I love Golden Moon - a Colorado distillery that opened in 2008 and utilized old world production methods from the get-go. I am a particular fan of their Creme de Violette - an usually rich, leathery violet liquer - but this is their difficult-to-source Amer Dit Picon. Picon, of course, is the French term for an orange-flavored liqueur. Usually made with orange peel, chinchona bark, and gentian root, it's a staple of the amaro scene.
Glen Moray is one of those distilleries I first encountered in turbocharged single cask independent bottles - they are rich and sweet and full of interesting flavors, in that setting. But their official bottlings mostly seemed geared at the lower end of the market, and this Port Cask Finish bottling was only $28 - half the cost of most other standard bottles. Thanks to Rob Martin for this delicious sample!
Don Ciccio & Figli is located right here in Washington DC, in the Ivy City neighborhood. I have had, at this point, basically their entire lineup of amaros - and all are good. This is the most recent I've sampled: a tonic-style amaro made with chinchona bark, which has quinine in it, cooked/roasted on iron plates before maceration, unaged, bottled at 20% ABV.
This style of amaro dates to at least 1881, according to the story on the bottle. Their house blend of herbs is combined in terracotta amphorae (!), which is certainly old world style - I appreciate that. Let's dig in:
I have a deep and abiding love for Italian amaros - bitter herbal liqueurs - and eventually I will review all the 3-4 dozen that I have sampled here on the blog, as a change of pace and flavor.
I want to kick it off with this amazing organic digestif I recently had, from the Varnelli family in the mountains of central Italy - Amaro Dell'Erbolista. Unfiltered, made with spices and herbs combined over a wood fire, and sweetened only with organic honey, it's rapidly become one of my very favorites. Let's explore the bitter side:
Aged 14 years in ex-bourbon casks, although rumors persist that a little refill sherry casking is present as well - I came across that claim on numerous websites - and bottled at 46%.
Diageo is infamously mum about most of the important aspects of their various single malts. 95% of the output of Clynelish goes to Johnnie Walker, as far as I can tell, despite their very high reputation in the independent bottling scene.
Is this colored? Almost certainly. Is it chill-filtered? Very probably. But my memory is that the famously waxy character of Clynelish still shines through, and this is a particularly delectable single malt. Let's explore...
Almost exactly a year has gone by since I was gifted a dram of this by my good friend Rob Martin. Tonight, while out walking around, I wandered into Metro Liquors in the Adams Morgan neighborhood of Washington DC and they had a fire sale on this 2018 bottling to make room for new things. I knew I'd had it, but my memory was scant, faded. So I picked up a bottle.
I have enjoyed both expressions of Kilkerran that I've had previously - the 8 year and the 12 year - and tonight I am sampling the "heavily peated, batch 4" expression of their Peat-in-Progress series.
Kilkerran is a product of one of the three remaining Campbeltown distilleries (Glengyle, which is owned by Springbank, another favorite distillery of mine). This is batch 4, no age expression (apparently is 5-6 years old), was bottled at 58.6% ABV, matured 80/20% in bourbon/sherry casks. Let's immediately dig into some young Campbeltown glory:
It's safe to say now that the Diageo "Game of Thrones" scotch experiment was - sadly - not a success. These attempts to lure your average HBO viewer to the world of expensive liquor was (perhaps) well intentioned, and maybe even well executed, but didn't really pay off. Most scotch drinkers I know considered it some kind of joke, and all the liquor store owners I chatted with said the bottled were hard as hell to move.
The original Game of Thrones collection had the following bottlings:
It's been almost exactly a year since I last had this magnificent 21-year scotch from Glenfarclas. Quite possibly the best-priced 20+ year scotch on the market (I obtained it for $135, less than even the 17 year goes for!), I remember this being full of fascinating, balanced flavors. 100% aged in Oloroso sherry casks - the standard Glenfarclas house style - and bottled at 43% ABV, this was one of the highlights of my 2021 drinking year.
