Feb 2024 - Israel, America and France

Welcome to this months Mr Dram Man Subscription and welcome to all our new members. This month I have gone a bit different and taken us on an international excursion of some world whiskies. I have searched for distilleries that have won awards for what they do, keeping my fingers crossed for some high quality and delicious Drams.

To start, we will hop just over the Channel to France, where we have Brenne, a French Single Malt Whisky, made with their own organic Barley, and distilled for a minimum of 6 years in a combination of French Limousine Oak casks and ex-cognac casks. French Limousine Oak is a very popular cask wood in Europe, usually creating a sweet and clear spirit – which explains the very light colour of this Brenne whisky, it is then added to the cognac casks to finish which should provide further sweet fruitiness to this liquid. Brenne as a distillery won awards in 2016, 2017, 2020 & 2021 for their innovation in the whisky world. On the nose I get instant floral notes, elderflower, banana, and the combination gives me a Jägermeister note (not too sure how good this is, taking me back to my Uni days). Not the flavours I expected from this but I am definitely expecting a sweet taste here. Onto the palate and yes, I am getting a very sweet, tropical fruits, bananas, buttercups and elderflower. Now I am 3 sips into this and to me this tastes less of a whisky and more of a liqueur, I would love to know how you feel about this? I am not convinced with this at all as a whisky. The finish is short and sweet, which is a bonus, the sweetness is too much, and feel it is more like a whisky style spirit you would put into a sweet cocktail. For the rough price of £55 a bottle this is not one I would not be recommending. Unfortunately, this only gets 54/100 from me. How do you guys feel on this one?

Before moving to the next Dram – this highlights one of advantages to a subscription like this – tasting new drams and being able to decide whether you would like a full bottle. This is one of those that I am pleased I have tried, but also pleased its just a sample and not a full bottle. I always hope to send you fantastic Drams to try and enjoy but I will always give you my honest opinion.

On to the next one we go, and I am flying down to Israel now, to the Milk and Honey Sherry Cask finish – this won Worlds best Single Malt 2023 at the World Whisky awards. So it has got a lot to live up to. What M&H says makes their liquid unique is the maturation process, hot and humid temperatures react differently on the casks, in some ways speeding up the reaction with the wood – because of this they believe that it doesn’t need to be left as long in cask to create a flavourful and smooth finish (this does have its downsides – higher angels share % is lost and harder temperature control). First thing I notice is the good colour on it: golden amber. On the nose I get orange peel, strawberry fields, and Haribo cherry sweets. Moving onto the palate I get a good balance of dried fruits, all spice and clear honey, slightly peppery towards the end – its not the usual sweetness you would expect from a sherry finished dram but has a sort of complimentary sweetness to the fruit flavours. The finish is medium with the spiced notes lingering like a stewed pair in mulled wine. 87/100

And to finish we are going long haul over to America for the Michters *1 Sour Mash Whisky small batch. Michters as a distillery has achieved many accolades and awards for their liquids they produce, with this being voted via blind tasting as The Whisky Exchanges whisky of the year back in 2019. The "Sour Mash" derives its name from the American Whiskey production process whereby previously fermented 'mash' (a solution of grain and water which forms the base for all whiskies) is used as the starter for the new mash to be fermented - much like making sourdough bread. With Michter's unique grain selection, this whiskey is neither Rye (which must legally contain 51% of the mash bill) nor Bourbon (51% corn). From what I know of American whiskey, it has to be in cask for a minimum of 2 years, but anything less than 4 years has to be stated on the bottle which this does not have, so it’s a minimum of 4 years old. On the nose I get burnt sugar, cinnamon, candied maraschino cherries. On the palate you get a caramelised sugar, honey and vanilla, the cherry notes continue through to a menthol finish, medium in length and it dries the mouth out a bit. It doesn’t feel like a whisk(e)y, but in a good way, and it’s a pleasant moreish drink - you can really taste the affects of their being a combination or rye, corn and malt in the mash bill with the corn bring a lot of that sweetness in. 84/100

If anyone is wanting full bottles of any of these get in touch and I can let you know a price I can get them for.