Slacker Advent Reveal – December 7th

After two days off, the Slacker’s Advent Calendar resumed on Monday, December 7th. Why the gap in dates from the last one? I spoke about this in my opening article when I explained that we built the Advent Calendar with days off. After multiple years of doing this, we learned that despite everyone’s best intentions it’s hard to get 100% participation every single day. That’s why including some breaks helps some participants the time to catch back up.

December 7th started off with a wide arrange of guesses with no clear leader as to who people thought it was. Four members guessed Wild Turkey, four members guessed Buffalo Trace, two members guessed Willett, two members guessed Heaven Hill and then there were the lone Jim Beam and Four Roses guesses setting by themselves. So at this point, it could really be anything.

Without a clear front-runner, maybe the tasting notes would lead us one way or another. Here’s a compilation of what the group members found:

Disregarding the standard notes of Oak, Caramel, Vanilla and Baking Spices (all bourbon and rye seem to have these components as a standard feature), one of the more interesting features that participants picked up on was a “drying/astringent/bitter” note. 7 members pointed it out including me. You might believe that makes for a flawed whiskey, but the scores everyone gave didn’t seem to reflect that. Cherry, cinnamon and Red Hots Candy also get honorable mention.

Something that my color coordination won’t tell you, but that I observed, is that there seemed to be a wide breadth of tannic notes and baked goods notes. So while very few of them were in multiples that might have established a pattern, they are interesting to note.

So what was this day’s mystery bottle reveal?

December 7th Reveal

Joseph Magnus Cigar Blend Batch 45! This early batch came out in the Spring of 2021 and I gave an excerpt about what made this Coupe Mere (Mother Blend) different:

The news that Joseph Magnus was moving their operations was a shock to many. There was some speculation that the DeVoss family (who are large financial backers of the brand) was unhappy with their operations being in Washington D.C. so they moved the brand to their home state of Michigan.

All equipment and barrels were moved by truck to the Holland Distillery and as a result, Nancy decided on batch names that would commemorate the trip. She dubbed them “The Rock and Roll Series” because of the extra amount of liquid movement/sloshing inside of the barrels as they made their trip. For example, Batch #45 was given the name “Shake, Rattle & Roll.”

The Barton bourbon barrels used in this Coupe Mere are said to be a blend of 13.1 to 14 year old. 20 year old MGP was also used.

If you want to read more background and details about Joseph Magnus Cigar Batch, I have a pretty thorough write-up here. Check it out!

Overall, I was pretty happy with this bottle being in the Advent. While I may not have guessed what it was, I know what I like and Nancy Fraley’s gifted palate never fails to disappoint. Here are the final numbers: