Tag Archives: Irish Whiskey

Whisky

Exploring Global Whisky: A Personal Advent Calendar Journey (Part 6)

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I am coming to the end of my Advent Calendar. I have five more whiskies to experience. I shall write about the next four (up to Christmas Eve) in this post. I will do a separate post about the Christmas Day whisky. Which I hope will be something special, but fear will be the World whisky equivalent of a generic blended Scotch.

I will also try and summarise my experience. I will try and decide my favourite whisky from the twenty five.

Dec 21st

Today’s whisky comes from Sweden. The distillery is near the coast of the Gulf of Bothnia, about five hundred kilometres north of Stockholm.

High Coast Hav comes in at 48% ABV. “Hav” is the Swedish word for sea.

It has an attractive pale amber colour. I found notes of peat, smoke and oak on the nose. Tasting it gave me fruit, spice and peat smoke.

This was another whisky that I found a drop of water helped to open the whisky up.

The distiller likes to experiment with different mash combinations. They use a variety of barrels to achieve different effects on the final product. Clearly, in this case the experiment works. This was a whisky that I liked. While it is not cheap I feel that it is reasonably priced.

Dec 22nd

We are back to Ireland to sample another Mitchell and Sons Spot Whiskies. We tried their Red Spot on the 17th.

Today’s offering is Green Spot Single Pot Still Chateau Léoville Barton Bordeaux Cask

Taken from the Website:
Green Spot Château Léoville Barton represents the coming together of two historic families, two stories of Irish endeavour and enterprise who together are the inspiration for this special edition whiskey.
Our whiskey is finished in Château Léoville Barton French oak casks, the very casks that play a vital role in the wine’s distinctive balance, bouquet and flavour, that we’ve used to bring something extra to our Green Spot Single Pot Still Irish Whiskey.

As you can see from that, the whiskey is finished in Bordeaux Casks. This is where, I would suppose, that the very dark gold colour comes from. The nose, I found is heavily influenced by the cask. I got fruit and wine as the main elements . Taste wise fruit and spice were the main elements.

I have never been totally convinced by wine barrel whiskies. This one did nothing to change my mind.

Dec 23rd

The whisky today comes from Canada. It is made by Hiram Walker. It is a blend of Corn and Rye whiskies aged in rum barrels

Pike Creek 10 year old comes in at 42% ABV. It is brown in colour. on the nose I found that the rum cask was the predominant theme, followed by a hint of sweetness. Taste wise, again rum was prominent, as well as spice from the rye and sweetness from the corn.

This was a pleasant enough whisky. It is reasonably priced, but there was nothing about it that said, “buy me”

Dec 24th

Our Christmas Eve whisky came from New Zealand. When we were on holiday there, last year, I found that New Zealand creates some very drinkable whiskies. The Cardrona distillery produced some exceptional ones. The Cardrona distillery is situated in the South Island. Today’s whisky is produced in the North Island, in the small town of Pokeno, about fifty kilometres south of Auckland.

Pokeno Discovery is a single malt with a 43% ABV. It is matured in Bourbon casks and Oloroso sherry casks. It has an amber colour. I found the nose to be fruity with a hint of honey. Its palate gave me dried fruit and cinnamon, with a hint of chocolate.

This was a whisky that I enjoyed drinking. I was one of the few that I did not feel the need to add water to. Most of the others needed a drop of water, either to open them out, or in some cases alleviate the alcohol burn.

It is not a cheap whisky but I would say worth paying for.

Whisky

Exploring Global Whisky: A Personal Advent Calendar Journey (Part 3)

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We are moving on to the next four whiskies.

Dec 9th

Today’s offering is another Irish single malt. This time it is the Connemara 12 year old with an ABV of 40%. It is apparently the only peated Irish malt. This surprised me, given the amount of peat to be found in Ireland.

It has a pale straw colour. The nose is essentially smoke and peat, but not overwhelming, like say Laphroiag. There is also just a hint of lemon. On the palate, there is smoke, obviously, but there is also a hint of sweetness and vanilla.
I liked this whiskey a lot. I am a big fan of Islay malts, and this could almost be an Islay malt

Dec 10th

Taiwan is not a country that I would have thought made whisky. Today’s whisky, though, comes from Taiwan.

Ka Va Lan Single Malt Sherry Cask , it comes in at 40% ABV.
It has a very dark amber colour.
The nose is predominantly sherry, although other things like berries and chocolate are noticeable.
On the palate, sherry comes through quite strongly, but, honey, and stone fruit are observable.
I am not usually that fond of sherry cask whisky, but I quite liked this one.

Dec 11th

Today’s whisky comes from Finland. I think of Finland as a place where vodka is produced rather than whisky. The Kyrö distillery has produced a single malt using rye rather than barley.
The Kyrö Rye single malt is matured in American Oak and comes in at 47% ABV. Its colour is dark golden. I found it nutty and sweet on the nose. It tasted of bread, rye bread presumably. There was also a hint of peppery spice.
I was not sure what to make of this whisky. Because rye whiskies are a new thing to me, I had difficulty assessing what I was drinking. I don’t want to dismiss it out of hand, but with an unfamiliar taste, I didn’t like it that much.

Dec 12th

Another Nordic offering today. This time from Denmark.
Fary Lochan, which has an ABV of 48.9%, is a rather unique whisky. The malt is smoked, but not over peat, as is normal in Scotland, but over fresh nettles. This makes for a dram that is very different from the norm.

It is very pale in colour. The nettle smoke comes through on the nose, as does a herbal note. Herbs and grass are the prominent notes in the palate, accompanied, by hints of spice, and a slightly sweet finish.

Like yesterday’s rye malt, I’m not quite sure about this one. It is not really to my taste, but it is an interesting and different whisky. If it comes your way, do try it and see what you make of it.

Click on the names of the whiskies. You can also click on the pictures of the bottles. Both actions will take you to the appropriate distillery website.