Is there a K&L Whisk(e)y Club? A resounding sort of...
Just to make it perfectly clear there is no official K&L Whisk(e)y Club. Our Wine Clubs are an extremely fun and interesting way to try new wines and receive special discounts. We’ve avoided doing a proper Whisk(e)y Club for no other reason than it didn’t really fit in the format of our other wine clubs. Plus the logistics of separating stock for a specific club from our normal inventory always seemed daunting. But a few years ago, we devised a lovely workaround for the seemingly insurmountable hurdles of launching a proper Whisk(e)y Club. It’s called the Personal Sommelier Club. I’m no Whiskey Sommelier™ but I’ve been curating K&L’s Whisk(e)y selection for the last decade or so. That’s not an easy task considering the relatively small amount of space we have to work with in comparison to some of our competitors. I could fill the whole back wall of our Hollywood store with Single Malt that I love and would be happy to sell, but that’s not what we’re about. So our selection is more surgical, focused and succinct. That’s exciting because things are always changing.
We’re also starting to see our single barrels disappear without any intervention on our part. Our customers are more in-tune and savvy than ever before and now whiskies that might have taken weeks or months to sell are disappearing in hours or days. So unless you’ve got time to kill on the coming soon page, things are getting pretty tight on a lot of the classics. Many may have noticed how quickly the last two barrels of Four Roses sold? Or how about the three barrels of Smoke Wagon that just came through? The absolutely bonkers and not inexpensive Clynelish 23 Year is already sold out. Even those magical Russell’s Barrels that used to sit on the shelf while we begged people to try them are now disappearing at a healthy clip.
So how can you get ahead of it? A whiskey subscription from our Personal Sommelier service is how. Each month we’re going to identify the most exciting new casks we have in stock and automatically sell you a bottle. Occasionally, like this special bottle here, you’ll receive a discount that only our Wine Club members have access to. In addition to all the wonderful benefits of joining the Personal Sommelier club, you’ll also get access to ALL of the discounts on the various wines that are part of our standard Wine Clubs. That’s between 60-80 bottles in the store at any one time. Discounts range from $3-25 depending on which level you're buying and as long as you’re signed into your account you automatically receive those special prices online. Make sure you mention you’re a club member at the registers if you’re shopping in the store. So here it is our first “not really a Whisk(e)y Club” selection. If you want to sign up follow the instructions in my review below.
When Sam Medley came to me with these casks, we didn't have an official "whiskey club." And since these casks were reserved exclusively for private whiskey clubs, I wasn't sure we could make it work. We once had something we used to call "the whiskey club," - an insider’s list that gave people first crack at our special releases, but that system was done away with years ago. Instead to be a Spirits Department insider, all you need to do is click the box on your email preferences. While we don't have a standalone Whisk(e)y Club in the style of our wine clubs, we do have an alternative way for our customers to get monthly curated selections from our stocks. Many of our customers don't realize that K&L offers custom club called the Personal Sommelier Club.
The “Wine Clubs” are a very specific set of wines within our store that club members receive special discounts on through a monthly subscription. These are wines we select for a large group of people that we can offer exceptional exclusive pricing on to our members. Those who have joined one of our many wine clubs might have noticed that we do occasionally include spirits in those discounted offerings, but not as part of the monthly selections. But if you're one of those adventurous drinkers who love receiving a new bottle every month, you've got to try our Personal Sommelier Club. You won't always receive a discount, but you will get an awesome new bottle, hand selected by our experts each month. Just sign up online, change your preferences as often as you like and get access to our entire selection of discounted Wine Club wines in the store or online. You select the curator, the price and product type and you're all set. We provide you with a new bottle (wine, whisky, gin, brandy or whatever else you want) each month and sometimes we'll be able to offer you great casks like this one and certain other spirits at significant discount.
Now about this cask, these are technically similar stocks to the ones we select Wathen's Barrel Proof from, but this barrel is completely differently from the Barrel Proofs last year. Those had an unusual grassy note and tons of earthy spice. This has a deep bouquet of sweet overripe stone fruit, kettle corn, candied apple and sarsaparilla. On the palate the high proof is totally masked by the butter sweetness up front before kicking up some spice on the back end. Very easy drinking considering the 126.52 proof, unctuous and rich on the palate, but doesn't forget its cask strength as it goes down.
So, just to recap, anyone can be in the K&L "Whiskey Club," but it's a club of your own design. Just navigate to the "Wine Club" section of our website, select the Personal Sommelier Club from the list, choose you’re preferences, choose a price range and your favorite K&L Staff member as your Sommelier. If you were to pick bourbon less than $100, you'd be the proud owner of this special bottle at the discounted price next month. Conversely, you could sign up, buy it immediately at the discounted price and get different non-discounted bottle next month. The following month you'll get yet another great bottle handpicked by our staff.