Tasting #74: Irish Whiskey Dinner

Tasting #74: Irish Whiskey Dinner

by | Dec 5, 2021 | Tastings

Tasting #74: Irish Whiskey Dinner

On Tuesday, March 16th, the Saratoga Whiskey Club held its 74th tasting! It was an Irish Whiskey Paired Dinner to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day… a day late… We partnered up with a great restaurant in Glens Falls called Farmacy. Chef AJ Richards is a member of the club and came up with a great menu to-go. We all collected our dinners and joined together with the chef on Zoom to walk through the dishes and the whiskeys. Here is what we ate and tasted:

Appetizer: Blood sausage, celeriac puree, scallop chips, blood orange, onion ash
Paired with Bushmills 16 Year Irish Whiskey
Bread Course: House sourdough, raisin butter, dried fig dust
Entree: Roasted corned beef, pickled red cabbage, spiced carrot puree, duck fat fingerling potatoes, Irish soda bread
Paired with both Teeling 18 Year Renaissance (Batch 2 – Australian Shiraz Cask) and Powers John’s Lane Pot Still Irish Whiskey
Cheese Course: Mull of Kintyre Cheddar, onion pate, apple jam, pickled whole grain mustard
Paired with Teeling Blackpitts
Dessert Course: Barmbark, black tea panna cotta, smoked salted caramel, candied pecan
Paired with Blue Spot Pot Still Irish Whiskey
It was an incredible evening on Zoom with great food and drink!! Thanks to Farmacy for putting this all together for us!
Tasting #72: Michter’s Whiskey

Tasting #72: Michter’s Whiskey

by | Mar 5, 2021 | Tastings

Tasting #72: Michter’s Whiskey

On Wednesday, February 24th, the Saratoga Whiskey Club had its 72nd tasting. What a night! We had some very special guests that were brought to us by one of our member’s sons, LJ Sconzo. He started working for Michter’s a year ago and we were excited for this tasting. Joining us were both Andrea Wilson, Master of Maturation and General Manager, and Dan McKee, Master Distiller. They stayed with us for two hours and we tasted through 8 of their great expressions. It was really an incredible night of lots of information with some of the most talented people in the industry. 

Here is what we tasted.

  • Michter’s American Whiskey
  • Michter’s Sour Mash Whiskey
  • Michter’s Bourbon Whiskey
  • Michter’s Rye Whiskey
  • Shenk’s Sour Mash Limited Edition 2020 Whiskey
  • Michter’s 10 Year Bourbon Whiskey 2020 Edition
  • Michter’s 10 Year Rye Whiskey 2020 Edition
  • Bomberger’s Bourbon Limited Edition 2020 Whiskey

56 members were online for this really great tasting.

YouTube video: YouTube Video

For scores, please check here: Scores

Tasting #69: Westland American Single Malt

Tasting #69: Westland American Single Malt

by | Feb 4, 2021 | Tastings

Tasting #69: Westland American Single Malt

On Wednesday, January 27th, the Saratoga Whiskey Club had its 69th tasting. The focus of this tasting was Westland American Single Malt Whiskey out of Seattle. We were joined by Jeff Greenstein who walked us through the core line expression followed by three limited edition Westland bottlings. We were fortunate to get our hands on two Garryanas from 2019 and 2020 and an exclusive single cask for the NY market. It was a fantastic tasting and thanks so much for Jeff for joining us and co-hosting such a fun evening.

Here is what we tasted.

  • Westland American Single Malt – American Oak
  • Westland American Single Malt – Sherry Wood
  • Westland American Single Malt – The Peated
  • Westland Garryana 2019 – Edition 4/1 – Limited Edition
  • Westland Garryana 2020 – Edition 5/1 – Limited Edition
  • Westland Single Cask #2781 – NY Exclusive Market Release

52 members were online for this really great tasting.

YouTube video: YouTube Video

For scores, please check here: Scores

Tasting #66: American Whiskey

Tasting #66: American Whiskey

by | Jan 4, 2021 | Tastings

Tasting #66: American Whiskey

On Wednesday, December 30th, the Saratoga Whiskey Club had its 66th tasting! It was the last tasting of the year and a great way to end it. We all can’t wait for 2021!! The focus of this tasting was American Whiskey. We dove into some Bourbons and then finished with 3 single casks from the Scotch Malt Whisky Society that were Bourbon, Rye and American Single Malt. On top of this, one of our members made ginger snap cookies with our logo on them! See the photo below. It was a really fun evening and a nice way to end the year. Here is what we tasted.

  • Pre-Tasting Dram: Kyro Malted Rye Whisky – from Finland – yes, not American
  • Penelope Straight Bourbon Whiskey – Rose Finish
  • Elijah Craig Straight Bourbon Whiskey – Toasted Barrel Finish
  • Knob Creek 12 Year Straight Bourbon Whiskey – 100 Proof
  • SMWS RW2.1 American Rye Whiskey ‘Out of the ordinary – in a very good way!’
  • SMWS B6.1 American Bourbon Whiskey ‘Ginger-spiced sponge’
  • SMWS 142.1 American Single Malt Whiskey ‘Made in New York, New York’

53 members were online for this really great tasting.

For scores, please check here: Scores

Tasting #65: Ex-Red Wine Barrique and First Fill Sherry

Tasting #65: Ex-Red Wine Barrique and First Fill Sherry

by | Dec 16, 2020 | Tastings

Tasting #65: Ex-Red Wine Barrique and First Fill Sherry

On Wednesday, December 9th, the Saratoga Whiskey Club had its 65th tasting! This was a very unique tasting in that we focused on specific finishes and first fill Sherry. The tasting started with three different whiskies finished in ex-red wine barriques followed by three Sherry bombs that were fully matured in first fill Sherry. It was really delicious. Here is what we tasted:

  • SMWS 9.174 ‘Strawberry Jalapeno Ice Cream’ – Glen Grant 15 Year
  • SMWS 66.161 ‘Chateau du pork scratching’ Ardmore 13 Year
  • SMWS 95.37 ‘Adventurous African safari’ Auchriosk 7 Year
  • SMWS 7.237 ‘Nutty by nature’ – Longmorn 12 Year
  • SMWS 7.233 ‘A syrupy sweet tale of romance’ – Longmorn 13 Year
  • SMWS 30.111 ‘Inferno Toffee Pudding’ – Glenrothers 12 Year

32 members were online for this really great tasting.

For scores, please check here: Scores

Here is a YouTube video of the tasting: YouTube