Lost Irish Whiskey Review

By Richard Thomas

Rating: C+

Looking for something novel to ring in St. Patty’s 2023? Beyond my round-up of new Irish Whiskeys, I’m also taking a look at Lost Irish. This is a sourced brand created by Neil Sands and Tim Herlihy. Keen whiskey observers will probably recognize Herlihy’s name, because he was Tullamore DEW’s brand ambassador in the US for almost a decade and was the co-author of From Barley To Blarney, which is sitting on my stack of books-to-be-read as I type this. Sands is more of an entrepreneur, and together the duo co-founded Lost Irish in 2020 (which is why it isn’t listed on my new Irish Whiskey feature mentioned above).

Lost Irish is a blended whiskey, but in Ireland and unlike Scotland, that can mean two broadly different things. For a long time, New Midleton Distillery in County Cork was the only distillery that made the distinctly Irish pot still whiskey. Because Bushmills and (later) Cooley didn’t make that style of whiskey, their blends were malt plus grain whiskey, much like Scottish blends. The blended brands made by and sourced through New Midleton, on the other hand, were often pot still, malt and grain whiskey. It’s only lately that other makers of pot still whiskey have come into being, and with that three stock blends are becoming more common.

Against that backdrop, and seeing as how Herlihy’s professional experience was with Tullamore DEW, it follows that Lost Irish is also drawing on all three Irish types of whiskey for its blend. Tullamore also uses the trio, having been either made by or sourced through New Midleton during most or all of Herlihy’s tenure there.

What Lost Irish brings to the blended Irish Whiskey game is an elaborate slate of cask finishes. Which type of whiskey went to what casks is undisclosed, but the constituents of the blend have been through South African brandy, European Sherry, Japanese Mizunara, Australian Tawny, Colombian and Caribbean rum, and American bourbon casks. The whiskey is bottled at 40% ABV.

The Whiskey
With all that cask finishing going on top of three different types of Irish Whiskey, one might expect this to be too complicated to track. But the pour is golden in color, like most Irish blends, and it comes across much like them as well on the nose. It’s sweet, with intertwined currents of honey and fruit, like a banana-strawberry smoothie if they were using honey instead of some other kind of sugar-substitute, health-conscious syrup. Add to that touches of dry straw and raisins, and you’ve got the scent.

Tasting Lost Irish brings out much the same, but with some vanilla and pine wood added in for good measure. The finish went down spicy, but a light and lingering kind of spicy. Despite the extensive cask finishing, it remains very much inside the bounds of what I expect from Irish blends, especially those drawing on pot still whiskey.

The Price
Expect to pay $40 for a bottle of Lost Irish.