Charbay LAWS Edition 1 69.1%

1. Charbay 12yo 69.1%
Los Angeles Whiskey Society

Charbay

A lot of companies/distilleries like to present their whisky as Unique, Rare, Limited and/or Special. This is often more marketing trompets than reality.

Any single cask can be described as the above if you feel like it. But what whisk(e)y can REALLY be described as the above?? 

This bottling can. This bottling IS different. It IS all of the mentioned. 

It's Unique. It's made from bottle ready pilsner made at Sonoma Mountain Brewry

Limited. Yes. 40 bottles

Rare. Yes, Charbay is a winery and a distillery. Their main product is not whiskey and they releases are rare as a hens tooth

Special. Yes. This tastes like nothing else in the world of whisk(e)y

Nose : fantastic nose. Pilsner ?. I would have thought a double IPA. Hops detoriate quite fast in beers, but in distilled spirit it seems to be preserved and also intensified. This nose is bombasticand intense. I can smell the glass from across the room. Licorise, wood. Tea. Hops

Palate : The alcohol is high but surprisingly not that overwhelming. The hops is again very dominating. I think I notice it because it's not a flavour you otherwise would find in whisky. Mint, licorise, tea, wood in a nice melting pot of flavours. This whiskey for sure benefits with water. Water adds some delicate sweetness and balance to this.

Finish : Very Long

Comment: A fantastic whisky. It's spectacular complex with unusual flavours, layered on a background of a solid whiskey in itself. 

Rating 91

I really like this dram. IPA is also my favourite beer style. Who thought this could be part of a whiskey in a succesful way ? 

LA whiskey society has an excellent website here : http://www.lawhiskeysociety.com/¨

It's a great source of whisk(e)y reviews

I visited Charbay Winery 1½ years ago:

http://danishwhiskyblog.blogspot.com/2011/02/charbay-winery-and-distillery.html

Back label

Big thanks to Adam from PLOWED to introducing me to Charbay, getting me this bottle and also hosting a Charbay vertical where I experienced various stages of this whiskey, samples of upcoming products, and the beers they are made from. Sonoma Mountain Brewery is out of business. The upcoming products were made from Bear Republic's Racer 5 (IPA) and a stout, also from Bear Republic 

World Whiskies - Happy New Year

As the new year is rolling in over the globe over the next 24 hours lets have a look at whisky from around the globe

Whisky is a popular dram. Distilleries are popping up all over the world, Personally I have always regarded Scotland, USA, Ireland and Japan for the classic 4 whisky countries which have a long tradition of making whisky of all kinds. Many would argue that Canada belongs to this list, and I don't really have an opinion if it does or not, I simply lack experience in canadian whiskies

But the world is coming. Amrut from India has already made it to the stars of whisky

World whiskies doesn't have the same reputation as whisky from the countries mentioned above, and there's a couple of reasons for that.

Some world distilleries simply make crap whisky and/or

Some distilleries bottle whisky that's too young

But that's not something particular for world whiskies. I could say the same about some whiskies from Scotland. But let's leave the bad ones.

This blog post is my personal recommendations of whiskies from around the world worth having a look at. The list isn't complete as I haven't tasted everything out there.

Let's start in America!

McCarthy's Oregon single malt whiskey

Single malt whiskey from Portland in Oregon, made at Clear Creek Distillery
This is a peated malt made on Holstein still's one a one-run distillation (with a twist)
Read more here : http://www.clearcreekdistillery.com/whiskey.html
A delicious peaty dram, well worth a look

Charbay

Charbay is a winery and multidistillery in the hills between Napa Valley and Sonoma Valley just north of San Francisco in California. Marko Karakasevic is a somewhat excentric distiller who decided if he had to dsitll beer, it has to be the best beers, so Charbay whiskeys is made from bottle ready IPA's, stouts and the likes. This isn't the cheapest whiskeys on the market and its not easy to find either as the releases has been few over the years

Read more here : http://www.charbay.com/ProductInfo.aspx?productid=WHISKII7

Moving over to Europe now :

France:

Glann ar Mor

Still

A Bretagne distillery in France keeps the celtic connection up, and with a double distillation, live flame heated, onion shaped pot stills, worm tubs and wooden wash backs this is as traditional as it can be.

Lars reviewed the peated version, Kornog here:
http://danishwhiskyblog.blogspot.com/2011/07/kornog-glann-ar-mor-distillery-france.html

Distillery home page here : www.glannarmor.com 

Czech Republic:

Hammerhead

A Czech distillery in Pradlo decided to make some whisky in 1989, right before the velvet revolution. The casks were forgotten in the mild turmoil that created the czech republic and the whisky was "rediscovered" in 2010 and bottled as a 21yo. The new owners , The Stock Spirit Group, were really surprised by the quality of this spirit, and it has been availbale for bargain prices in duty frees

Taiwan:


Kavalan

Kavalan is a Taiwanese whisky, the distillery was started in 2006. Several expressions has been released, Kavalan, Concertmaster (port finish), Solist (single casks of various types) and King Car (un-chill filtered, 46%). The whisky is sold mainly on the chinese markets and is really hard to get in Europe (and the US)

Last, I believe that Australia is an up and coming whisky producing country, but I simply haven't tasted anything under proper circumstances recently, but I did try Lark whisky at Glasgow Whisky Festival and it's for sure something to keep an eye on as well

Canada : Look out for Forty Creek whisky from the Kittling Ridge Distillery

Charbay Winery and Distillery

In January 2010 I had the pleasure to taste Charbay-II (thanks Adam) and I got aware of a winery on the hills between Sonoma and Napa Valley in the wine country just north of San Francisco, California.

Charbay is NOT on the main road

After a somewhat longish ride on small hilly roads, in dense forest, I finally found Charbay. It quickly realisedt that Charbay had it's distilling facilities in Ukiah, a bit north of the winery, but the old stills were displayed outside

A still, a boiler and a condenser

The stills will look familiar to those who are acquainted with Cognac. Alembic style!. Now, for a person who has seen quite a lot of scottish distilleries, the unusual about Charbay is not how the whisky is distilled, or the look of the stills. To see traditional potstills outside Scotland is actual a somewhat rare sight, but this is still quite similar to setups seen Scotland, which is the motherland of whisky, if not yours, it's mine. This doesn't mean good whisk(e)y can't be produced outside Scotland or on different still designs and setups.

Charbay is a good example. I had the honour of meeting Charbay's Marko Karakasevic. Charbay was founded by his father, who began distilling in California in 1983 and is 12th generation from a family of European distillers. Marko is 13th generation. Having a winery, and a distillery making wine and fruit based spirits, Marko turned to whiskey, as he was also a fan of the great new wave of american microbrew. He thought..why not turn these great ale and beers into whisky. Now this is quite unusual. The beer used is bottle-ready beer from a Northern Californian microbrewery. Marko uses several kind of beers and ales. Pilsner, IPA's and Stouts.

The Charbay I tasted in 2010 was release II

Charbay II at Ardbeggeddon 11

Charbay II is made from a pilsner, matured for approx. 6 years in casks, then 3 additional years in stainless steel tanks. Now I don't have any particular tasting notes for this whiskey, I tried it during a social event, amongst a "few" other drams, so my approach was not being scientific :-)

I remember liking it though, liking it so much I spend a few hours searching out this winery !

Aging a whiskey on stainless steel tanks is also unusual. Well maybe aging isn't the correct term to use, but I could have said marrying or mellowing. 

If you think nothing happens outside a barrel go google Old Bottle Effect or those Eau-de-vie's (or was it grappas?) that has been "matured" in glass (or was it also stainless steel). Anyway.

Marko want's the character of the beer/ale used to be a dominating factor of the final whiskey or spirit. He uses french oak that has previous held Chardonnay. He wants the oak to mellow and age the spirit, but not influence it to a greater extend, like bourbons.

It's hard to find Charbay II outside californian specialist shops. 

Marko and a wee still used to make brandy for fortified wines

I also had the honour of trying a wee sample of a couple of Marko's next projects. An IPA based whiskey, still maturing. This was a just one year old. The initial nose had the expected "youthness" to some degree, but the palate really surprised. What a pleasant explosion of flavours. Using the most expensive wash in the industry pays off it seems. I quickly noted down liquorice, tea, wood and roasted barley as the dominant tasting notes. I remember Marko looking at me like I was a bit weird when I mentioned tea, but I can calm him with the fact that it's not the first time I had that look :-), I often find things others wonder where the *censored* I got that from

A selection of Charbay's products

Visiting Charbay and talking to Marko was a very exciting experience. Marko has decided to do things his own way, and very different than others. So far his whiskey's has been produced only in very very small quantities. It is high quality, well matured whiskey. There's a lot of American microdistilleries coming up these years. I've tasted quite a lot of products I felt weren't really bottle ready, together with Anchor's Old Potrero Hotalings Whiskey 14yo, Charbay are the only superb products I have tried. The rest I would rate promising, but I have far from tasted everything :-)

Oh, afterwards I drived around Napa Valley. I tried a few wines I liked, something that usually happens once in 5 years. I should have brought a designated driver...