Dubh Glas Lockdown Whisky
When Canada went into lockdown, Grant Stevely was prepared. Stevely, who owns The Dubh Glas Distillery in Oliver, BC, isn’t that crazy person who spent the past few years stashing batteries, ammunition and water into a generator-powered bunker. No, he stockpiled his distillery with 100% British Columbia barley to distil into whisky.
His years of planning paid off when Covid hit. He had plenty of mature whisky on hand and just kept on releasing new ones despite what was happening in the outside world. Among these are the Dubh Glas Pandemic Series.
What’s in a Name
“I’ve always loved the Scotch Malt Whisky Society bottlings and I think what’s unique about them is each barrel is different, so they each get a different name,” says Stevely. “So that’s what we do, give each barrel or blend its own name.” The first three Pandemic whiskies were single barrel releases called Quarantine, Isolation and Social Distance. The fourth is a blend he called Lockdown.
“One of the challenges facing craft distillers is consistency. I think it’s going to be exceptionally hard for craft distillers to be consistent, especially when it comes to whisky and ageing,” says Stevely. Instead of trying to clone the same whisky from batch to batch, Dubh Glas embraces the inconsistency noting it’s difficult to be consistent at the volume they are producing.
This Pandemic Wears an Oaken Mask
“This leaves us with an opportunity for batch experimentation and uniqueness,” says Stevely. “So we’re sitting in a distillery, we’re locked down. We have a little bit of time. We think, let’s put two barrels together for a blend.” To make Lockdown, Stevely blended a single malt aged in an ex-bourbon barrel with a malt aged for nearly four years in a 100-litre custom barrel.
These smaller barrels are made by disassembling 200-litre ex-bourbon barrels then re-coopering them to half the size using 70-80% of the wood. “I think it increases the spirit to wood surface area for a richer maturation using properly seasoned wood as opposed to new oak. The goal was to get rid of those teenage years and get the barrel to give us a richer flavour profile,” says Stevely. “We’re trying to maximize our time frame within the three-year window. We can’t accelerate time or speed up the maturation process. We’re just creating a richer, bolder whisky in the same amount of time.”
Locking Down Flavour
The oak that dominated the four-year-old whisky he chose for the blend needed to be softened. His strategy was to take the more robust, oaked whisky and balance it by blending it with whisky from the larger ex-bourbon barrel. Lockdown is fruity and bright on the nose with breakfast cereal marshmallows, powdered candy, kiwi and apricots. Fresh lumber sits high on the palate with a glowing peppery spice balanced by a complex candy sweetness. Locked down on flavour, it is not. Icing sugar, hot pepper and some maltiness are layered with loads of soft fruity candy overtones—the medium finish flares with a soothing heat fading back into the candyish notes.
Stevely has always looked to local and current events to name his whiskies. As for the Pandemic Series, he hopes Lockdown is the final one. As much as we loved this series, we’re calling on Okanagan citizens to do their part in influencing the name of future whiskies. Soften up your current events as the ex-bourbon barrel malt did for this whisky. Do your part and bring on the Dubh Glas Vaccinated Series.