Alberta Rye Dark Batch
Loved or hated, flavored whiskies have been on the market for quite some time in various guises. This particular dram is pretty unique. In Canada, it is called Dark Horse but a conflict of trade names in the US means the version we picked up goes by Dark Batch. Made by the largest rye whisky producer in North America, it is a 50-50 blend of two Canadian ryes, aged 6 and 12 years. This rye blend makes up 91% of the total. Another 8% is Old Grandad bourbon, with the last 1% sherry. Yes, not ex-bourbon or ex-sherry casks for finishing, but actual bourbon and sherry. This whisky is so unlike anything we’ve ever tasted, we simply had to try it for ourselves. Of note, the majority of its marketing promotes it primarily for cocktails.
Scotchology: Year Four
Against all expectation, the end of this past June marks the fourth anniversary of the first time the original group of us got together, before we even called ourselves Scotchology. Before all kinds of hi-jinks, travels, and tastings. And despite the best of intentions to make this an annual sort of thing, it has been two years since the last update. It seems like a long time since June of 2013, when four of us began to regularly meet for the expressed purpose of exploring single malt scotch together. We’d never have dreamed we’d find ourselves where we are now. Wait, where are we?
Glenfarclas 17 Year
Operating continually for over 180 years, Glenfarclas is one of the big players in Speyside, its six stills (3 wash, 3 spirit) are the largest in the region with a capacity of 3.5 million liters per year. Even more impressive is, in a time of proliferating No Age Statement malts, this distillery has an extremely wide range of age statement whiskies in constant production. While they have a few older bottlings like a 25, 30 and 40 year, they also have many younger offerings like 10, 12, 15, 17 and 21 year whiskies that are, relatively speaking, very affordable. This expression, like many Glenfarclas malts, is aged exclusively in ex-sherry casks.