Got a bottle of auchentoshan three wood in Glasgow recently.
Not much of it left 😋
Very smooth, very nice.
The last of my Dingle Samhain, lovely drop for the night thats in it.
Got a bottle of Jura Rum Cask finish for £25 in Asda the other day. Had a glass tonight, it's quite nice, very fruity.
Had a drop of that myself alongside their Fómhair single malt. Lovely to compare and contrast the rum finish with the muscatel.
Hi guys! I was hoping to gather your recommendations on a few whiskeys. I've recently enjoyed whiskey and want to try all the different types of irish whiskey.
Single Pot, Grain, Malt, Blended could you recommend a good bottle in each category to try each category.
I've tried a few whiskeys by now, redbreast 12, powers, roe & coe but I never paid attention to the different categories or how its made and I find it fascinating, my favourite whiskey right now is Jameson Black Barrel. I live in Dublin so I will prob head to The Palace (or other recommendations) to try these whiskeys your list before I decide what I like.
You'll get any number of suggestions here, the Irish whiskey market is more crowded than its ever been, at the moment.
Pot still: I was thinking of mentioning the Writers Tears range, which is pot still heavy, but really probably you should just go and try Powers' Johns Lane, if you haven't already. Still the big dog in this field.
Grain: I don't think buying a bottle of single grain, or a grain whiskey blend, should really be anyone's priority, unless they're sure they will like it… They can be quite metallic, and although people will disagree over it, some would say they have been a poor cousin to single malts and blends, and even contemporarily you tend to see them marketed, at a lower price point, as something suitable for mixing. Grains as part of a blend… Different story. Anyway, if you want to, at a lower price point, I'd suggest Kilbeggan single grain, going up I'd mention Method and Madness single grain and JJ Corry The Hanson, a blend of grain whiskies.
Blends: Take your pick of all the well-known blends out there. Since you could really go in any direction, I would suggest you should try the famous and established supermarket blends from the big boys, including Jameson and Powers, and if you want to explore newcomers, personal suggestions would be the Silkie range (regular blend, midnight and dark for peatier versions, and red for wine finishes), which are affordable, and a really good premium blend is JJ Corry's The Gael.
I am actually not a huge fanboy of Irish whiskey, relative to others on this forum, but JJ Corry's The Gael really is sensational, and a good example of a bonded blend beating the pants of more expensive, non-sourced single malts with age statements. The 85 - or so - price point reflects it.
Thank you for the reply and yes im not gonna go off buying various bottles just yet! It was more to give me options to try at a bar so I can find one I like and then made the plunge into buying a whole bottle!
I'm not fixed on any price point especially since I will be buying glasses not bottles for now so I'm definitely going to try JJ Corry's The Gael! If you wouldnt mind since you said your not a fanboy much of irish whiskey, can you offer any other whiskeys to try that will open my world?
Well, I wouldn't put you off Irish whiskey, necessarily… If you enjoy it, it's widely available and potentially, if drinking in bars, you'll have a better selection to choose from.
If it were me, I'd probably work my way through the Jameson core range, then move onto Powers, then possibly Bushmills / others, and then yeah I'd keep an eye out for Restbreast, Green Spot / Yellow Spot etc, Writers Tears, Method and Madness, Dingle, Drumshambo… I would just go with whatever you're coming across and is in your price range. You'll realise soon enough what you like.
Scotland is a massive producer of whisky, to state the obvious. I thought about recommended you work your way through whiskies from all the different regions, which are (rightly or wrongly) generally associated with particular styles, but in Irish bars you may not see a huge range. Widely available and worth experiencing though might be something like…
Glenmorangie / Balvenie for sherry and port finishes… Lagavulin / Laphroaig / Ardbeg / Talisker for peated smoky whiskies from Islay and Skye… Highland Park for a bit of a middle ground.. I mention these as I see them as top shelf scotches in Irish bars, but you never quite know what's going to be hanging around, depending on the bar.
With respect to peated whiskies… Some people just hate them, but for me and some friends, it was actually the super heavily peated Ardbegs of the late 90s that made us whisky addicts… They are the "wrong" way to get into whisky, according to the conventional wisdom of some, a bit like getting into beer by starting out with strong double IPAs, but they were just so knock-your-socks-off that they kindled an interest. The softer, fruitier and arguably better balanced came later for me.
Last suggestion, don't rule out bourbon / American whisky. Starting out, Buffalo Trace… Bulleit… Knob Creek… Woodford Reserve… Maker's Mark. Even a humble Wild Turkey. Some thought more of as mixing bourbons, but they can all be sipped.
I started on Black Barrel too. Try Black Barrel Proof if you can - it’s probably the natural progression. For something bit different, try Nikka From The Barrel.
The proof version hasn't been around for a while, has it? It was an amazing whiskey.
Was about to ask the same.
See it appear on the secondary market now again. I was convinced it was a whiskey that would become a core range.
I might keep an eye on it in the next few auctions.
I think it's still available in Middleton if you do the tour.
I’d imagine hope it will come back again towards Christmas - it did last year. I remember SuperValu having a great offer but it never came to my local one.
I got this recently from someone who was travelling and it was very good: MacLeod As We Get It Travel Edition
https://www.whiskybase.com/whiskies/whisky/240067/as-we-get-it-nas-im
How's the Tullamore D.E.W. XO Rum cask? I remember some chat about it here in the past but can't remember if it was positive or negative.
Im a fan. Worth a try when on offer.
I've a bottle on the go and I like it. It's nothing too exciting, the whiskey is fairly light and mild but the rum influence is noticeable and pleasant. I think I got a bottle for €25 in SuperValu at some point, very happy with it for that
I
I really like it, way to easy to drink imho. I'll always go hunting for a bottle when it's on sale.
Thanks, folks. I believe it's on offer in SuperValu for a few days.
on offer in SuperValu
That's a trigger phrase for me in afraid. 😊
As long as the Supervalu store has it... different franchises can be hit and miss with what booze they stock.
I've ordered stuff for collection in the Walkinstown store before and gotten a call from the shop the next morning to say it's not in stock and the order was canceled. I've (almost) given up on drink alerts from SV to be honest.
I could be wrong, but I know they have the cask strength, but maybe not the proof.
The cask is 60% while the proof is 50%. More than double the price too I think.
Had the opportunity to try the RedBreast PX at the weekend.
A pleasant and rich nose. At 46% shouldn't be that chewy, but it has a good, oily mouthfeel. Very recognisably Redbreast and has the strong pot still notes, but the PX is - as is often the case - really dominant. It is pleasant, but not very complex.
I'd prefer this to the 12, 15 or potentially even the cask strength, for the variety, mainly. Not sure how to compare it to the Lustau, it's been too long since I tried that.
I think the price point is ok, in consideration of all factors.
Overall, personally wouldn't buy a full bottle, but would be delighted if someone gifted me one and probably would hold onto it. A decent celebration / Christmas season whiskey.
In case it's of any interest, whiskey selection in Lidl this Thurs
Picked up a few bottles as wedding gifts. Two Middleton Very Rare, and a Redbreast 27.
Not obscure or nuanced choices, but at the same time delighted to receive.
Surprisingly, there's a couple clanging errors on that Lidl poster - you'd think they'd know better.
Didn't spot that 😋
The picture looks like the standard Bourbon Cask Irish Whiskey from WCD, presume it's that
Never knew that about gin (admittedly I know next to nothing about gin), how is sloe gin a thing but not other-fruit-put-in-gin a thing? How come sloes get preferential treatment?
I naively assumed damson gin would be damsons soaked in gin too infuse the flavour so it would still be gin, it's that not the case? (I mean, I assumed the flavouring process was probably short-cutted but in principle that)
I think sloe gin is more popular for historical reasons. I know my grandmother used to make it in the 50s, from fruit of her own lands. I’d presume the technical file is what means you can’t call it a gin. Similar to how some whiskey producers make spirit that can’t technically be called whiskey, due to how they make it.
