The Dram Initiative Meeting #000

Founders Meeting & Longrow Range Tasting

 

The first (un)official meeting.  A decision was made early on to consider this meeting #000, in order to allow the Founding Fathers to lay the cornerstone and make some informed decisions before the masses claimed their numbers.

The main reason to not consider this a proper whisky club gathering was that only seven were allowed to attend.  A few other paid and committed members were unable to make it this night, and a couple others were told to hang tight till an official roll-out with all details.

So…meeting #001, the first true ‘open’ club meeting will fall next month.  Tentative date…April 18th.

This night however, March 8th, 2013, was a necessary step in the evolution of this new collective.  On top of some laughs, good malts and great companionship, a five member sitting committee was established…a few future agendas (errrr…selection of malt ranges to be tasted) were set…costs were established…a few ground rules laid…a few suggestions made.  Voila.  The Dram Initiative is suddenly real.

There is now a category along the left hand side of this website marked ‘The Dram Initiative’.  This is where all club-related news, tips, notes, tidbits, gossip, etc will be found in coming days.  I’ll be sharing details of successes and obstacles here as well.  A future piece will concentrate on what we did to launch this club.  Hopefully this will help some others who have questioned me on this subject in the past.  Perhaps our blueprint will help a few others start up their own circle of malters.

I also plan, in future e-pistles, to provide a few proper tasting notes on the drams.  In this case though…we were simply too preoccupied with the business at hand.  So…no tasting notes to speak of yet, but…I’ll share a few thoughts here, anyway…

First Dram Initiative Flight:

Longrow CV – A brilliant entry level malt in the range.  One of the better young whiskies out there.  Divided the peaters from the non-bogheads.

Longrow 10 y.o. 1996 – Creamier and mellowing nicely.  Peat is still smoking, but there is balance here.

Longrow Red – Longrow meets Cabernet Sauvignon…WTF?!  It works though.  Not completely, but…it does work.  There was some debate as to just how ‘wine-y’ this one seemed.

Longrow Gaja Barolo – Still a favorite, and holds up well in the line-up.  Love it.  If you can find one…do so.

Longrow Rundlets & Kilderkins (advance sample) – Thanks to Andy Dunn for hooking us up with this one.  Look forward to the official release.  This malt and I…we need to spend some time together.  Quite dug it.

Longrow 18 y.o. – Awesome.  Pretty sure all loved this, even the non-peaters in our midst.  Brilliant balance.  Simply put…great whisky.

Longrow 12 y.o. Single Cask 1996 – Off the rails.  An absolute sulphur mess.  Though I will revisit, can’t say this was enjoyable off the cork.

Springbank 18 – An incidental extra thrown in.  Loved by all.  Hey…what do you expect?  It is a mature Springbank, after all.

 

Good line-up, no?  And where else will you find a Longrow range tasting?  But…enjoyable as it was…it was nothing compared to next month’s range.  Good things to those who wait.

To those who came out on first night to kick this thing in the ass…here’s to ya!  To all involved and all to be involved…here’s to many years of enlightenment!

 

Wanna be a part of The Initiative?  You know where to find us.  Drop a line for details.  uisgebeatha7@hotmail.com

 

– ATW