Monthly News & Updates

2025 | Issue 9

This Month's Newsletter

Well it is getting to be release season here for the Sippers and we are announcing some that are releasing very soon and a couple hints. This moth we have a slight detour with a editorial approach to answer a question we get from time to time from people we meet and at different events.

Cocktail Corner

Hosted by Janice Weaver

Laissez les bons temps rouler” (let the good times roll) is the official greeting for Mardi Gras.

I grew up in the Mother of the Mystics 🪅 so New Orleans is an atmosphere I know all too well.

If you’re not a huge fan of the Vieux Carre or the Sazerac, I’ve got an awesome Mardi Gras Martini for you. In the spirit of NOLA, this drink is all alcohol so please drink responsibly. I’m using Havana from @penelopebourbon but you can use whatever your man is drinking.

Mardi Gras Martini

1.5oz bourbon

.5oz Irish Cream

.5oz hazelnut liqueur

.5oz orange liqueur

.5oz milk

Pour all ingredients into a shaker with ice. Strain into a martini glass rimmed with 💚💛💜 sugar. Aieee!

Courtesy of Janice Weaver

Follow Bourbonwithyourman

LOVE of the LEAF

Pairing by Bobby McClellan

Oh Come on Weather!

Well we have reached the anything goes for weather here in Mississippi. Never know if it is going to be hot or cold, dry or wet, then there is the windy or not. Man this make picking that end of day drink and smoke hard. As I was preparing for a pairing for this month you guessed it wet windy and cool. You know what that means PIPE TIME. This time I went into the tobacco cellar for something aged.

This month we have the St. Bruno Flake pipe tobacco in a Savinelli Trevi pipe and this time I am pairing with a Glen Scotia Victoriana Campbeltown Single Malt.

Lets start with the tobacco. This is a blend of Virginia and dark fired Kentucky with a light topping of fruit and floral. As for the Spirit The Victoriana is aged in second fill ex-bourbon casks and then finished in heavy charred bourbon barrels for up to 12 months.

To start off the St Bruno that I have has been cellared for about 4 years and if a nice jar note of apple and a hint of a spice I equate to creole seasoning. Might just be because its Mardi Gras season.

The room note is soft and sweet not off putting for none smokers to be around the floral come through it that.

The Victoriana is a cask strength expression and ha a sweet caramel note with cherry and chocolate sneaking into the palate. For me personally the nose it that if sweet smoked ham. ( should of has a pour of this at Christmas.

When Pairing these I like to go in blind with no expectations. The tobacco tones down the punch of the proof of the whisky and brings out some spice note from the barrel. After the finish of the whisky I go back to the pipe and I get what seems like a nut bread to something like a pumpernickel.

This pair is one you want to go slow and bounce back and forth Sip - puff - sip - puff - puff. That give the most flavor from the tobacco.

While we are in the constant weather change season fur us here in the Sipp what are you current patio pairings?

Wildest Thing We Have Created

This started as a laugh among friends. We joke about all of the talk of high proof and hazmat whiskey. We have bottles from Coy Hill Jack Rye, Ubtanium, and even Old Louisville. We know where the DO NOT Touch barrels are hiding. We made the call to our friend Matt Crittenden and said NO QUESTIONS LETS DO THIS! His response was yall are crazy and there is no way this would work. As of last week with the teaser you saw on social media We have done it.

It has taken some time but There will be the Crittenden's Cut Above / Mississippi Sippers Hazmat American Whiskey to be released this fall. When we tested it we are hovering around 158 proof.

Here is what is even more of the What are you thinking, per Matt's words. We did what we are really known for. We are actually Toasted Pecan Finishing this release. That's correct you hear it right this fall we plan to release a Toasted Pecan Finished Hazmat American Whiskey that is 100% done in Mississippi

Right now we are letting the barrels get a couple temperature heat cycles on it. Once we say go it will be bottled. The release will be a special release date planned directly with Matt. Follow all of us on social as we get ready for it.

Coming Soon - Barrels About to Release

That's right STOGIE BATCH 2.0 Will be released in April for it inital release and then it goes state wide limited release. We did alot to make this blend and also made a larger run so that more would be available. It is not the same as Batch 1.0 but we have built upon it.

We plan to release this release at the Spillway Bourbon Block Party. This is special and hold a place in the sipper's hearts. This is the Parkinson's Awareness single barrel. We are doing this release to bring attention to Parkinson's disease. This is a first time barrel release for Matt over at Crittenden's Distillery as this is the first ever Toasted Barrel done at the distillery. We chose this for it special character and limited availability. The back of the bottle will have QR Codes to take you to the Parkinson's foundation to learn more about this disease and how you can help.

This is coming soon and may or may not make the event in April. We tried something a little different on this one. and continued on our wood finishing journey. We chose a special barrel of bourbon from the rickhouse and using our method of staving the barrel added an aged Black Walnut staving to the barrel.

Mississippi Toasted Pecan is scheduled to be released in April this year if timing is right you may be able to get the 2025 batch at the Bourbon Block Party.

We are proud to say that we are releasing the 1st American Single Malt under the new TTB Designation with Distillerie Acadian. This will be at the Block party so watch out and pick it up!

Are we ever going to do an OLD SOUL barrel pick?

We will preface this with the following:. We often get asked above question when people run into one of the Sippers out and about and at events and tastings. Here is the deal. We are trying to support and highlight craft distilleries that distill their own whiskey. We finally got a meeting with OLD SOUL and discussed who we are and what we do with other distilleries.

Everyone knows what we do with Crittenden's Distillery, we are always on the phone with Distillerie Acadian, we are in constant communication with Dettling and many others. We like local that is made local.

We met with OLD SOUL. Most know that they have always released sourced MGP whiskey, no secret. They also have their own bourbon distillate as well as wheated expressions. We discussed with them that we wanted to pick one of the wheated barrels, or the Mississippi distillate to SPOTLIGHT Mississippi Made. A couple weeks later we set up the barrel pick date. Then, about 2 weeks prior we were told the only thing available to be picked as a single barrel is the 7 - 7.5 year Sourced MGP distillate. We sat back and politely confirmed this and decided that that is not what we want to associate the Mississippi Sippers with and told them no thank you. No hard feelings. When their MS juice is available to be picked we would be happy to set a date to sample and possibly choose a barrel.

Spring forward to March 4, 2025. What do we see online? That's right we see the advertisement post from Brewzle that OLD SOUL is allowing Brewzle to pick not 1 not 2 but 3 of the barrels that Mississippi is not allowed to get. We really want to support local but that is a rub that is hard to overcome and really makes it hard to throw our support behind them.

We are still pushing and hoping to release their Mississippi Distillate, but it looks less and less likely that we would do that. They are more than willing to let the exclusive leave the state but not release it here.

Send us a message and tell us what you think? We would love to know your opinion send to:

mississippisippers@gmail.com

SPIRITS of the MONTH

Bourbon / Whiskey

Irish Channel

Seven Three Distilling

New Orleans, LA

90 Proof 45%ABV Blend of American and Irish Whiskies.

Distillery tasting Notes:

CHARACTER - It’s with particular pride that we salute these sturdy folk — and their German, Italian and African-American comrades — with a small-batch blended whiskey made in the Irish tradition. While we can’t claim it has restorative properties, this fine spirit does radiate good times that make the day’s toil all worth it.

NOSE - Vanilla wafer, butterscotch pudding, light shaved coconut, creamed corn, malt, and fresh orchard fruit such as pear, apple and peach

PALATE -dark dried fruit, milk chocolate, nuts

FINISH - Smooth with soft sweet mouthfeel.

Sippers Take:

We have the pleasure to sample the same bottling used in the many competitions that they distillery has won accolades. On initial sip you get a slight punch of tartness of fruit notes. The nose is a soft honeysuckle, like we all grew up with in the south in the spring growing along fences. The longer you sip it you get an almost soft cinnamon spice. What we really love on this is that neither the American whiskey nor the Irish take over but have a perfect complementary flavor that come through in the finish to slide between the 2 whiskies. definitely one to try neat

Irish Whiskey

Red Breast 27

Irish Whiskey

Red Breast Distillery Ireland

109.2 Proof 54.6%ABV / 27 Year ex-Bourbon and Ruby Barrel Finish

Distillery tasting Notes:

CHARACTER - Redbreast 27 Year Old elevates the storied reputation of this iconic whiskey even further. Building on the celebrated foundation of bourbon and sherry influence is the inclusion of ruby port casks for even more complexity and depth.

NOSE - Remarkable aroma spanning fresh tropical fruits, nuts and rich dried fruit.

PALATE - Soft vanilla, toasted oak, sherry nuttiness with a dusting of spices. Luscious fleshy fruit notes complete the silky mouthfeel.

FINISH - Lingers, seemingly forever, with oak and an assortment of spices and then, the final bow from barley – where it all began.

Sippers Take:

Red Breast is a quintessential Irish Whiskey. The cask strength releases are some of our favorites. So lets get into the 27 year. We will start with this, you can definitely taste the port cask finishing. It puts a lot of a plum fruit in the palate and really takes over. As a sippers it is a little hard to enjoy as for us it takes over the beautiful Irish whiskey. Finish is long lasting but is still very port heavy. If you are wanting a higher end expression from Red Breast and you are not into over finished whiskey we would suggest the 21 year release and save you some money. If you want to try a finished version from them they offered a Tawny Port and PX Sherry finished we would suggest you try before you take the plunge on the 27.

Tequila / Mezcal

Agave De Cortes

Aged Artisan Mezcal (1 Year)

Casa Cortes

Mezcal

90 Proof 45%ABV Mezcal

Distillery tasting Notes:

VIEW - Deep Golden

NOSE - Caramel, butter, wood

PALATE - Vanilla, sweet, caramel, orange, tangerine

FINISH - Soft and creamy

Sippers Take:

We just got to try this at Spillway Wine and Spirits. This is not your typical Mezcal with all of the white pepper and smoke. This expression is very refined. You can get a subtle hint of smoke in the nose rounded with a sweetness. The palate is welcoming and easy. The white pepper is complemented with a vanilla sweetness that comes form the ex bourbon barrel aging. We pour samples of this for some random bourbon drinkers blind not telling them what we were pouring. when asked what they though, they loved it stating is was reminiscent of a tequila finished whiskey. they were very surprised to find out that they had actually sampled an aged Mezcal. This is a bottle we highly recommend you try.

Rum

Black Tot Master Blender 2022

Limited Release 2022

109 Proof 54.5%ABV

Distilled in Jackson Mississippi by Cathead Distillery

Distillery tasting Notes:

NOSE - Melted chocolate nibs and toasted hazelnuts are offset against warm orange and cinnamon sticks with a background of mixed tropical juice and cassis. Blackcurrant and raspberry leaf start to come to the fore with time in the glass.

PALATE - Initial flavours of milk chocolate and raisins are complimented with café latte and ripe banana. A touch of aniseed balances against a light hint of tropical fruit and a wonderful rich baked Demerara sugar top to a crème caramel.

FINISH - Cinnamon and nutmeg spice along with chili and cocoa linger for an age.

Sippers Take:

Right off the rip, there is a flavor explosion of fermented dried dark fruit, coffee, caramel, and something we can only relate to a rich sticky bun with pecan praline. The nose is sweet with a lot of baking spice you are used to around thanksgiving like clove and cinnamon.

We have to say this is one that after each sip it calls you back again and again and the palate whirlwinds around the flavors. The finish is not super long but it is just long enough to keep your mouth watering for another sip. If you are not branching out of the whiskey world over to good rum you are missing out. We suggest you pick this up and pair it with a nice medium bodied cigar. you will be a convert before you know it.

ATTENTION!!!!!

Crittenden's Distillery Now Available online!

Great news if you are a fan of Crittenden's Cut Above. It is now offered through BourbonOutfitters.com.

If you have followed us you know we do a lot of work with Matt and are over the moon that many of the Custom blends and finished will be available in limited quantities online.

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