Stranahan's Colorado

This review is of a bottle from Batch # 106 given to me by a friend. That friend was at the Stranahan's Distillery in Denver and was given a choice between buying a bottle of Batch # 106 and Batch # 107. Well, this friend has quite the sweet tooth, and thinks of sweet as good, so he picked one of the two bottles remaining of Batch # 106, which was described to him as the sweeter of the two batches. The reviewed bottle has been open about 3 months, and is 90% full. It was distilled May 1, 2011, and is 2 years old. Stranahan's is a ("single")barley-malt whisky which uses only new wood (i.e. virgin oak) for maturation

Nose: deep toffeed malt resonances; very sweet, but does not come across as cloying at all; wood flavours of sharp crisp vanilla, natural caramel, oak and maple are also present; quite nice. With the new wood this nose smells different from most malt whisies, but it is not so very close to a typical bourbon nose either. You do smell barley here, which you never smell in a bourbon...ever

Taste: this is very interesting. When first opened this bottle just tasted overwhelmingly of caramel and toffee, to the detriment of tasting of other flavours. After only 3 months, this has a lot more tart bite, apparently from very sharp barley, which is a very welcome contrast. The wood flavours from the nose are translated onto the palate, but the sweetness from the wood and the tartness from the barley are what you notice the most, by far. The flavours are robust and strong

Finish: a sweet finish continues a sweet trend; everything in the mix persists a long time, and doesn't change a lot

Balance: what a nice surprise! I was really disappointed with this bottle at first, since it was at first so toffee-sweet as to have no dimension. I am glad I gave it some time before reviewing it. I have sampled Stranahan's before, from Batch # 58, which was quite a bit different, and less sweet, but also quite enjoyable. This Batch # 106 is mainly for the sweet-toothed. Stranahan's and especially a batch of Stranahan's like this # 106 are quite a lesson in just how much sugar can come out of new oak barrels--in just 2 years, no less. No caramel added. No other sweet additives, but this Batch # 106 was sweet, at first, like a very sweet liqueur. It is still quite sweet, but that sweetness is in much more balance.

I do like this batch # 106, especially now, but I liked batch # 58 more. These various batches of Stranahan's are quite different from one another, as Stranahan's prints right on the bottle label: "No two batches are the same."

Stranahan is a bit special. They use four types of malt, hence making it not a bourbon, but rather a single malt. The distillery only fills about 40 barrels a week for maturation in the very hot climate of Colorado.

The nose is a surprise. Caramel, coffee and vanilla up front, followed suddenly by something very floral (violets) and a truckload of sweet fruit. Think melon, mandarin and banana. Syrup of cassis. Coconut milk. This is quite unique and very pleasant.

It is soft on the palate, lacking a real bite. Quite a bit of oak, despite having matured for only two years. Again very sweet and fruity. Banana liqueur. Elexir d’Anvers. A bit of menthol. Sweetened coffee. Unique, like I said.

The finish is medium long and spicy and leaves the mouth rather dry.

Wow, that was unusual, but definitely worth a try. Thanks, Casmasjien.

A few months ago I started a new job. I stopped being an animal trainer and behaviorist and started becoming a liquor store manager.

Kind of a radical job change eh?

The biggest reason I changed job titles was due to stress over some recent experiences that I'd encountered in the animal industry since I'd come to Australia and it had got to the point where it felt like I couldn't come home without needing three or four beers or whiskies to just see me through to the next day.

Now that might sound like I'm an alcoholic, or something along those lines.

You'd be wrong.

But it had got to the point where seeing animals that I cared for, stressed over their well being and loved not receiving medical attention for serious injuries, being pushed past any reasonable expectation of what any animal can give.

Of people valuing the money they made off animals more then their responsibilities to care for the animals under their care.

So I needed a job change and badly.

And I'd take just about anything as long as it paid.

Luckily I got a good job.

My brother in law received an email newsletter from the International Beer Shop saying that their sister store needed a new Store Manager.

It'd been over ten years since I'd ran a store, but I figured what the hell? why not?!

I applied.

I felt like I stuffed up both the resume and interview, but I do tend to be quite critical of myself, lying awake at night going over what I should have done, what I should have said.

Thankfully for me the owners believed that was full of garbage and that I was perfect for the job.

I got it!

SCORE!

Put in my notice to the current job, waited out the two weeks, kissed my animal friends good bye and started over.

During the first few days it became obvious that I was a whisky geek to everyone in the business. It having already been obvious to all the senior staff at the interview that I was a whisky geek.

My new job didn't sell whisky due to the license they operated under, but our sister shop, The International Beer Shop, did.

When they found out, the shop manager over there suggested that I come on over so that we could talk beer and whisky and maybe we could give one another ideas about the other persons ideal drink of choice.

Cruising their website my second week on the job I discovered that they had a whisky that I'd ALWAYS wanted to try.

Stranahans Colorado Single Malt.

Running at a steep $165 AUS.

But I did get a discount...

I contacted the store manager, asking him if he wouldn't mind putting the bottle aside for me.

He said not a problem.

He also informed me that it was the last bottle in Australia and odds were better then great that no more would be coming into the country.

I spent a very restless night, but come morning it was time to catch a bus and train to go meet the guys and get my whisky.

Why was I catching the bus and train you might ask?

Simple!

My wife had the car for her job that day.

But I wasn't too stressed, my trusty phone has a map that I've used many times in the past to get me where I was going and I'd been to the IBS once before a couple years prior with my brother in law to pick up some beer. It shouldn't be a problem to get there.

So I catch the bus to the train station, hop the train and get off at my stop.

I pull out my handy dandy phone and pull up the map.

It says I'm just a mile away.

No problem! I walk that far for fun!

Go left.

I go left.

Go right.

I go right.

Go straight.

I go straight.

Recheck map.

I'm two miles away now.

What the bloody hell.

I've followed the directions!?

I recheck the directions.

They've changed.

Ok let's follow these ones.

Go left.

I go left.

Go straight.

Ok straight I go!

Left again.

Here I go.

Now I'm five miles away!?

What the hell!?

Screw hell!

WTF?!

I again and again follow the directions, and each time it changes.

Sometimes I'm closer.

Sometimes I'm further away.

I stop and ask for directions again and again, but no one knows where the shop is.

I finally cross the train tracks again after massive frustration, trying to restart my journey.

This time it tells me to go right instead of left.

But don't worry, I'm only a mile away.

...

Seriously WTF?!

I follow the directions right, cross several major roads and continue following the directions.

This time it takes me left to go closer, and then tells me I've gone several miles further away.

Then it tells me to go right and now I'm four miles away.

The hell with this!

I pick the main drag as my phone starts to die and start walking straight.

I know the street address, I was there a couple years ago, I have a vague idea of the scenery and hopefully someone will have some directions.

Every time I try to use the phone it takes me further and further away.

Straight O Go!

After I've gone several miles on foot I come upon a post office. Hopefully they'll know where the street I'm looking for is!

I go in and I must look frazzled as can be.

I ask him if he knows how to get to the main street that the shop is located on.

He says indeed he does and that I'm only a few blocks away. ten to fifteen more minutes walk and I'm there!

Huzzah!!

So I set out again with a renewed drive to get to the shop and get my whisky.

A little over twelve minutes go by as I walk down the street and I finally see a neighborhood that looks semi familiar, then I see the shop!

I've made it!

I head into the shop and take a look around.

Beer!

Lots of beer!!

This is what greets me as I walk in.

I'm not quite sure why I'm so surprised. They do have the largest selection of beer in Australia, carrying something over 900 different beers and cider.

And more importantly whisky.

On the wall behind the managers desk sits roughly two dozen bottles of whisky.

I introduce myself to them and we start talking beer and whisky. Which is better and why.

They're convinced that beer is better.

I inform them sadly that they're wrong, that whisky is better.

After 40 or so minutes of talking shop I grab my whiskies, the Stranahans and Four Roses Single Barrel Bourbon, wince at the damage, after my discount just a tad shy of $250 AUS and head home.

I walk back to the train and head for home.

This is the last bottle of Stranahans in Australia. This is a whisky to be savored and respected.

I set aside both the Four Rose and the Stranahans for a special occasion.

A few weeks ago that occasion occurred. My brother and sister in law bought me and my wife a 50 inch plasma screen hd 3d TV with net capabilities.

A dream come true! Something that I've ALWAYS wanted.

When I come home from work that night to see this MASSIVE TV sitting in my living room and see who's responsible I KNOW that a special bottle needs to be opened this night.

I give my brother in law the option of any of several unopened bottles to choose from and he decides on the Stranahans.

Very cool looking bottle. Really long neck with a metalish top that covers the neck.

It's batch 47 and on the comments section of the label it states "Listening to Jon Stewart."

I let my brother in law crack the bottle and then pour drams for all of us.

Now in the Whisky Bible 2012 it received a 90.5 and it's described as "a real complex, mildly schizophrenic bottling which just entertains all the way. Superb!"

I do believe that's a really good description of this whisky.

As we nose the glencairns almost in unison my wife and brother in law state "Smells like apple pie"

I get that, but cut grass also.

Vanilla, cinnamon, apples, citrus, bananas, barley, cut grass, caramel and more.

Bloody hell.

We spend about five minutes calling out different items that we're picking up.

We all get vanilla and apple pies, I seem to be the only getting cut grass though.

REALLY cool, intense nose!

When we take a drink theres a slight intensity of vanilla, bananas, some of those apples and vanilla, and weirdly enough a hint of peat? I didn't think this was a peated whisky, but we're getting just a little touch of peat to the flavor.

Very very yummy!

The finish is LONG with banana, spices, and oak.

Man I've wanted to try this whisky for a LONG time and this is one of those times where the anticipation wound up meeting expectations.

DELICIOUS!!

Definitely a special occasion whisky and one that I'd love to drink again and again.

Sadly this is the first and only time I've ever seen this whisky. Period.

However I will be contacting the distillery and attempting to get some sort of shipments as they release their batches because this is an AWESOME whisky that doesn't taste like it's the two years listed on the label.

If you're lucky enough to see a bottle of this, BUY IT!

If nothing else I'll take it off your hands.

A little change today, with an American malt whiskey. Made of barley. and In Colorado. Eighty per cent of the barley used to distil this one is grown in Colorado with the remainder coming from the Rocky Mountain region, which is nice. The process is interesting : The barley goes through a roller mill and then into 30 barrel mash-tun at the distillery. The grain is mashed, sparged and transferred as a naturally maltose-sugar-rich liquid to the kettle where it is boiled before being filtered, cooled and transferred to one of 60 barrel fermentation vessels. Once the fermentation is complete, the wash is then again filtered and transferred to distillery holding tanks. From the holding tanks, the wash goes into a custom made combination pot (scotch style) and column (bourbon style) still, made by Vendome Copper Co. of Louisville, Kentucky. it’s distilled twice, of course, taking the best parts of the doubling run after which the spirit is filled into 52.8 gallon charred, American white oak whiskey barrels. The Whiskey is aged a minimum of two years, before it’s ready to be bottled.

Normally i have no access to many American whiskies, as none are here, and outside the USA they are scarce and expensive. Happily my good friend, hebro, and whisky fanatic Josh (from the JSMWS) sent me some of this nectar.

Nose: Starting very sweet and strong with guava jam , tons of vanilla , honey , polished wood and spices. Wee whiff of balsamic, pine and fresh cut grass. Clearly a lot of new wood influence with that great Guava jam (i once ate a wonderful desert of that kind in an Israeli restaurant, and that smell just came back to me). Palate: Sweet and full of spice on the entry. Burnt sugar, rum, again tons of vanilla with fried bananas, flambé with liquor.Yumm. Finish: Spicy wood and ripe banana.

Overall this is a cracking dram in my opinion. Not very refined, but considering it’s age, it’s not as savage as one might expect.Teriffic nose, and palate, very powerful and exotic with the banana guava combo.Certainly, well done. well well done

Nose: nice hints of ripe banana, syrup and vanilla. Great hints of red berries and melon. Actually, I think it’s closer to some rums than to most bourbons. A bit of rye elements too. Some cocoa, tangerine and cinnamon. The light smoke / charcoal is noticeable as well. Smooth and highly seductive.

Mouth: huge banana again (Pisang), and spices. Lots of vanilla and a bit of coconut. A bit of lime and eucalyptus. More oak than you wood expect after two years.

Finish: quite short but nicely drying.

Unlike any other American whiskey. You could think of Stranahan’s as a mix-up between bourbon and Scotch. It’s less sweet than bourbon, less complex than Scotch and overall very interesting. Recommended!

Nose, taste, finish and balance are graded out of 2.5 each:

Nose: Well this is of course a rarity, an american single malt, yet there is still a lot of bourbon on the nose. That said, there is the unmistakable smell of the malt, and it's a beautifully sweet and smooth aroma, and not without its hint of smoke. There's something about it that reminds of me of being in wood-shop as a child at school, and smelling freshly sanded wood. That and granny-smith apples covered in beeswax. 2.0

Taste: Very nimble and floating on the tongue. The apple is the first to make its mark, and it's tantalisingly crisp and juicy. Then there are lashings of vanilla ice-cream, followed by buttery spice. Sumptuous. 2.5

Finish: The malt comes back out on the finish, but is then quickly dominated by an all-absorbing swathe of red liquorice. One generally tends to assume that if a whisky is purely sweet, that it can't be that complex, however the variety in sweet flavours and their patience in allowing each to have their say is staggering. And I may be doing it a disservice to not mention the subtle spice that accompanies it smoothly and consistently all the way, never outshining the sweetness, and if anything just giving it a point of reference from which it can work its magic. 2.5

Balance: Immense. This was batch number 35, and there's a comment written on the label by the distiller, and it says "LIstening to Willie Dixon". It's an eccentric touch, and as much as I want to avoid making the obvious comparison to music, I just can't help it. There truly is a smooth crooning quality to this whisky. There is the velvety sweet voice, with the touch of rough spice that suggests a life that's been lived. And then of course the melody, sweet lilting notes that all string together to form a tune that you just can't help humming. 2.0

This warmed my soul. It did not last long at all, maybe a weekend between a friend and I?

It's nose was inviting, although it was my first time, it had such a sense of familiarity, it compared to the greatest of comfort food. I will say it was very easy to drink, maybe a little to easy. A very smooth texture and equal body were definitely the culprit.

Easy on the palate as well as the eyes with a very rich in color with a kind of shine to it. I loved it, I will add, that with drinking all of it over a weekend between two, i felt like a million bucks when the deal was done!