I’d keep the Caskmates for my ‘everyday’ drinking. I like to have Teeling, Green and Yellow Spot and 12 Year Old Redbreast for a special occasion or something. As my late old fella said you’re wasting your money spending any more than 70 euro on a bottle of whiskey.
Tis rioja and pheasant weather, right now.
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O’Briens have a Whiskey Sale starting this week.
Green Spot available for 50 quid.
Crested available for 26.95.
Loads of other bargains too - details here
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I’d say two lads at midleton had a bet to see who could sell the most of the worst whiskey they could make. No self respecting alcoholic would admit to liking the stuff
Yes, very very underrated. I’d prefer the red top one personally. The Walsh Distillery is producing some really fine stuff.
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He what now?
He wouldn’t rub it into his greyhounds.
I wouldn’t either to be fair
But it’s produced by the Walsh distillery @Mac
They only have 3 or 4 products on the market and I can tell you that one of them is a pure fucking cod of a whiskey.
I’m told the writers tears is bland and has a watered down feel to it.
Stick to the jamesons lads I told ye before
I think the Copper Pot version of Writers Tears is excellent (as are the cask strength versions). The interesting thing about Writers Tears is that Midleton agreed to sell Mr Walsh some of both their single malt and their single pot still. So far as I know, Midleton do not offer this service to any other of the new distilleries. Again, the Writers Tears offerings do not use grain whiskey. So these ‘blends’ are, in principle, high quality (inverted commas because a blend, nearly always, is synonymous with the presence of grain whiskey).
That the new Irish distilleries put out bottlings, under their own label, of other distilleries’ whiskey is not yet fully appreciated. They want to get their brand out there but their own distillate is not sufficiently mature. So they bottle external distillate while waiting at least three years for their own distillate to mature.
Cooley, before it was sold, became a source for nascent distilleries. I imagine the original Dingle Gold was from Cooley. As of the last few years, nearly all the new distilleries with bottlings of externally generated whiskey buy from Bushmills. Tipperary and West Cork are definitely in this category (although West Cork have started to bottle some of their own distillate). Teeling have just bottled their first single pot still.
Some new distilleries – Ballykeefe, Waterford – appear to be waiting so as to bottle nothing except their own distillate. This approach is quality orientated but costly, for obvious reasons: no cash flow as your own distillate matures, no brand presence in an increasingly crowded market. Hence most distilleries commence with a gin, so as to kickstart cash flow.
Still, I reckon Waterford might well become the best new distillery. Ballykeefe is on a much smaller scale but likewise seems really promising.
While it is exciting to see so many new distilleries in the offing, you would wonder whether all of them can survive. There is a strong market for quality Irish whiskey but this market’s middle and lower end will surely be saturated – or already is. Then again, I probably do not know enough about foreign markets. I imagine the business plan for nearly all these new distilleries is based on big growth figures for Irish whiskey in international terms. Can it last? We shall see.
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Was at a (Powers) whiskey tasting last night. Pretty interesting – much more so than I expected. If people are interested, I’ll throw up a few aspects. But no point in rambling on for the sake of it…
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Ah go on…
Fire away, I hate whiskey but enjoy your yarns.
Ramble away kid.
West Cork, is that the Clonakilty one? I know a guy involved in that.
They were doing tasters in Douglas last week — Their peat scent/ infused one was lovely… Was it your nephew doing the demo?
Its like the Craft Beer market of 5 odd years ago. The success of brands will come down to what they can export and how much loyalty is built up by drinkers. Craft Breweries can only be successful if they keep launching new beers every few months as pubs and off licences only want to sell the ‘new thing’. And most drinkers will revert to type over time and return to Guinness / Heineken / Carlsberg. Seamus O’Hara who runs Irelands biggest Craft Brewery had only gone into it full time a few years back as he needed a guaranteed income stream to prop up the business. At that point he was already exporting to most of Europe which is scary when you think of it.
Irish Whiskey carries much more credibility abroad and is much easier to export so I think the market will handle many more distilleries than breweries. None of them will succeed as a business by only selling in Ireland though.
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Line up of four: Gold Label, Three Swallow, Signature, John’s Lane.
I knew some of this stuff but not all of it…
– Jameson is 30% pot still and 70% grain.
– Gold Label is 70% pot still and 30% grain.
– The other three offerings are all a single pot still.
– The pot still used for Gold Label is matured in second fill and third fill bourbon casks. This approach is designed to emphasize the distillate rather than wood influence.
– So Gold Label pot still will be filled into a cask that held bourbon and subsequently held (at least once and perhaps twice) maturing Jameson pot still/Redbreast pot still.
– The more times a cask is filled, the less influnce wood obtains. The man giving the accompanying talk noted that good to great first fill casks are often used to ‘polish up’ so so distillate.
– Three Swallow is a lighter take on Powers. They use a percentage of distillate from sherry casks to alter the favour profile.
– Signature is the pot still used in Gold Label. Signature is also what Gold Label, when a single pot still back in the 1960s, would have tasted like. This point was of great interest to me.
– Back in the 19th century, Powers gained its reputation for high quality by taking its pot still from the middle of the distillation’s ‘cut’ (technical term). The middle cut is more flavourful, oilier, replete with congeners. The talk did not cover this facet but the pleasant man giving it did say the stronger flavour profile for John’s Lane is obtained by taking distillate from as late as possible in the cut, when the distillate is at its oiliest.
– Signature and John’s Lane came over really well (although Gold Label and Three Swallow were none too shabby). I have a slight preference for Signature’s spiciness.
– I bought a glass of Powers 12 afterwards (the venue is one of the few places that still has some of this discontinued line in stock). Was not out of place. Richer version of Gold Label, most simply put.
– Signature is not doing that well in sales (and is being withdrawn from the American market). The talk man felt no age statement on the packaging is not a help.
– Meanwhile John’s Lane (which boasts a 12 year old age statement) has been garlanded with prizes.
– Might be no harm to stash away a few bottles of Signature, in case it is discontinued.
– Signature pot still ranges from seven to 12 year old. John’s Lane pot still ranges from 12 to 19 year old.
– Back in the early 20th century, Powers routinely achieved seven times the price of any other Irish whiskey.
– The new stills built at Midleton in the 1970s were a copy of the Powers stills at John’s Lane Distillery.
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