High West Rendezvous Rye Batch #49
We’re in the midst of a rye whiskey renaissance. It was not too long ago that rye whiskies were pretty rare beasts, but during the past five years there’s been a boom in the number of rye whiskies that are available. What’s more, a lot of these are very good whiskies. Consider some of the highlights:
- Van Winkle 13-year
- Rittenhouse 21-, 23-year, and 25-year
- Black Maple Hill 18- and 23-year
- Sazerac 18-year and 6-year Thomas Handy cask-strength
Across the board, these are fabulous whiskies, attaining heights and complexities of flavor often reserved for only fine scotch and the very best bourbons. And following in the wake of these whiskies are a whole family of ryes from a wide variety of distilleries. Small, micro-distillers such as Tuthilltown in New York and Grand Traverse in Michigan are releasing high quality, small-batch ryes. And there are a handful of ryes coming out from independent bottlers that… (read more)
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Glenfarclas 30-Year
Not all older whiskies are created equal. Whatever the reason behind it, there are simply some whiskies that age more gracefully than others, reaching a profoundness in maturity that others cannot quite achieve. Similar to some of the questions that I posed in a recent post about a Guatemalan coffee from Stumptown, I’m sure there are factors that play into the aging equation that some distilleries approach differently than others. Perhaps it’s the type of cask used, where the whisky is aged, or some step in the distillation process. But in the end, the reality is that some whiskies just age significantly better than others.
Glenfarclas is one of those.
What’s more, Glenfarclas is a whisky that expresses deep, enticing flavors throughout it’s lifecycle. From their basic 10-year bottling all the way up to the older, single-barrel bottlings, such as the 1968 single-cask that they released several years ago, Glenfarclas whiskies are singularly unique, and very good. But it’s… (read more)
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Allagash Brewing Co. Curieux
Last month I visited heaven on earth. It was during a recent vacation, part of which was a day-trip up to Portland, Maine. I’d always wanted to stop at Allagash Brewing, and so we made this one of the first stops of the trip.
All things told, Allagash is a fairly small brewery. They’re located in an unassuming building in a small industrial park, and produce ~4,000 barrels per year, 80% of which is their flagship beer, Allagash White. The remaining 20% is made up of a whole host of beers that includes a mix of year-round, seasonal, and one-off brews. They brew only Belgian-style beers, including the year-round Dubbel, Tripel, Four (a quad), and Black (Belgian imperial stout), seasonals such as Victoria Ale, Victor Ale, and Hugh Malone, and such inventive one-offs as Fluxus (a unique recipe each year), Confluence (fermented with Brettanomyces), Interlude (also uses Brettanomyces and is aged in red wine barrels), and… (read more)
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Great Divide Brewing Co. Colette Farmhouse Ale
Great Divide introduced Colette this past spring as one of a trio of beers that the company they re-released in new packaging (alongside Hoss and Claymore Scotch Ale). Colette had been previously released as Great Divide Saison in the spring of 2009, available then only in 22-ounce bottles. This time around, along with the renaming would also come new packaging, 6-packs as opposed to single 22-ounce bottles.
Saisons and farmhouse ales are one of the beer styles that has really risen to prominence in the past couple of years, as evidenced by the increasing number of American brewers producing some variation on the style. And herein lies the real beauty of this style, that it lends itself to myriad interpretations. Just take a look at two of the more prominent examples emerging from Belgium. Saison Dupont is generally considered the paragon of the farmhouse ale style, and it’s a fabulous beer. At once spicy, malty, refreshing, with… (read more)
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Barrington Coffee Roasters Papua New Guinea Kimel Farms Co-Op
This is one of the two coffees that I came back with after my visit to Barrington Coffee last month. It’s taken me ages to get around to writing about it, but I suppose there’s three reasons for that, 1) it’s summer, and we’ve been keeping busier than usual (which is saying something), 2) it’s summer, and with the rising temps my mind turns less often to thoughts of coffee, so while I drink it each day, putting the thought into writing about it is less common, 3) the World Cup – we’ve turned into soccer/football addicts and have been watching games during nearly all of our spare moments.
Nonetheless, I was lucky to get the chance to try this coffee. It’s unusual in a couple of regards. First off, it’s a peaberry coffee, meaning that the coffee cherry produced only one, rounded coffee bean. Most coffee cherries produce two haves of a coffee bean, which is why each… (read more)
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