: “A barrel is a type of cask. It’s used for making bourbon, holds 200 litres of spirit and is always made from American oak. There are lots of different types of casks: barrels, hogsheads, puncheons, butts, for example. So, all these are different types of casks.”

 Watch the Video | Read the Post

Diagram: Whisky Warehousing Systems

Once a cask is filled with new make spirit, it must be matured for a minimum of three years before it can be called Scotch whisky. How is the spirit stored? This post explains the three types of warehousing systems used in Scotland.  Read the Post

Why Learn About Whisky?

We brought together a group of whisky experts and asked them why whisky is such a fascinating topic for study. Our teachers Vic Cameron and Dr Gordon Steele spoke with Fionnán O’Connor (Irish whiskey historian), Michael Walsh (Irish whiskey consultant), Jenny Karlsson (Ardnamurchan Distillery), Scott Sneddon (InchDairnie Distillery) and Andy Colman (Port of Leith Distillery).

Watch the Video | Read the Post

ralfy review 1013 Extras – When spirits cross borders.

A Decade of Policy Advancements Propel Bourbon Industry’s Impact To Local, State and Global Economies

Commonwealth’s Bourbon Economy Thriving In Latest Report

Frankfort, Ky.— Spurred by a decade of legislative changes to Kentucky’s archaic alcohol laws, the Commonwealth’s signature Bourbon industry now provides more jobs, generates more payroll, pays more taxes, attracts more tourists and features more distilleries than ever before, according to the newly published Bourbon Economic Impact Report.

The record-breaking statistics were released today by Gov. Andy Beshear, Senate President Robert Stivers, House Speaker David Osborne, Agriculture Commissioner Jonathan Shell and leaders of the Kentucky Distillers’ Association trade group.

“Kentucky’s economy is booming, and the Bourbon industry is helping us build a strong economy for generations to come,” said Gov. Andy Beshear. “Today, this signature industry is generating $9 billion in total economic impact, with more on the way. We thank our distilleries for working hard to create more good jobs and boosting our tourism industry across the Commonwealth.”

“Kentucky’s Bourbon economy is stronger than ever thanks to the dedication of our elected officials to update archaic alcohol laws that were forcing distillers to look elsewhere and the men and women who work in the industry every day,” said Eric Gregory, President of KDA. “With modern alcohol laws now in place, the signature industry continues to help build a stronger Kentucky.”

The report used data from 100 distilleries in 42 counties and found that the industry continues to grow local communities with jobs, tax revenue, agriculture, tourism and out-of-state spending.

“Traditionally, Bourbon is known as a manufacturing powerhouse, but its influence really extends beyond production, as we continue to foster and grow partnerships with our local communities,” said Jessica Pendergrass, 2024 KDA Chair and General Counsel/Chief Compliance Officer at Heaven Hill.

“While the Bourbon report includes a deep analysis of industry metrics, forecasts, and of course, accolades from enthusiasts, our KDA members, deeply rooted in the Commonwealth, are proud to share the compelling story of how “Bourbon Builds Kentucky.”

The newest report found that distillers are making significant impacts in agriculture and tourism industries since the original 2009 report was published.

When it comes to the Bourbon economy taxes, the report found that Kentuckians are receiving $358 million in state and local taxes every year from distillers.

And, even though it remains the highest taxed large manufacturing industry in KY at $.17 per dollar, no other industry in the state has higher shares of national employment (27%), labor compensation (26%) and output than distilling. Kentucky distillers shipped more than $500 million in exports in 2022, almost all of which was Bourbon.

“Not only is Bourbon building Kentucky communities, but it’s also elevating Kentucky’s stature internationally as exports grow and distillers across the globe look to Kentucky for how to do it right,” added Pendergrass.

The full study completed by Dr. Paul Coomes can be found here and a topline summary can be found here. The industry’s recap of recent legislative changes can be found here.

Founded in 1880, the Kentucky Distillers’ Association (KDA) is the worldwide voice of Bourbon.

About the Kentucky Distillers’ Association:

Founded in 1880, the Kentucky Distillers’ Association is the legendary voice for Kentucky’s signature Bourbon and distilled spirits industry. Its diverse and growing membership produces the overwhelming majority of the world’s Bourbon, from historic, global brands to emerging micro distilleries that are fostering the next generation of the Commonwealth’s landmark economic engine and its thriving, timeless craft. Member benefits include media relations, international trade development, private sampling events, technical assistance, economic development support, networking, legal defense, marketing strategies, governmental and regulatory advocacy and innovative tourism experiences through the KDA’s world-famous Kentucky Bourbon Trail® and Kentucky Bourbon Trail Craft Tour® adventures. A 501(c)(6) nonprofit organization, the KDA maintains an open membership policy, champions a strong commitment to the responsible and moderate consumption of spirits, and fights to curb underage drinking and drunk driving. Learn more at www.kybourbon.com and www.kybourbontrail.com.

KENTUCKY BOURBON TRAIL®, KENTUCKY BOURBON TRAIL CRAFT TOUR®, KENTUCKY BOURBON AFFAIR, KBT®, BOURBON TRAIL and KENTUCKY BOURBON HALL OF FAME® are trademarks/service marks owned by the Kentucky Distillers’ Association.