Drinking for a Good Cause

Charity is a cornerstone of a well-ordered society. Doubly so when that means drinking whiskey! The community theatre in my parents’ small town has started hosting a whiskey tasting fundraiser these last few years. My dad and I went to the inaugural tasting and now that my youngest brother Danny had turned 21 we returned for the 3rd with all my brothers but the oldest in tow.

My dad and I were quite impressed with the growth and improvement of the event over such a short period of time. The first year was fun, but it suffered from the usual issues of a first time event. This time the volunteers were more knowledgeable, the whiskey selection of higher quality, and the production value just better. We skipped year two cause we thought it would be ho-hum much the same, but now we know this needs to be a yearly tradition.

Enough build up, on to the event and whiskeys! The event is sponsored by Midwest Grain Products (MGP) so all the whiskeys are from their catalogue. They had whiskeys from 3 major brands Yellowstone, Rossville, and Remus with a few oddballs sprinkled in.

I had recently had the opportunity to try Yellowstone Toasted which I had quite liked so I suggested we start there on a good note. Everyone was pretty happy with it and we spent some time getting my youngest two brothers familiar with the right technique for tasting whiskeys. We moved on to try the original Yellowstone (American Single Malt). I’ve never been impressed with it because I find it a little hot and sharp for my taste. That’s not to say it’s bad, just a bit harsh. My family seemed to like it less than I do. Next was Yellowstone Select 93PF to round out the Yellowstone brand on our tasting cards. This one was very off-putting. After much discussion, I landed on what I was getting from it: Corn water. It tasted like the water in a can of corn and smelled like a corn field. It was not appetizing in the least.

With that disappointment behind us, we realized the Yellowstone had all been on one side of the room so we opted to finish off the last two tables on that side. This led us to Minor Case. Minor Case was a Rye Whiskey, but a shockingly smooth Rye Whiskey. The only tell was a short “snap” of spice on the after taste as my brother Danny observed. Our tasting was back on an upswing so we took that momentum over to try the singular gin in the lineup. Bowling & Birch Gin was a fairly nice gin as long as you already like gins. The best way to understand the duality of gin is that my brother Kevin and I both called it “garden-y”, it’s just he was grimacing and I was smiling.

After a water and snack break to ensure we properly paced ourselves, we moved onto the second half of the room. Rossville Union Bottled in Bond 100pf was quite nice and we all agreed it was pretty good. Upon looking at the recommended price, we weren’t sure it was quite $70 good though. The volunteer at the table claimed it was so smooth you’d never guess it was 100 proof, but we could feel the proof right away.

It was at this point, Danny mourned his “good luck”. Danny had already had a little too much fun the night before and we’d dragged him along still to cure him with “hair of the dog”. So already being less than 100%, he then had the joy of getting generous pours at each booth. Somehow, the pour spouts kept malfunctioning when the volunteers tried to serve Danny, leading to heavy or double pours. Especially with a whiskey that felt as hot as Rossville Union Bottle in Bond, Danny thought at this rate he was going to die.

Being loving and caring family members, we dragged Danny on to the next booth. Rossville Union 94pf wasn’t quite as good as the Bottled in Bond, but being half the cost we thought it was definitely the value buy between the two.

The next three we tried I’m unsure of which is which. The volunteers were equal parts over-confident and generous so some weren’t marking the lanyards because they would “remember you” and others were stubbornly marking the wrong whiskey. So between confusion, lack of proper recording, and hazy alcohol addled memory; I can’t tell you which of the Remus was which but that I was fairly happy with each. None was a homerun, but I also enjoyed all of them.

The last whiskey we tried was a surprise “bonus” one. Yellowstone Rum Cask was hidden in the corner. The rum cask finish was a great addition to the Yellowstone whiskey. Dad said that was “exactly what it needed.” We were finding that when Yellowstone does a finish, it’s a homerun. Their plain-Jane stuff just wasn’t quite what we were looking for.

After wrapping up the charity tasting, we headed home. And since we’re responsible drinkers, we moved onto a bonus-bonus tasting of the Costco Kirkland Scotches. The taster kit contains an Islay, Speyside, Highland, and Lowland. The Islay is quite good in my opinion, but it can be too peaty for the uninitiated. The Speyside was shockingly sweet and not in a good way. The Highland and Lowlands were both fine but uninteresting. Although our skills of discernment were likely quite inhibited by this point in the day.

And so ended a great day of family, charity, and whiskey or at least as far as my memory takes me not that there is any reason my memory wouldn’t be perfect of course. I’ll definitely be back next year, but probably without the bonus-bonus tasting.