I prepared this post a long time ago but only now I finally have the time to give the blog some TLC again. I’ve tasted some very pleasant blends this year, and this could be one of the best of them. McConnell’s is an old Belfast brand, and one of few brands on the island of Ireland that spells whisky without the “e”. It’s also said to be one of the oldest whisky brands, established in 1776. The brand quickly became very popular, but a fire destroyed much of the distillery and its warehouses in 1909. Although it was rebuilt, the American Prohibition came and removed most of its market, and like ..read more

Hey people! Remember me? In April I said I’d start writing weekly again. Hahaha! That didn’t happen. This year has been quite overwhelming, but good. However, I rarely found I could make time to sit down to write about whiskey. But now the time has come, after finishing studies and other projects. So let’s start digging into some whiskeys I’ve enjoyed during this time! Different peated blends have been flooding the Irish whiskey market for a while, thanks to the brilliant work of the people at the Great Northern Distillery, but not only. Several new distilleries are making peated whiskey, whic ..read more

I’ve never written about Dunville’s before on this blog, so let’s do it. The main reason why I’ve never mentioned them is that I want to avoid writing about whiskeys that you can’t buy – after all if people read a review and the whiskey sounds like a good one, it’s nice if the whiskey is actually available to buy somewhere. Most Dunville whiskeys I’ve tried have been those mega-hyped single casks that I had the opportunity to taste with Cork whiskey society in February 2020, and at Whiskey Live 2019. But the Echlinville folks have some core range whiskeys too, and I tasted some of them at a Ta ..read more

Core range. Some sweet words, aren’t they? I love a good single cask whiskey. But do you know what I love more? Whiskeys that I can buy when I’m up to it, and if they sell out, there will be a new batch on the shelf next week. Single casks and whiskey exhaustion Since some time last year, I’ve had what I call a whiskey fatigue. We’re bombarded with all these frequent new whiskey releases, one more limited than the other. Marketers scream “ONLY (insert low number here) bottles available!”. Flippers go crazy, and I lose interest because trying to get my hands on a bottle is too annoying, no matt ..read more

In the autumn of 2020 I had tried many times to attend Tweet tastings but with no success, and wondered what an uninteresting person I must be. Did they only want “influencers” (whatever the definition is)? And if so, why not invite them privately if they only want a certain clique to take part? However, I’ve learned that at least for Talkdram tastings, a certain percentage of the participants is always picked randomly so I kept trying. Then I realised I had missed the detail “retweet the announcement” about Talkdram tastings, and suddenly I was selected to join a Fercullen tasting. I had the ..read more

Earlier this year, I had the privilege to attend the Zoom event for the release of the Glendalough new 7-year-old single malt, finished in Mizunara oak casks from Hokkaido, Japan. It was a very pleasant evening, where tasters received a set of three samples; a 3-year-old single malt aged in bourbon casks, the same spirit after a total of 7 years in those casks, and then after it had spent 4 months in Mizunara virgin oak. The use of this wood started during World War II, when Japan had no imports, whisky was a popular drink, and they needed wood to build casks. But it’s not the most straightfor ..read more

Big thanks to Micil distillery for providing samples! Before Christmas I was offered some samples to taste the new whiskeys from Micil distillery. It was a very nice surprise, especially since I hadn’t written on the blog for some time and was barely visible on Twitter. And of course I was happy to accept this generous offer! Micil is a new distillery that I haven’t been aware of for a very long time, although I’ve seen the name here and there. It’s located in Galway and named after the founders’ great-grandfather Micil Mac Chearra – also a distiller in his time. They plan to make mostly peate ..read more

Red Earl is a very pleasant whiskey in a series of two other Earls – Spanish Earl and Great Earl. These are sourced whiskeys under the name of Kinsale Spirits Company, and their portfolio includes Kinsale gin and the Battle of Kinsale whiskey series. Kinsale is a beautiful, colourful and vibrant little town in West Cork. It’s a popular destination for tourists, with good places to eat and drink, art galleries, shops, and a lovely whiskey bar is also located here – Malt lane aka The Folk House. There’s a little port, an old fort, and a famous golf course at Old Head, where you can also visit th ..read more

In a few months, Clonakilty distillery will have liquid that can legally be called whiskey (if I remember the dates correctly – I think they filled the first cask with their own distillate at the beginning of May 2019). But they also have a lot of good things going on when it comes to the management of sourced whiskey. They have a good range of bottlings with different cask finishes, some available in shops, local or online, and some bottlings they’ve made exclusively for the US. It’s really nice to see so much going on while waiting for their own whiskey to mature! We’ve been indulging in som ..read more

Hello there! I’m still here, believe it or not. And despite all the new whiskey brands and fancy releases happening out there, today I’m going to talk about Knappogue Castle, an old (ok, at least older than 10 years. Because this is such an incredibly good whiskey. I haven’t tasted many Knappogue Castle whiskeys earlier but had a sample pack of their standard whiskeys that I opened last year, and I also wrote about it on my previous blog. Then I also learned about this cask finish series made for Celtic whiskey shop and bought a sample from Dick Mack’s. I really liked it but apparently not eno ..read more