Catoctin Creek Distillery

In a Shot: I got to go on a tour to Catoctin Distilleries and ended up a fan while making fabulous cocktails.

Discovered by my wife, I was surprised one Saturday morning after my birthday to be delivered to the Catoctin Creek Distillery located in Purcellville, VA (Loudon County). Upon entering the distillery, you are taken to a small office space reminiscent to a dentist office only instead of little pictures of teeth or smiles, here numerous bottles of rye whiskies and Catoctin Creek memorabilia with a small couch on the right side, a little round table and some chairs on the other side next to a small office desk and computer.

Then there is the small door opening to what would be described as a small storage warehouse. That's when you realise you are somewhere personal and very special. Three things you first notice after acknowledging how small the space is; One, the room is filled with an intense, thick smell of rye malting; Two, In the distance a bright blue containment unit where the rye grain malts is zipped up in a silver fabric making it look similar to a small space ship; Three, the giant German still. An Ulrich Kothe Eislengen (Click the American flag and check out the website: http://www.kothe-dt.de/) - The machine produces very high quality spirits along side a very superior grain, a 100% organic rye, a grain that they strive to obtain locally and utilize domestically. The thing that separates it from any other distillery is this clean "white dog" that comes off the still, a product that most people recognize as moonshine and know it for it's high alcohol and bastardised version of gasoline. THEIR STUFF, is fruity, flavorful and incredibly smooth.

Before I get too lost in talking about the product, I want to discuss the small tour and the wonderful bottling experience I had at Catoctin Creek. Becky walked us through the tour, first directing us to the small space ship looking malt room where the rye was becoming suitable "distiller's beer" - We were all given a chance to climb up and smell the product as it develops. From there Scott excitedly showcased a batch of Gin in the works where what looked like a keg of his organic rye spirit was being flavored with a gigantic version of a tea bag filled with juniper berries, anise, orange peels and other Catoctin Creek ingredients steeping much like a very large tea. We were then shown the extra cool German built still, a little catching basket for the spirit and a giant tub where the volatiles and excess grain was being stored. These guys, to not waste any of the product, actually go and feed cows this left over mash. Check out this cool video I found on Youtube! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3L93D3MuQOE

The whole reason I came to Catoctin Creek, was my thoughtful wife, Mary who knew I was a fanatic for spirits. She also knew I was a huge supporter of the organic and local movement and the gift she gave me was not only the tour, but a fantastic bottling party experience! Every once in a while, Scott Harris will invite fans, supporters and guests to come and help with the bottling of freshly made new spirit. I happened to come on a day they were bottling Roundstone Rye, their flagship 100% organic all rye barrel aged whisky. Check out this great video of me using the famous "whisky cow" to bottle some rye:

I think the greatest thing about it all is they say thanks by giving the group free pizza! I mean, how personal and impressionable are they to not only give you a free tour of their very personal space, but to include you in the bottling (They allow you to sign the bottle labels so things like "Check out http://www.thenextroundsonme.blogspot.com/" appear on bottles across the great state of Virginia, you also get soda and pizza?????? This is a no brainer guys, you all need to take time out and check out the amazing website (Scott Harris took his own photos during last year's blizzard) as well as their awesome youtube videos:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lQnTwa19WWs

http://catoctincreekdistilling.com/

Now that you've done that you need to check out the great distillery itself. It's too cool and the people that come there are all on your level.

Oh and hay! Not to toot my own horn but you should definitely read this next link:

http://catoctincreekdistilling.com/enjoy/events/230-food-matters

WAAAHOOOO! Come by and be sure to check out the already well recieved cocktails from my brand new Food Matters cocktail list. The cocktail of the month is the Catoctin Concoction, a white Old Fashioned inspired drink utilizing muddled tangerines, fresh seasonal grapefruit juice, thyme and a thyme syrup that sings to the Watershed Gin Catoctin and then a popular twist on my list - the Gin & Johnic which is my modernised and fragrant version of the famous G&T using Catoctin Creek Watershed Gin, lime juice, Cointreau, Elderflower liqueur, citrus bitters and orange blossom water

So, the 21st of this month also marks the historical moment when The Next Rounds on Me, Food Matters and Catoctin Creek join forces where both Scott and Becky Harris come to Food Matters to showcase their amazing spirits, with me creating hand crafted libations and the forever renowned food by Chef Tom Przystawik all at once! I thank all of our supporters first off but I thank Mary for the remarkable experience at Catoctin Creek and I thank the Harris family for giving me an amazing opportunity to be apart of something so great, I'm only jealous I can't experience it everyday forever, THANK YOU.

Cheers!

Wasmund's/Copperfox Distillery & 1,000 Oak Barrel Company

In a Shot:  I bought a locally produced whiskey barrel for my Dad's birthday and took him to a local single malt distillery.

It all started with a regular named Jim who came into the restaurant one day and told me about a Single Malt that is made in Sperryville, Virginia.  Working in a restaurant that focuses on using local products, I couldn't help but be intrigued.  I immediately went and bought a bottle of Wasmund's Single Malt Whisky.  Not knowing much about them I also looked into their website and discovered that these guys were the real deal.  Rick Wasmund, his wife Chelsea (whom he met working on his 12th batch of whisky and married on the completion of his 37th batch), long time friend Sean and his Management Of Malt all run this distillery around the clock. 

Rick toured all the popular and successful distilleries in the united states and followed up with touring Scotland and even doing an internship with the Bowmore distillery which is one of the last remaining distilleries to malt there own barley.  What Rick makes here is not a Scotch nor a Bourbon rather a unique American spirit.  He malts his own "Thoroughbred" Barley on site which was created by the Small Grains department in Virginia Tech, Blacksburg Virginia.  A local farmer named Billy Dawson of Bay’s Best Feed in Heathsville, Va now grows the barley for them in bulk.  The next major difference they do than other distilleries is when the barley is in the kiln, instead of flavoring the grain with peat, he is using toasted Virginia grown apple and cherry wood chips.  The product is aged in charred American oak barrels where further "chipping" insues as toasted wood chips steep in the aging whisky like bags of tea.

What you end up with is a whisky that is sweet, fruity, hot and packed with smokey wood tones that completely set it apart from anything else on the market.

While in Cape May for my Birthday last year, Mary bought me a rye whisky making barrel kit by Wasmund's.  I barreled my first aged spirit November 12th 2009.

In between this time I made a decision to get Dad his own barrel for his birthday (With the plan on taking him to the Wasmund's distillery).  I asked him if he ever owned a distillery what would he call it and he told me he'd call it Gray Fox so I found an old Kojima Fox Logo (I'm still a big video game nerd!) and searched for a place that made barrels and came across one that luckily is located in Manassas so I didn't even have to get it shipped to my house.  I wish I brought my camera to this place, these guys have a really interesting warehouse and they actually make the barrels for Wasmund's as well so it was totally perfect.  You can buy essences of things that you can put in your barrel to make your own versions of anything from Absinthe (with real wormwood in it!), Southern Comfort to Maker's Mark or Glenlevit and everything in between it.

Dad absolutely loved it!

The tour at Wasmund's was absolutely fascinating.  The whole family had such a great time and there was something for everyone along the way up there.  Historical Sperryville had stuff for the civil war buffs, Thorton's Grille was a total foodie's delight, the Blue Ridge Mountains and farms for my wife and the antique shops along the way for the whole family.  The distillery though was great, we met the whole Wasmund family and got to walk through everything.  We tasted the barley as it was malting on the floor, sampled corn for a future 'bourbon mash' style whisky they are experimenting with right now, smelled and handled the apple and cherry wood chips from the hot smoking kiln room (top and bottom) to the barrels and stills to the tiny barrel house in the back.

 

They could only let us smell the spirit from the barrel but not taste as Virginia has laws preventing you from doing it.  The bottle is sealed with a wax top which they apparantly fulfill by using this old crockpot! 

We picked up some of his latest batch (Number 38) and he signed some bottles & barrels for us then we were on our way.

Saturday, April 24th I bottled the rye spirit (Rick Wasmund said that he thought it'd be perfect right now) and I just barreled a new Wasmund's single malt spirit that I will probably age till the end of summer or early fall.

Tasting:  Let me begin by saying that the un-aged rye and single malt 'spirits' aka moonshine are absolutely vile!  They are raw ethanol and are very hard to palate (both are 124 proof!), but inspecting both I was able to still identify that overtly smokey, woody and sweet flavor from those cherry and apple wood chips. 

When tasting the 5 month aged Rye whisky that I made, the ethanol and heat were still very present in the sample.  The fruity notes came a long way out in contrast to the original moonshine and adding a few drops of water completely blew the vanilla and sugary wood into the forefront.  There is a strong sense of cereal which is no doubt due to the rye.  After allowing this one to oxidize and allowing the water to blend with the dram there is a dark cherry, warmed orange marmalade and just struck matches surfacing.  A smell of pipe smoke and jacket makes a subtle appearance as well.  Straight is not for the faint but I have to admit, once cut with a little water, I have not done too bad a job!

Of course, Rick's is better than mine!  Far softer and elegant on both the nose and palate, batch 38 boasts just smoked tobacco and vanilla intermingled by that familiar grilled toasted wood chips, caramel covered spiced apple and cooked fruit flavor that makes it so unique.  There is also a Virginia soil reminiscent thing happening with Wasmund's every time I drink it.  The smell of it reminds me of rural Powhattan Richmond, my Aunt Annette, Uncle Brian, Cousin's Hunter and Michelle's house I'd visit during the summer growing up.  Those late summer days where I'd head over to the gazebo at the foot of there dock ready to jump in a paddle boat and swim over to this anchored floating wood palate that sits in the middle of there lake.  That dock, that floating wood, that oily warm, Virginia summer sticky heat and all the smells of people grilling around us with the flowers and the fruits from people's picnic lunches.  As Rick says on his website, it isn't a whisky that speaks for itself - It SINGS!

Cheers!!!

Click Here to Visit Wasmund's Distillery Located in Sperryville, VA
Click Here to Visit 1,000 Oaks Barrel Company Located in Mannassas, VA

The Johnnie Walker: House of Walker Experience

In a Shot:  Took my Father to a Johnnie Walker tasting in DC and though we had a great time and my father learned a lot from it, I left feeling like I didn't drink much and watched a really long commercial.

When I first came into my age of drinking, I had heard different brand names spatted out by the mouths of parents, friends and strangers about what scotch was the absolute best.  During that time, I was young and I always sort of layered quality in three levels.  One was the scotch you bought when you just wanted to drink scotch, then came the scotch you bought because you wanted to enjoy something nice and then you'd shell out the big bucks to get the best of the best.  It was during that time that I would pump out the 230+ dollars to grab a bottle of Johnnie Walker Blue Label.  The youngest scotch in each bottle is allegedly 30 years old!

Now, I sort of see the Blue Label as a status thing.  People who say they only drink Blue Label are the same people who have wives that only drink champagne.  Narrowing your choices to only a few selections and not getting a chance to experience a very large and constantly growing category.

I received another email from Johnnie Walker (When I first turned 21 I joined their Striding Man's Society) asking me to come to their House of Walker Experience.  The big hint to the quality of this experience to begin with is the fact that it's a big and house name brand and the fact that it is FREE.  I brought my Father along who, bless him, loves to experience new things and enjoys a dram of scotch but has a palate and nose of a novice.  I thought he would really get something out of the who event and he really did!

We were to arrive 30 minutes before our scheduled meeting at the Atlantic Video for the Arts in Washington DC.  When we did arrive we were early enough to look behind us and see the massive line of people and were thankful we followed instructions.  While waiting in the line, my father and I were approached by young woman in tiny black cocktail dresses asking us about our favorite scotches and what other drinks we enjoy and how often do we drink and all this.  Dad was more or less honest and I lied through my teeth and told them my all things and everythings were Johnnie Walker.  They asked for MY email, Dad however got a thank you. 

After finishing the questioner part of our adventure we were given a little gold token (both my Father and I wanted to keep as a souvenir) and asked to step into the cocktail lounge for drinks and light hors d'oeuvres.  The room was dark, music was loud and the black lights led me to believe we were more in a night club than a lounge.  The token purchased a free Jonnie Walker based cocktail.  They made "John Collins", a really sweet and fruit salad version of an old fashioned topped with club soda, scotch straight or a rusty nail.  Well, being ignorant and thinking about the Rusty Nails I make at home, I ordered that one which ended up being a premade drink in a pitcher that had to have been nothing but Drambui on the rocks while Dad got a tall glass of Black Label on the rocks the same size as my drink! We were given tiny hamburgers, reubens and meat, cheese and fruit plates.

After a while we were asked to head down to the tasting room where we walked into a seminar room with giant projection screens circling long white seats and tables where we were shuffled into our own spots.  Each spot had a plate with a display for the different colors of the Johnnie stable, missing the last three.  There was a pin and a business card holder, ice, water, water dropper, salt/pepper and strawberries.

Our Whisky Master and Host, Steve showed us videos color based on each scotch and an opening video with Robert Carlyle from Locked Stocked and 2 Smoking Barrels that was done in one shot and was actually a really impressive video.  Check out the Johnnie Walker Opening Video!

Ultimately we were walked through the different colors of Johnnie's rainbow, starting with Black expressing how this label is how it all started.  The red expressed fun and light for mixing and a cheaper price scotch.  The Gold Label was next and was recommended to be kept in our freezer to fully express that creamy texture this older scotch blend has (Showcasing it's potential texture and not it's potential flavor).  The green is their version of the single malt and has all the earthy and salty smoky notes one loves from single malt scotches.  When it was time for the Blue Label to come out, the room was lit a dark blue and the host called out like we were in a concert and the head liner was about to arrive "What did you come here for?" "Blue Label!!!" "Are you ready for the Blue Label???"  "Yeaaaahhhh!!!!".  A little too youthful I think for scotches and tastings but fun none the less.  Served in a tiny brandy snifter, the Blue label is incredibly smooth and complex and without question recommended to taste.  Afterwards my Father and I left the group and asked a series of questions to the master, Dad asking preliminary how do you smell and taste that and this and we both gave the man praises for making a wonderful evening well informing and all of that then we headed back to my place for cigars.

My final say is that the Scotch tasting has such potential to really be a personal and wonderfully engaging experience but is left feeling like a really big Johnnie Walker commercial.  Tasted very little of the scotches and even in DC they did not have a discount priced bulk purchase of the products that they were clearly trying to sell.  They didn't even reopen the bar for further drinks!  They also didn't have any of the Swing from their stable which is the only Johnnie Walker scotch I haven't tasted and was the real reason why I came there!

My Dad and I had such a great time but the actual scotch and final taste in my mouth was a lot like their blends, wanting for it to be more than it is and not entirely impressed.

Cheers!


Check out this guy's version of the story in Boston four years ago