Cargo-ago-go

Howdy! Apologies for our apparent absence for the last week, but clearly B.B.F or ('Breaking Bad Fever') has taken over the Caskstrength office and we simply couldn't do anything else in the meantime in the run up to the grand finale...  

In fact, now it's all over, a light seems to have gone out in our world... Fortunately soon to be filled by the announcement of our very exciting new whisky release in the A-Z Caskstrength & Carry On series.   

Think 'D'... 

Think 3D...

Then be afraid... Be very afraid. Stay tuned to www.3DWhisky.com for more updates and announcements and remember: 

7/11/13 is 3D Day... @3DWhisky

But back to business. September has proven to be a terrific month for whisky events and new releases and fortunately, we've been hanging around a few of them (Breaking Bad permitting)

First up was the wonderful Cutty Sark Cargo event on the 12th September, held in Shoreditch, an area hipper and a Hip Hop Hippo in expensive sneakers and a chunky gold chain.   

Cutty Cargo was the first of its kind and a breakthrough moment for this highly regarded blended whisky;  Build a giant cargo crate in a cool location, fill it with very cool stuff: soulful dance artist Jessie Ware, DJ Duke Dumont, performance theatre, a secret speakeasy room guarded by a spiv, cocktails from 69 Colebrooke Row, a burlesque show and sliders, courtesy of hip London restaurant Meat Liquor.  

Oh, all this and 200 happy people, lashings of Cutty Sark over ice and mixers, shots with craft beers and suddenly, you have a blended whisky that's playing in a very different space to most others.  

Cutty has never professed to follow the pack and resort to Scottish traditions, heather and weather and a lingering walk from a lone piper. It was innovative, groundbreaking and contemporary back in 1923 and in its current guise, is still by far the best at breaking down the barriers to blended Scotch whisky that exist in the minds of younger people, which are easily pole vaulted by the white spirits category... 

Cutty Cargo was a test event and we hope to see this coming to many other cities globally in future.  The future's bright. The future's yellow and ship-shaped. 

Last week saw another pivotal moment in the rise of single potstill Irish whiskey, with the release of Redbreast 21 year old, the oldest expression in the Redbreast family and certainly the whiskey that puts aged Irish whiskey firmly in the hearts and minds of those who have criminally overlooked the spirit. 

The 21 year old is the 9th edition to the Single Pot Still range that Irish Distillers have created (which includes, Green and Yellow Spots, Powers John's Lane and Barry Crockett Legacy) and we were lucky enough to be hosted by master blender for Irish Distillers Billy Leighton, who demonstrated the considerable delights of the new whiskey next to the 12 year old and classic 15 year old. The 21 year old is again a mixture of malted and unmated barley, matured in both American oak and first fill oloroso sherry casks.  

Redbreast - 21 year Old -  46% 

Nose: Stupendously fruity on the first nosing, with notes of fresh vanilla, mango, passion fruit, kiwi, ripe bananas and coconut. Dig a little deeper and you'll find some drier spices, some subtle oak tones and a richer, darker caramel.  

Palate: The fruit and vanilla dominate here, with the tropical notes from above leading a trio of orchard fruits (plums, green apples and wine stewed conference pear)  The mouthfeel is fat and buttery, with a superb golden syrup note coating the tongue, before the woody spice of clove and cinnamon get their wicked way with you.

Finish: Lingering and dry, with lighter fruit notes on the death.

Overall: We've featured Irish whiskey a lot over the last month, with the Midleton Housewarming event, a truly terrific Teeling Silver Series 21 year old (which has more fruit than Carmen Miranda's head dress) and this just adds to the tally of greatness coming from the emerald isle.  

Spotted! A New Irish Whiskey on the Radar

After the onslaught of peated (especially Islay) whiskies consumed by this website in the past few weeks, we felt a bit of subtlety was in order before our collective palates exploded under the volume of smoke we've ingested.  All this led us back to a tasting which occurred a month ago at one of our favourite hotel establishments in London, The Connaught - not the wonderful Coburg Bar, but the equally nice Connaught Bar at the back of the hotel. This is usually the domain of the louche, urbane sophisticat, there to sample many a classic from the bar's extensive menu of cocktails, which includes a Martini trolley, so that the unbridled freshness of citrus, botanical and chilled glass can be presented in perfect harmony.

But today, things were a little different.  I had been at a previous tasting (a sneak preview of a new Ardbeg) and was running a little late, so hot-footed it over to the bar mid-afternoon just as the assembled throng of drinks writers and bloggers were being assembled -  to taste something of a revelation.

Amongst the rabble, who usually just turn up for the free booze were several folks who didn't look familiar and who turned out to be none other than the custodians of Mitchell & Son, purveyor's of one of our very favourite Irish whiskies the wonderful Green Spot.  Now anyone who knows this whiskey will know that it is a very hard act to follow (possibly nailed by Redbreast 15yo) so to return back to the vaults of time and extract one of the other 'spots' from the original range could be somewhat remiss.

However, all is not lost.  The whiskey, as you've guessed is a cracker.  Matured for a full term in three types of cask (American Oak, sherry cask and Malaga wine casks) the marriage is sweeter than anything that could be mustered up by the glossy pages of Hello! magazine and we feel it's a welcome edition to the range.  We imagine that this is the first of several releases from the 'spot' range - Blue Spot (once bottled as a 7 year old) Red Spot (as a 15 year old) and maybe even Black Spot, although we made this one up... is there potential room for a peated expression? Who knows, but until then, we have Yellow Spot to look forward to.   It will be bottled at 46%, released in batches of 500 cases and priced at €65.  The price point made us think this could be a competitor to Redbreast 15 year old, but we'll let you decide whether you feel it's worth switching your Irish allegiance, after the review.

Yellow Spot -  Irish Whiskey - 12 Years Old -  46%

Nose: Initially buttery, with golden syrup and fudge notes, leading into some sweet, fruity wine and a hint of dryness.  With water, the dryness gives way to a perfumed note with ripe banana notes and woody spices.

Palate: Very sweet. Marzipan, some tropical fruit notes, mixed in with Pedro Ximinez sweet/musty rancio richness, with a thicker, darker bonfire toffee note emerging further into the flavour.  A dash of water brings liquorice and cream notes, with a return of the sweet wine from the nose.

Finish: Lingering, with green bananas and a woody spice note. 

Overall:  Very detailed, complex and developed.  It takes a step beyond the Green Spot and adds another dimension to an already great whiskey.  Whether we would prefer this over the magnificent Redbreast 15 year old is debatable, but it certainly has a place in the Irish whiskey canon, which is currently a rising star in the spirits world.

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.