The (Pot) Still 'O The Morning

I love Indian Summers. Here we are a few days away from October and the sun is blasting through the the shutters at Caskstrength Cottage, my beaten up old writing desk bathed in a wonderfully warming glow as well as the promise of another excellent day ahead. It is 8.54am, I am about to review the first whisky of the day and I have finally managed to connect up my computer to a remarkable piece of technology called a Squeezebox.

(no, not this type)

this is more like it.

It effectively allows me to stream all my music to the stereo wirelessly from anywhere in the house, as well as access the impossibly large library of songs contained on Spotify. As much as it pains me to say it, there really is no point in ever visiting a mainstream record shop again. Thank you HMV, but your services are no longer required.

Having said that, if anything, it makes the experience of actually buying a record exciting again. There will always be gaps in your music collection that can't be fulfilled by online providers so with any luck, the independent retailer and second hand vinyl shops will thrive again- so long as people can be arsed to find them.

My first whisk(e)y of the day is also designed to fill a gap, this time in the cask strength Irish whiskey category. Off the top of my head I can think of very few standard release Irish whiskies, bottled at cask strength - Connemara... anything else? So the release of Red Breast 12 year old Cask Strength edition is something of a new venture, especially for Irish Distillers.

Glancing into my cabinet I can see a bottle of Red Breast 15 yo; an exceptional whiskey bottled at 46% but probably an unfair comparison point. As soon as we can grab a dram of the regular strength 12 yo, we'll bring you an addendum side-by-side tasting. But with the sun on my back and Beck's Sea Change seamlessly transported from my lap top to my stereo, it's time to dive in and see whether this dram will ultimately add to what promises to be an exceptional day.

Red Breast - 12 Years Old - Cask Strength Edition - 57.7% - Batch B1/11- 70cl

Nose: Wow, the additional strength spirit makes its presence known immediately. It has a firey top note, which dies away quickly to reveal notes of fresh plums, a little dustiness, some clean linen, desiccated coconut and a lingering creaminess, akin to dairy fudge. Very pleasant indeed.

Palate: For the first whisky of the day, pre 9am, this is certainly a mouthful! Powerful and coating, the tongue gets the first blast of wonderful sweetness, more of the dairy fudge, followed by some cornflake notes, creamy vanilla, golden syrup, a deft hint of floral apple peel (Pink Lady?) and some black cherries. Despite the power, this is a brilliantly developed dram, with the sweetness lingering on the palate, slowly unveiling layers of fruit, cream and on the very back, a little spice. A drop of water certainly broadens the softness out, but it doesn't really need it. One suspects that you're probably going to choose this to drink undiluted - otherwise you might as well get the 40% version.

Finish: Lengthy and creamy, with the emergence of the apple again on the death.

Overall: A hugely welcome addition to the Red Breast family. As we've written on here before, along with Green Spot, Red Breast 12 year old is one of those solid, dependable Irish whiskies that oozes character, as well as class. Given the the higher abv, this bottling carries on the character, albeit with a bit more intensity.

For some bizarre reason, we've never actually reviewed the 15 yo on this site, so if the day carries on like this, i'll be cueing up another glass and probably writing off my planned morning gardening.

The Indian Summer, eh. Today, I think the phrase 'Irish Summer' is probably more appropriate.

***Addendum*** after checking the cabinet more throughly I realised a small bottle of regular strength Red Breast 12yo was hiding at the back. As a side-by-side the new Cask Strength release is clearly a more dynamic whiskey, with elegant top notes of fresh fruit and Juicy Fruit chewing gum.

On reducing the Cask Strength version down (to roughly 40% ) the difference is quite distinct, with the original exhibiting more butterscotch & soft toffee notes and the Cask Strength exploding with fruit above and beyond notes of soft caramel and vanilla. In short they are 2 very different whiskies. And we salute that.

Beggan' For More

Looking through our posts these last few months and it appears that we've covered more Irish whiskies than any other style. There are 2 main factors to this:

Firstly, there seems to be an abundance of quality Irish whiskies out there, which we feel are helping revitalise the category. Statistically, Irish Whiskey is the fastest growing dark spirit in the world.

Secondly- we absolutely love it. Our recent outing from Dublin confirmed there are some real crackers out there, including the Connemara Single Cask bottlings and current Red Breast 15yo.

The sublime Kilbeggan 15yo.

Today we bring you news of a new addition to the Kilbeggan family. One of the very first whiskies to really blow our emerald socks off was the 15 year old, tried many moons ago, before the blog was barely a twinkle in our eyes. It's been a house staple for a while and when news broke last year that there was going to be an 18 year old- we were filled with a mixture of excitement and trepidation. Will they phase out the superb 15yo in favour of the new older sibling, like Laphroaig did a couple of years back? More's the point, how has the blend developed, with whiskey aged for 3 extra years now available to master blender Noel Sweeney? We recently reviewed the Greenore 18yo single grain, which we presume is at the heart of this and it came off very favourably indeed, so our hope altimeter is set to 'extra high'.

The new release is at present a small batch release of 4,000 and, according to Cooley's press release 'destined to become a collector's item'. Hmmm. Nice idea, but for us, Irish whiskey above all others is for drinking rather than collecting! So without further ado, let's crack into the fabulously shaped square bottle and pour a large one.

Kilbeggan - 18yo Blended Irish Whiskey - 4000 bottles - 40%

Nose: How much bourbon vanilla is in here!! I swear, given a prevailing headwind, you'd easily mistake this for a small batch bottling of Kentucky's finest on the first nosing. Delving further in, some white pepper notes develop, followed by a hint of earthy, mossy leaves, some strawberries topped in sweet Carnation Milk and a very clean cereal note. So far, so good. It is different to the 15yo, in that some of the creamier notes have taken a back seat, but this all works very nicely indeed.

Palate: Rich, oily and thick on the mouthfeel, velvety soft in fact. The bourbon vanilla has now transferred itself to the palate and wave upon wave hits you, followed by the sweet creamy cereal and a touch of drying oak. The grain gives this a slightly spirity back palate, but it's a minor gripe really, as the initial mouthfeel is so pleasing.

Dolores, dressed as a furry Cranberry.

Finish: And, like The Cranberries' Dolores O'Riordan sang so poetically- 'did you have to let it linger?' Well... yes they did actually, for rather a long time, it seems. I suspect the grain balance here is considerably higher than the malt whiskies, as the finish is light and fruity- classic aged grain in fact, but very nice nonetheless...

Overall: A thoroughly enjoyable dram with a nose and initial mouthfeel, which are highly commendable. Would it take over from the 15yo in Caskstrength Towers? Probably not, but this takes Irish whiskey blending on a step further. Good work chaps.

Mor Please...

A number of friends of mine always stop drinking temporarily for the month of January.

Deciding I needed a little respite, I attempted this about 5 years ago and bizarrely, I ended up teetotal for 6 weeks. Only problem was that my return to alcohol ended in an early bath- one glass of red wine with friends and I was so trollied that I was sternly advised to 'get to bed' by Mrs Caskstrength. Abstinence supposedly makes the heart grow fonder, but to be honest, I decided then to give the whole 'Dry Jan' a wide berth. This year, I felt like a little health kick. So after a temporary foray into fruit cleansing (which proved to be a total let down) I have slowed down the first 2 weeks of January drinking to the odd miniature, when the mood takes me.

Last night, after a particularly stressful day (my faithful companion Bobby had to have his tail amputated...) I fancied something powerful, warming and peaty to lift my spirits. I would usually reach for an Islay at this time, but a miniature of Connemara's Turf Mor arrived shortly before Christmas and i'd been looking for a good reason to open it.

Turf Mor is Connemara's new peated expression - and hellishly peated it is at 58ppm, which puts it squarely in to Islay territory. It's also a very young caskstrength whisky (around 3 years old) so one can immediately expect fireworks.

Connemara - Turf Mor - heavily peated Irish single malt - 58.2% - limited to 20,000

bottles

Nose: Immediate notes of rubber, honeycomb, a blast of medicinal peat and something diesel-like. Not tremendously inviting off the bat, but let it calm down in the glass for 10 minutes and some lighter, vanilla ice cream/ cream soda notes begin to emerge, along with some tangy, zesty jelly sweets (I believe they're called 'Tangfastics'..)

Palate: Hot and tremendously earthy on the first sip, with a slight return of the rubber from the nose. Again, given time, the beast begins to calm down and with a dash of water, some fresh herbs make their presence known, with milk chocolate, a touch of apricot jam and a sooty, dusty aftertaste.

Finish: The sootiness develops into something a lot sweeter, but your mouth is left feeling completely ransacked by the initial earthy peat, with a slight leatheriness in tow.

Overall: This is a bruiser of a dram (rather like the massive ginger tomcat that needed turfing out from my garden this morning) and it may frighten those with a slightly nervous disposition or limited experience of peat. But allow it to settle down and there are a few hidden depths... qualities that Cooley are starting to really understand- and in turn, shovel into their whiskies. A sort of hidden treasure for those who persevere.

Delete As Appropriate

Spotify. It’s a wonderful thing. There are often times when I find myself stood in front of my tall CD towers, bemused about what to put on the stereo to match the dram I’ve just poured. My large collection of albums, the culmination of many years working in the music business, means there is usually something to fit the mood. But one is still limited by the number of plastic cases adorning the IKEA Benno CD rack.

Then Spotify entered my life. Pretty much anything you want to listen to, at the click of a mouse button. For free (well, so long as you can put up with awful adverts every-so-often). Now I really can listen to ANYTHING I want to. So much so, that at first you become a little overwhelmed with the choice.

At times the whisky cabinet can seem a little similar. Even if you only have 2 bottles open, it’s about making that choice: the peated or the unpeated? The Scotch or the Bourbon? The heavily sherried or the light American Oak matured? But one choice that my cabinet doesn’t offer me much is “the Scotch / Japanese / American / Swedish / English* or the Irish” (*delete as appropriate). That’s not because I don’t like Irish Whiskey. A few years ago, I had some amazing stuff at The Old Jameson Distillery in Dublin (I still rate their distillery only bottling as one of the most well rounded drams I have ever had. If anyone is off to Dublin soon, drop me a line and pick me up a bottle or two...!). We’re also big advocates of Green Spot here at Caskstrength.net. But much like my CD collection and jazz, my personal whisky selection happens to be lacking in that particular genre. However, as soon as I had loaded Spotify onto my laptop, no sooner was I exploring the wonderful world of Chet Baker, falling head over heels in love with Ella and bidding on 12” records on eBay by John Coltrane...

But there is no Spotify for whisky...! In the past, to hear records you weren’t familiar with, you’d have to sit around at a mates house and listen to their personal collection, working out which albums you loved and then saving up to go and buy them. This, however still holds true for whisky and I was lucky enough to be introduced to 4 different Irish whiskies by a friend recently. Now, which shall I save up to buy??

Greenore Single Grain (Maize) Small Batch 8 Year Old - Pot stills - 40% - 70cl

Nose- banana toffee; youthful and spirity but rounded well by the cask ageing.

Palate- Plenty of flavour for an 8 year old grain, with a crunchy-nut cornflake element to it. The sweetness is quickly overtaken by the bitterness and elements of fresh pine.

Finish- Spearmint is the predominant flavour at the back palate. Fresh. Short.

Overall- My mind is already racing with ideas for great long drinks with this grain whisky, especially summer ones. On its own, it comes in just a bit too harshly.

Connemara - Peated - 40% NAS (20ppm, apparently)

N- This has a really fantastic nose. Moist, soft peat and damp wool, which develops into some lovely fruity notes, akin to fruit salad chews.

P- In comparison to the wonderful nose, the palate is a let down. It's just very soft; too weak. The nose writes cheques the palate can't cash.

F- A slightly bitter finish don't help.

O- It's a shame; this whiskey has such an amazing nose, but let's itself down on the palate and the finish.

Connemara - Ltd Ed Peated Sherry Finish - 46% - NAS

N- The peat and sherry work well together in the nose, giving almost coffee notes as they rise up from the glass.

P- Humm... This just comes across as slightly bitter. Where are the fruits (apricots, dates, figs) and the spices which usually adorn a well sherried whisk(e)y?

F- The finish left an odd fizziness, like a corked white wine. This really wasn't for me.

O- I often talk about the cask in which the whisk(e)y is matured as being similar to the school you went to. It has a big effect. This whiskey has had too long in the cask; it's been left in a school where it's been bullied and the parents didn't have the foresight to remove their child and do some home-schooling for a bit.

Tyrconnells - 10yr port cask (6 month finish) - 46% - 70cl

N- Again, a lovely nose! Lot of really old style aromas. And I don't mean old whiskey, I mean an old blended bottle from the 1950's. Treacle, toffee, red boiled sweets.

P- Ahhh... Here we go! Summer fruits balanced with just enough bitterness to add some body and weight to the palate.

F- Perfect length with excellent balance. This is a fantastic dram.

O- Cracking. If we gave out gold stars, this would get one.