Triple Dog Irish Whiskey Review

By Richard Thomas

Rating: C-

Triple Dog Irish Whiskey is certainly packaged to catch your eye from the shelf: its modern, sleek design and red and black colors will stand out amid a cluster of just about any potential mixture of whiskey bottles. Although I find the studded collar on the neck of the bottle to be on the garish side, noticing that detail will surely pull attention in further. But that is just the bottle; what is in, and just as importantly behind, that bottle?

Triple Dog comes to us from entrepreneur Dan O’Shevlin and his O’Shevlin Spirits, founded in 2019. Triple Dog is another Irish spirits product from O’Shevlin, as he is also behind Bon Oir Vodka.

As for what is in the bottle, this is a blended whiskey and Triple Dog states that it is a mix of malted and unmalted grains. That is an curious phrasing, because pot still whiskey is now famous for using a mash bill of malted and unmalted barley. However, as it is a blended whiskey Triple Dog absolutely incorporates grain whiskey, and grain whiskey very nearly always leans heavily on unmalted corn, wheat or rice.

Where those whiskeys come from is specified as Dundalk, County Louth. That is noteworthy because the Great Northern Distillery is in Dundalk, and Cooley Distillery is in County Louth. The latter is famous because it was formerly the major supplier of sourced whiskey in Ireland; the latter is rising to take Cooley’s place, as its stock has gained in maturity and Cooley’s output goes more and more to service owner Beam Suntory’s in-house brands. Incidentally, both distilleries were founded by the same man: John Teeling. There are a couple of other smaller distilleries in Dundalk as well, so Triple Dog has a number of potential sources to draw on. The whiskey, regardless of source or type, was supposed to have been aged in French oak casks. Those sources are then exported to the US and, according to the labeling, bottled in Idaho at 80 proof.

The Whiskey
The nose gave me a current of butterscotch and toffee on the one hand, and another equal flow of straw and field cotton in the other. A sip takes those elements (not the cotton, as I can’t tell you what raw cotton seeds taste like) and adds a veneer of creme brulee over the top. It’s a simple whiskey, with its main strength lying in its relatively hefty mouthfeel and flavor. Compared to the other whiskeys I would put in its class, like Bushmills White Label and especially Jameson, it’s noticeably thicker in the body.

The Price
Officially, this is priced at $40 a bottle. However, I’ve noticed it priced down to the $32 to $35 mark with many online retailers.