Welcome back to Dice & Drams! This month’s pairing features a couple of heavyweights in their respective industries that can be a bit lost in the shuffle at times. The whiskey especially is one that can be a bit forgotten and underappreciated based on its siblings, but still carries a legendary name. Let’s get into it!
The Pairing: Weller Special Reserve & Brass: Birmingham
The Whiskey: Weller Special Reserve
Weller Special Reserve, from Buffalo Trace, is the base offering of the Weller lineup. More casually known as the “green label” Weller, it’s also the most obtainable, while still being pretty difficult to find at times. For being a base-level product, it’s viewed positively, and is a good deal if you can get it at SRP. I really dig wheated bourbons, and so have a soft-spot for what could be considered the original wheater.
On the nose, I’m initially struck by that classic wheater nose of in-your-face sweetness. Breaking it down, the two strongest notes on the front-end are vanilla and marshmallow. I also smell some light citrus and milk chocolate. There’s little-to-no ethanol to speak of. After further investigation I find honey and confectionery sugar as well. An all-around inviting, but subtle, nose that beckons you in for a taste.
On the palate, some of that sweetness translates into slightly darker flavors – I initially think something between milk/dark chocolate and baking spices. I also taste honey and graham crackers, a little bit of caramel sauce, and a chocolate chip cookie. All these flavors swirl together in a really alluring profile, without one flavor dominating any of the others. There’s a bit more of an ethanol bite than I would’ve expected based on the nose, but it’s not unpleasant or overwhelming. The viscosity is a little less than what I’d prefer, but is still quite enjoyable.
The finish shares the darker flavors with the palate. The chocolate chip cookie rolls on, and the dark chocolate and honey are noticeable as well. A nice medium-length finish that provides a solid ending to an enjoyable pour.
The Game: Brass Birmingham
If you’re in the tabletop gaming community at all, you know that Brass Birmingham is a heavy-hitting legend. Sitting at #1 all-time on Board Game Geek’s rankings, as a gamer, even if you haven’t played it, you’ve heard of it. Board Game Geek’s rankings aren’t definitive (no ranking of anything subjective is), but there’s a reason this game is viewed so highly. It marries resource and card management, economic simulation, and player interaction together so well in a way that no other game I’ve played has been able to duplicate. It’s fantastic.
To give a brief summary beyond talking about how amazing it is, in Brass Birmingham, you play as industrialists in 18th-Century England. You compete against other players in an effort to create supply routes, develop industries, and answer high demand for resources. The game takes place over two eras – the canal era and the rail era – and has slightly different rules for each era, which is part of what give the game such strategic depth. On each player’s turn, they have two actions, which they can use to place industries on the board, sell goods, take loans, and so on. At the end of each era, players score based on the value of the cities their links connect and the value of their industries. It’s impossible to communicate the depth of this game through a simple summary like this, but it’s astounding how high the interaction is for what is at its core a simple ruleset. Every action you take has an effect on other players: sometimes negative, often positive. There’s something beautifully elegant about the way this game simulates a country growing economically that I absolutely love.
The Final Pairing:
I won’t lie, I had a bit of a hard time with this pairing. When I decided I was going to be highlighting Brass, the whiskey to pair it with was a bit of a question mark. Brass is a legendary game, and its designer Martin Wallace is a legend as well – what whiskey goes along with a game of that weight? As I thought about it further, I landed on Weller Special Reserve for a few reasons. First, the Weller name carries a lot of prestige and lends credibility to the whiskey, just like Wallace’s name does to Brass. Both products carry their own weight, but are bolstered by the names behind them. Second, Brass is an absolutely incredible game, but component-wise it’s understated – no loud colors, no plastic bits, and beautiful, but subdued art. This is in contrast to a lot of games today that sell themselves with bling and not substance. I feel that Weller Special Reserve is also this way – it can get lost in the prestige of the Weller lineup and is a bit forgotten about, but when you sit down to enjoy it, there’s a quiet elegance to it that’s worth exploring. I hope you get to enjoy these two wonderful products together and see if you agree!
Cheers and happy gaming!
