Tipperary Watershed Irish Single Malt Whiskey Review

By Father John Rayls

Rating: A-

Tipperary Boutique Selection Watershed Single Malt Irish Whiskey is, for now, a sourced and limited release whiskey. Each batch is taken from six first-fill Bourbon barrels and bottled at 94 proof (47% ABV), personally supervised by Stuart Nickerson, the Malt Master. The water used to cut the whiskey is taken from the Ballindoney Farm in Tipperary.

The Whiskey
The color is a beautiful gold, with polished brass highlights as the sun passes through the whiskey. The legs are readily apparent, as they quickly appear, are prolific, thin and somewhat runny.

The nose is of subtle to medium intensity, and filled with aromas of sweet fresh fruit and oak. But it wasn’t just oak.  As a kid who spent many hours in lumber yards scavenging scrap lumber for camp fires, the aromas brought back many interesting images of fresh cut trees and saw dust.  This nose isn’t great, but it is very interesting.

The palate experience was surprising. The first sip took over the entire mouth from front to back and top to bottom. It drank a little hot and had a very thin mouthfeel. There were flavors of sweet fruit, oak, vanilla and some light cinnamon way in the back that quickly turned to pepper.

However, this part of the tasting took place very rapidly as it was almost immediately replaced by an assertive finish that announced its presence with some authority. The finish presented itself while continuing the flavor profile, but allowed the plain pepper to transition to white pepper. It was a long, long fantastic finish that ran slightly hot. This was totally unexpected and lifted what had been a “B” experience whiskey into an “A” experience. The finish just wouldn’t quit and made for a very slow sipping opportunity, because you wanted the end to completely close off before you took the next sip.

The Price
The retail price point will be under the $70.00 mark.