...Rich tobacco, thick tannic notes, carrot cake and caramelised dark sugar. Once we start digging into that caramel glob we find smoky raisins, sulphuric honey, saffron and paprika before a bed of marzipan, a big difference to the nose that I was not expecting. The mouthfeel is cloying...
In this Rant, Somewhiskybloke looks at the Best Irish Whiskey for under €50, in a completely opinionated piece.
...grapefruit juice, surrounded by delicious chunks of mango, pineapple, banana and rock melon. As we reach a butterscotch shore, we find delicious plums and raspberries awaiting us, and then we fall into a bush of milk chocolate and thick rose pollen, a special treat for that end of the palate. The mouthfeel is amazing, full of hidden depths and surprises...
...good deal of custard and a gingerbread house all stuck together with royal icing. Toffee, fudge and brandy snaps all come together too, with silky caramel dusted with grapefruit rind and desiccated coconut, all next to a thick banana milkshake. Its gets a touch woody...
...Irish pine forest rising before us. As we take another breath suddenly we are swept into the heart of the forest, with spice covered oak surrounding us, earthy moss, red oak and touches of ginger. Some sap starts to roll down the side of a tree, and turns into apricot jam shortly after, meeting dark chocolate...
...pecan nut heart, lovingly doesn’t with Glayva. From there, we head into plums, maraschino cherry and blood orange each dusted lightly with cinnamon sugar. After that we get a touch darker, with hints of roasted coffee beans, rums and raisin dark chocolate and glace cherries, a beautifully wet...
...vanilla, marzipan, heavy musk sticks and a fistful of parma violet sweet, grapefruit with a pinch of sugar and a light sprinkle of parfait amour before a gingerbread Christmas house with thick royal icing. The mouthfeel is spiced, but tightens in a resolute rather than puckering manner. As the palate continues to develop, we see coconut biscuits...
...plunder rises to greet our nose, as our treasure come forth in wooden chests. Peppery fudge unknown to us soon gives way to dark chocolate with a scattering of salt and chili flakes. Dried spice lies within there too, all wrapped in dried seaweed to keep away from the harsh elements. As we venture forth to the beach we are struck with the scent of salt waves driven hard against the shore, and we find one more reward nearby...
...burnt wax, the sweetness increasing to seaweed wrapped seafood, sweet heavy sugar again and a charred, crispy lamb chop. Lemon drizzled ham, black pepper, and the morning after taste of a night next to a driftwood beach bonfire, though it gets a bit watery towards the end...
...sherry and port heat take off, with robust dried cherries and plums trees hanging low with juicy fruits fit to bursting. Hints of chorizo, cumin, cayenne pepper and light tobacco move through, sealed away in a box of old toasted oak. Roasting pumpkins, carrots and parma hand move next to tomato, goji berries, rich coffee grounds and roasted nuts...
...dandelions, poppies, brandy wood and rancio, a touch of spice but quite mellow. Soon after we find slices of green apple with lime, pears, a touch of vanilla but mainly sticking on that fruity appeal, following with grapes, honey dew melon and honey itself and a touch ofa whole uncut ripe pineapple before a bowl of vanilla yogurt...
...a touch of honey sweetness with malt biscuits topped with vanilla cream and lemon zest, the scent of fresh cut summer grass and lemon scented Windex spray. After a touch we are greeted with sun dried apricots, white pepper, goose berry and a touch of tennis ball tubes...
...mango and passionfruit sorbet, water melond drizzled with honey and lemonade garnished with mint and lime, a perfect dram to hit the spot a northern whisky seldom can...
...light gnashi, lemon sherbet and slightly green banana making a good back to the whiskey. A small twinge at the back made me think of fermenting fruit salad, and I spared a thought of how hard the oak must have been to work with before I was sucked back into a world of light milk chocolate, shredded coconut and fresh green tree sap that dispelled any disbelief of the maturation team’s ability. Blood orange, peach skins...
...slow cooked stone fruits and stewed plums. Behind it flows a river of raspberry jam, a touch on the prickly side, and then a shore of glazed strawberries and maraschino cherries, a good blending of natural and confectionary sugar. Marzipan and Neapolitan ice-cream make the base of the whiskey, sprinkled with berry fudge...
..some BBQ sauce. While the signature sulphuric spirit is there, it carries itself well, copper into oak, great tall planks of it toasted and charred around us, some cedar wood and then hints of a light burning incense alongside grapefruit and orange rind. Once the initial hit passes, it’s into the vanilla, with crème brulee, vanilla toffee on gingerbread, and then macadamia...
...touches of wood polish here and there and a freshly mopped wooden floor (lemon scented as well). A little chemically, but the chemical smell of a freshly cleaned room. From there we head into melted chocolate complete with some dipping strawberries, light vanilla wafers, sauternes, apricots and peaches drizzled lightly with maple syrup. That grain whisky wants to release sugar here and there, with the maple syrup taking a turn with brown sugar...
...popping raspberry bonbons and boiled strawberry sweets into our mouth. In front of us burns a beautiful tiny beach fire, built of seagrass, driftwood, bracken and scrub we’ve pulled on our way down. After staring into the ocean, we turn back to that fire, and toast some soda bread on a metal fork before spreading some thick strawberry jam...
...strawberry jam, light cream and honey piled onto an old wooden spoon that forms the base of the nose. All this seems to sniffed in a garden as well, rose bushes, passionfruit vines and perfume spreading around us before the desert is served; a victorian sponge cake with whipped cream...
...smoked spices; nutmeg and paprika. After that beautiful start we move into the realm of floral lavender and rose smoke, delicate peat and nuts before pralines and smoked sultanas, tossed in a frying pan with plenty of butter. I could on with a dram like this all day; orange peel, desiccated coconut...
...Nutmeg again, with more grapefruit, corn mash, heavy brown sugar, bubble gum and scorched ash gum wood. The leather of the French Oak gets pronounced, and its comes off as a bridge between Cognac and Whiskey...
...an orange dotted with spices of cinnamon and incredibly light cloves. Compared against the nose the palate is incredibly calm and relaxed, the main joy of the dram. Carrots, brown sugar, plums and maraschino cherries make their way about too as they drift slowly by...
...lavender, heather and fennel running through, before we start to get to the fruit; lovely sweet apricots, lemon, poached pears and good apple before raspberry gueze beer and a sudden excitement of fairy floss, bubble gum icecream and Irn Bru slushy sugar...
...lemon oils, somewhat wooded and tannic. Black pepper falls against unripe green apple slices, sour black berries, heavy on the raspberry and then that clove hits us hard. The nose reels a touch from the impact, and the longer the whiskey...
...American Whiskey soaked pipe tobacco. Our spice drifts softly down over the top of it all, black pepper, cinnamon and a light puff of nutmeg, all well complimenting the taste of the whiskey and a mouth feel of melted ice cream. Our finish is just as nice, soft, surprisingly delicate and long, milky way chocolate bars...
... that margarita is now rimmed with pepper alongside the salt, just lightly running over the edge. Toffee green apples, nice peel, unripe passion fruit, and the fruit salad comes back but is now unripe and tart, but it adds to the mouthfeel, making it spritely and somewhat puckering...
...chilli comes back, this time accompanied by dark chocolate, crispy rose petals, charred plums, hoi sin sauce and a nice duck rolls dipped in oyster sauce. It grows thick and heavy after a time, the sherry becoming all the range of the whisky; punchy dried dark fruits, more dark chocolate, cayenne pepper, capsicum, and cloves, before becoming increasingly tannic...
...ferrero roche, caramello koala streams down before good milk chocolate, perfume, bananas, rockmelon, mango, grapes and wheaty apples biscuits. The finish is short, but breaks through and shows us a final splendour of strawberries and red apples dipped in melted chocolate...
...laughing demon made of sulphur and plastic, the burning of old garbage bags that have been left in the sun for too long. After a while, I got my nose around this beast, and found touches of sweet soil, mouldy, wet mushrooms, sickly sweet corn, a mashtun in the midst of being cleaned and as I thought I was past it all a baby was sick under my nose...
...lovely Praline chocolates, macadamia and Ferrero Roche into our mouths while sipping on a glass of warm Disaronno, vanilla essence, royal icing and marzipan lying beneath. We get underlying currents of pears, ginger and toffee...
...charcoal, underlying spice of nutmeg, tobacco and grilled fish. The creeping fog we saw before soon becomes a blaze of toffee, eucalyptus ash and coffee grinds warming the heart and soul, becoming your palate into the flame, biting a still melting marshmallow from a burning stick regardless of the consequences. Dark chocolate jumps out to accompany a bitter and spicy mouthfeel...
...Banana slices fall down upon sweet grass shavings, flowers coming back again, this time dusted with caster sugar. More fruits come through, gnashi, red apples chunks, green apple peel and pears before fudge and butterscotch. Barley sugars, sweet watermelon...
...Nectarines and plums come out, with some dark chocolate spiced with chili flakes and that dried citrus we saw before. Our sherry comes through in the finish more than anything else, with liquorice, nutmeg, cinnamon and ginger and a touch of English breakfast tea...
...nashi, green apple, nectarines, and then pineapple juice and lemon zest spread over the top with a draping of fuzzy yellow peach skins. It really revels in the new make character, the young fruits all coming forward, jostling each other for a place in the spot light...
...but has a firm woody background that allows us to over see these treats; caramel cubes, raspberry bonbons, lemonade jelly beans and a distinct hint of E150 dropped lightly over everything. I kept thinking to myself that it was artificial, but that wasn't a bad taste to my surprise. It kept up with a merry smile, and was quite pleasing. The finish is long, quite sweet, and gains clarity...
...fudge and the ice cream, smooth and silken caramel, wafers, maple syrup and oranges alongside some oxidising copper, it really is an interesting palate. It's slightly puckering, which somewhat confuses the palate given the taste, but rolls into more vanilla pod and cherries...
...whopping turkish delight wraps everything up in a neatly packaged, well package. The spice is cinnamon, nutmeg, black pepper and is reminiscent of a big barossa shiraz, full of slightly over pressed coffee...
...wet grass and plums. Raisins, musty molasses, lemon and heated apricots make a pleasant drop as we dip into a steel vat of oranges and caramelised grapefruits. It all sits on a vanilla bed that stretches beneath the weight of the top notes as they slowly sink into it...
...fudge and chocolate that come through. Quite odd, as you would expect those to compliment the other. Light orange with ginger follows after, and our finish is light with honey, sugary notes, banana...
...music of Nina Simone, Sinnerman does not go astray when sipping this whiskey. On the palate we discover a bounty of cherry slice, chocolate drizzled over mango, guava, lychees, tangerines and toasted grapefruit. A backing of passionfruit and old nutmeg keeps the whiskey interesting as we find am old tin of coffee grounds...
...reminiscent of a dry South Australian Cabernet, packed full of blackberries, raspberries, heavy cherries, plum tarts, Christmas cake and pear drops drizzled with honey. A firm base of toffee and butterscotch provides a brilliant bed for these fruits to jump off, before a scattering of spices fall down and calm the dram. The finish is long, with incense, balsa wood...
...popped the cork in my wee bottle to pour a measure, and immediately I relaxed. Wafting from the neck came soft notes of fresh pine needles, falling through a highlands forest against spiritedly winter greens, river mint, and dropping onto a cradle of crushed fragrant lavender...
...tendrils of cherry tree wood smoke, slow hands and smouldering leather and dank, wet wood move around to caress the senses with this whisky, and we find ourselves transported to a wee hut surrounded by ancient forest. Taking a walk, the whisky gives wet wood, forest floor and dew wet grass before we find ourselves in front of a set of cherry and plum trees...
...rock melon before tingles of chili dark chocolate hitting the tongue. The peat manifests itself again, coming through with wet earth, damp from the aforementioned fruit juice. We start to see some vanilla come through, and the wood rises a touch once more and sets off lovely spice of cinnamon, chili...
...a large slobbering dog of sugared, candied flowers and lemons sherbets riding a wave of Turkish delight and orange blossom marzipan. Dried apricots, sultanas, apples and vanilla custard give a pool for that big beast to swim about in...
...wizened apples drip with juice, and lead into lemon, oak, honey, hay and young green grapes with a touch of tartness, sherbet sweetness coming through the back as the nose rounds out. If we delve further then the sweetness of these fruits drop off and cooked sugars start to comes through, with demerara sugar melted over baked apples and juicy roast figs...
...treacle, damp sugar, honey, and up the back of a shelf we found a packet of hard marshmallows, long gone past their used by date but shining with sugar and dripping in honey. There’s a bowl of fruit sitting solitary in the midst of all this, with a singular red apple, a grapefruit...
...pouring Manuka honey over the tongue as I ate a spoonful of orange marmalade. Fried mushrooms shone through, dancing over the torn remains of the white roses, now lightly charred by a fire that was roasting the pears. Gooseberries, apples, almonds, vanilla yogurt with spice and berries...
...melting blue cheese that oozes decadence and flavour. Astride the cheese we get diced chorizo with strips of salami and pancetta, the bread toasting, the cheese melting, and the meat curling above a bonfire of damp morning driftwood and kelp on the beach, burning down to sweaty earth that gives off copper and iron...
...green apples soon shine through, with candied oranges, mango compote, rock melon, grapes and a light leather strap and spice opening when the whisky is left to breathe. Touches of smoked rosemary and mint shine through, and the apples becomes roasted when we leave it...
