The Whiskey Reviewer A World of Whiskey, Poured Every Weekday
By Richard Thomas
Slane Irish Whiskey
(Credit: Richard Thomas)
Everything turns green and Gaelic again this week, as St. Patrick’s Day 2018 is upon us. The combination of winter-cusping-on-springtime weather and the Hibernian holiday make it an ideal time to crack open a bottle of Irish Whiskey, and there is no better way to mark the occasion by trying something new. These ten whiskeys, grouped by category, represent the picks of what has come out in Irish whiskeys since Paddy’s Day last year.
Blends
Jameson Caskmates IPA ($30): Caskmates was a pioneer in whiskey barrel beers. The first installment in the series sent used Jameson barrels to an Irish craft brewery, where they were used to age whiskey barrel stout. Those barrels were then sent back to New Midleton and used to put a whiskey barrel-beer barrel finish on some already mature Jameson. Now the series has moved to its second installment, this time using IPA barrels. If you like what that cycle of whiskey-to-beer-to-whiskey can achieve and you like IPAs, you need to get your hands on a bottle of this.
Roe & Coe ($40): This sourced blended whiskey represents the return foray of British drinks giant Diageo to Irish Whiskey, after they traded Bushmills to Jose Cuervo. It’s sweet, creamy and balanced.
Slane ($30): This is the revival of a sourced Irish Whiskey brand that went semi-defunct after the source of its whiskey stocks, Cooley, was bought by the then-Beam Global and the tap was closed. Now the brand belongs to Brown-Forman, who have built a Slane Distillery, but in the meantime this blend is still made using sourced stock. In this instance, the grain and malt whiskey come from aged in ex-bourbon barrels (including Tennessee Whiskey barrels, presumably Jack Daniel’s given the ownership), new oak casks and Olosoro Sherry casks. .
Egan’s Single Grain Irish Whiskey
(Credit: John Rayls)
Single Grains
Ballyhoo ($30): Grain whiskey is usually made with mostly corn and in a column still, and thus is a lot like aged American corn whiskey. Typically these are added to blended whiskeys as a lightener, but the release of single grain whiskeys are becoming more common, especially in Ireland. Ballyhoo is a sourced item from The Connacht Whiskey Company, fresh out this month. It is a four year old single grain, aged in ex-bourbon barrels and finished in Port casks.
Egan’s ($45): An eight year old, this sourced item runs counter to the expectations of grain whiskey in being creamy, earthy and leathery.
Method & Madness Single Grain ($65): This single grain comes from a New Midleton series intended to display their three spirits styles. The use of new oak casks in aging some of the stock used to make it endowed it’s light, fruity sweet character with aspects of creamy vanilla and spicy oak.
Single Malts
Pearse Founder’s Choice 12 Year Old: Alltech opened their Dublin distillery in the middle of last year, so it will be more than two years before even the youngest whiskey from the new plant is available. In the meantime, the company has a line of sourced whiskeys, including this 12 Year Old single malt.
West Cork 12 Year Old Sherry Cask ($50): Let’s say what you want is something new and something sherried. In that case, this sourced single malt from West Cork is the way to go. Finished for almost four months in PX Sherry casks, it has a polishing of sweet, wine-fruity flavors over a mature malt whiskey base.
Method And Madness Single Pot Still Whiskey
(Credit: Irish Distillers)
Teeling 34 Year-Old Vintage Reserve Single Malt ($5,000): This year’s entry for new, rare and very expensive is this ultra-aged offering from Teeling Whiskey Company. It’s a single malt distilled in 1983 and aged entirely in ex-bourbon barrels, and only 38 bottles worth came out those barrels.
Single Pot Still
Method & Madness Pot Single Pot Still ($85): Although single pot still whiskeys attract the most interest in the ongoing Irish Whiskey Boom, this is the only new, major example from the past year. New Midleton selected single pot still whiskey aged in ex-bourbon barrels and ex-Oloroso Sherry butts, married them and then gave them a finish in French chestnut casks. Thus, not only is it a single pot still, but also the product of an unorthodox wood choice.
