The Lost World of Lost Spirits Part 2

On Monday, I described my trip to the new Lost Spirits distillery/ride in LA where I learned about Bryan Davis's system for aging spirits. On paper, he can mimic the esters in aged spirits, but how do they actually taste?  I casually sampled some spirits at the distillery and while his 61% rum certainly didn't taste unaged, it still had some new make notes that you wouldn't taste in the old rums he's using as a model.

Davis sent me samples of his treated Isaly whiskeys, aptly named Abomination. These were made from underaged (approximately two year old) heavily peated Islay whiskeys and subjected to Davis's week-long treatment which included exposing it to treated American oak which had been seasoned with late harvest Riesling.

There are two bottlings of Abomination, an orange label, titled The Crying of the Puma, that was exposed to toasted oak and a black label, aka The Sayers of the Law, that used charred oak. At my request, Davis also sent me a sample of the untreated whiskey so I could compare. I'll start with my notes on that base whiskey and then review his two bottlings.

Lost Spirits Abomination Base Whiskey

The base spirit is completely colorless. The nose has a rich peat like any young peated malt would. The palate is actually pretty decent, sweet with some fruit notes (green grapes) and a big hit of peat. The finish has peat and fuel type notes.  This is a high quality whiskey with a lot of peat and a good balance. It's an Islay, so we know the likely distilleries.  This could be Laphroaig or even a Lagavulin. Alright, let's see what happened after a week in Bryan's "reactor."

Lost Spirits Abmoination, The Crying of the Puma (Orange Label), 54% abv ($50)

The Orange Label Abmoniation is the color of tea (color is relevant here since Davis doesn't use any coloring additives, so any color comes from the one week exposure to wood in his contraption). The nose is a bit less raw than the base spirit. It has a sort of savory note and then maple syrup. The palate opens with a nice coffee note along with the peat. It's got a weird brown sugar note, but otherwise tastes like a good peated malt. The finish is very nice with strong peat.

This is a good, peated whiskey. It still tastes like a young whiskey but not an underaged one; it doesn't have new make notes. Tasting blind I would probably guess it was five to seven years old.

Lost Spirits Abmoniation, the Sayers of the Law (Black Label), 54% abv ($50)

The Black Label was treated with charred oak. The color is similar to the Orange Label. It has a sort odd nose with peat and soy sauce. The palate is peaty and quite sweet, with an artificial sweetener type of a note. It also has a touch of that umami note from the nose and a slight soapiness. The finish is nicely peaty.  I don't like this one as much as the Orange Label. There is a syrupy sweetness that I don't prefer and that slight soapiness as well.

Overall, I'd say these are successful whiskeys. I really enjoyed the Orange Label and while I thought the Black was too sweet, it wasn't bad. They both tasted significantly older than the underaged base spirit.

So what does it all mean?  Has Bryan Davis conquered whiskey aging?  Well, it's hard to say. Whatever he did here, he certainly succeeded in making two whiskeys that look and taste older than the young spirit he started with. He certainly deserves credit for that and for producing good whiskeys.

The caveat here is that heavily peated malt is probably the most forgiving of all whiskeys. The heavy peat can mask a lot of flaws and off notes; that's why heavily peated malts are one of the few whiskeys that taste good when very young, and this base was a very good peated malt. Even the two year old spirit was palatable. That's not to take away from the quality of these whiskeys, but it does raise a question of whether Davis's mechanism would be replicable for other spirits that are less forgiving.

But despite the caveat, Davis not only has the most unique distillery tour around, he managed to make a very young whiskey taste significantly older - and also taste pretty good, and that's no small feat.

Bryan Davis and the Lost World of Lost Spirits Part 1

Bryan Davis at his new LA distillery.

Bryan Davis is a unique individual even in an industry full of unique individuals. I first ran into Bryan back in 2009, when he was living in Spain making Obsello Absinthe which I quite enjoyed. After selling his absinthe business, he came back to his home town of Monterey, California and founded the Lost Spirits Distillery where he began making whiskey. In 2012, I reviewed some of his whiskeys (Leviathan and Seascape), which I found promising, but I also thought had too many of the raw notes typical of craft whiskeys. Davis took exception to my reviews, to say the least.

A few years later, Davis started promoting a quick aging scheme for spirits. I never tasted those spirits, mostly rums, but I'm generally skeptical of quick aging schemes, having never tasted one that was any good. Originally, he was selling his technology to other companies, but he is now concentrating on using the technology himself. Along with rum, he recently, released two Islay whiskeys that he treated with his system.

Davis is getting ready to open a new distillery here in Los Angeles and, after not being in touch for five years or so, he invited me to come take a look at it and try some of his recent spirits.

Now, I've been on a lot of distillery tours, and let me say, I have never seen a distillery like this one. In his previous career, Davis made theme park rides, and his LA distillery is like a cross between Disney's Pirates of the Caribbean and the boat ride in the original Willy Wonka movie, complete with boat, palm trees, jungle sounds and talking birds. I kid you not.

At one of the boat stops which has a sort of English drawing room aesthetic, Davis showed me a presentation on his system, which seeks to produce the same esters present in aged spirits through a combination of wood manipulation and infrared light (though never with additives). There will always be deviations, but on paper, he claims he is very close to copying the esters present in aged rum. For his Islay whiskeys, the process was less analytical. Rather than trying to mimic a particular ester profile, he just went by taste and smell.

Boats, birds and charts are all well and good, but how does this stuff taste?  Tune in on Wednesday and we'll find out.

Hell Hath No Fury: A Craft Distiller Responds

Last week, as part of my Craft Whiskey Week series, I published a review of two new peated whiskeys from the Lost Spirits Distillery in Salinas, California. I thought the whiskeys showed promise, but overall, I thought they were too young, possessing some of the new makey characteristics that are common in underaged whiskeys.

Distillery owner Bryan Davis posted a lengthy response in the comments that I thought was worth publishing in its entirety, both to allow him to have his say and because I think it's somewhat emblematic of the way that certain distillers respond to anyone who doesn't think their product is the best thing ever to pass through a still:

This morning I woke up after reading your blog post and contemplated closing the distillery that Joanne and I spent the last 3 years of our blood sweat and tears to build. Then I poured myself a glass of Leviathan and the forthcoming Paradiso and said HELL NO I love this whiskey. It was at that moment that I decided to write a short rebuttal to your opinion of my work.

The criticism that a spirit is too young is insulting.

A spirit can be too hot for your taste. A spirit can be too sweet for your taste. A spirit can be to bitter for your taste. You can find notes in it that you don’t like or find awkward. That’s fine and you’re entitled to your opinion, but to say its too young is an undefined criticism.

You owe it to your readers to say why you don’t like it. Hell you owe it me, the person who slaved for years to make the whiskey you panned for no defined reason. Its like saying I am in my thirties and therefore too young to make whiskey. I, like the art I created, stand or fall on my own merits, not my age.

I further take issue with the statement “its too young” since it pretends to be an objective statement when we all know opinions about whiskeys are inherently subjective.

I would also point out that many trained palettes that have sampled my work see what I see in it and love it and support it. I am not saying you have to like it but I am saying the criticism “its to young” pretends to be objective when its not, and is really just a vindictive and mean way of saying I don’t care for it.

Why I did it:
A spirit derives its reason for being based upon what it does that is new, interesting, and unusual. If Leviathan tasted like Laphroag it would have no reason for being since Laphroaig already exists. I made bold changes to the production process, the wood, the peat, and the techniques used to age it. The ester profile and flavor density is off the charts. Is it conventional NO – it’s not supposed to be.

I think Leviathan has a lot to say, you don’t have to like what it says, but don’t tell people not to listen because it’s too young to speak – say why you don’t
like what it says.

Why “it’s too young” is a dangerous thing to say. Big distilleries are pushing the message that craft products are too young… why because they are trying to bankrupt them by discouraging people from trying the whiskeys at all. When you repeat their garbage you are being played like a pawn of the multinational corporations that don’t want to see a world with 10,000 distilleries in it. For them this is business. For me this is art, and the world will be richer place if we don’t let them push their corporate PR strategy down our throats.

For my part, I'm confident that my readers understand what I mean when I say something is "too young" and "new makey," and I think Mr. Davis does too since in this interview with K&L, he himself admits of these whiskeys, "We don't really want to tell you how long they've been in the barrel...obviously they're relatively young and it's not our strongest suit."

So what say you good readers? Is Sku nothing but a shill for corporate whiskey (something that I'm guessing Brown Forman, among others, would have a hard time believing)?

Craft Whiskey Week - Lost Spirits Seascape and Leviathan

A few years ago, I reviewed Obsello, a really nice absinthe made in Spain by expat American Bryan Davis (aka B. Alex). Davis sold his absinthe distillery and moved back to California to open Lost Spirits Distillery in Salinas.

Inspired by his first taste of Octomore, Bryan and his business partner Joanne, set out to make a peated American single malt. Using California barley and Canadian peat, they released their last two whiskeys last month: Seascape and Leviathan I.

Both whiskeys are cask strength, non-chill filtered, single cask bottlings that are aged in French oak late harvest Cabernet casks from a Napa winery. The difference is in peating level, with the Leviathan being peated to an Octomore-like 110 ppm and the Seascape being a somewhat more lightly peated 55 ppm, though that still puts it solidly in the Ardbeg/Lagavulin level. Given that they are cask strength, single barrel bottlings, the abv varies.


Lost Spirits Seascape, Cask 1, 53% abv ($45)

The nose on this is very new makey with some nice, mezcal like smokiness. The palate hits you right off with smoke, but not like a peated Scotch, more like inhaling the fumes from a camp fire with a little bit of sweet mint in the background. The finish is a day old ashtray. This stuff is way too young, but it's engaging and the smoky quality is nice. Nothing picks up new make like a bunch of peat.


Lost Spirits Leviathan I, Cask 2, 53% abv ($55)

The nose on the Leviathan has a new make quality similar to the Seascape, very malty, also with some smoky mezcal notes. On the palate I expected a peat assault, but it's more of that smoky mezcal. The finish has peat notes, but also lots of dark chocolate. The finish has barbecue ash. If I was blind tasting this, I most certainly would have guessed that it was a smoky mezcal.

Like lots of the better craft whiskeys out there, these show promise but are way too young tasting. Remember, most heavily peated Scotch ages at least five years. I'm guessing these are under a year. If you like smoky mezcal, you might enjoy these, but they are much closer to that (which is usually unaged) than a traditional peated whiskey.