Pearse The Original Irish Whiskey Review

By Richard Thomas

Rating: B-

One perk of living in Lexington, Kentucky is that it’s the hometown for Alltech, parent company of a clutch of brewing and distilling companies. Now that clutch includes Alltech founder Pearse Lyons’ native Ireland, with the opening of their new distillery in Dublin this past September. Following a familiar and thoroughly tested path, they aren’t waiting for their own in-house spirits to mature to establish their brand. Instead, a line of largely sourced Irish Whiskeys bearing the Pearse name was introduced this past February. Of course, the initial introductions here in America were made with a round of events in, naturally, Lexington.

Pearse The Original is the entry level expression in the line up. It’s a blended Irish Whiskey, malt and grain, drawn entirely from ex-bourbon barrel stock that is about three to five years old. An interesting kicker for The Original is that it includes some in-house malt whiskey in the blend. The answer to “how is that possible, since the Dublin distillery hasn’t been running for the legal Irish minimum of three years?” is that Alltech had a precursor brewstillery running in County Carlow, and the distillery side was moved to Dublin. From that earlier operation, they have some in-house malt whiskey, young to be sure, but ready for use. This blend is bottled at 42% ABV.

The Whiskey
In the glass, The Original has a white wine-like appearance. The nose is honeyed cereals in the main, with a touch of dry grass, lemon zest and just a tinge of dry wood. The cereals are a bit grainy, but overall it’s a nice kid of a whiskey to sniff.

On the palate, the whiskey turns sweeter and smoother. It has a velvety mouthfeel, with a light honey and citrus current, with notes of mint and cinnamon, coming on initially, following by oak and vanilla coming on later. The finish has a little mint and a little toffee in it, but is quite light and fades fast.

The Original has a little more complexity than what I expect from a basic Irish blend, but at the same time is lighter than I usually like and has some marginally rough elements to it. Hence, the above average, but only just above average, grading.

The Price
A 750 ml bottle of Pearse The Original costs $39.99.