It's day 4 of Irish week and this train just keeps on rolling! All this week I will be running a giveaway on my Instagram where you will have the chance to win a bottle of Green Spot Irish whiskey or 4x 2oz samples of 4 bottles of your choosing that I drink this week! There will be 5 total days of nothing but Irish whiskey reviews from me as part of this; keep participating every day to increase your odds. If you want a boatload of bonus entries make sure to drop a comment on this webpage with your Instagram handle and your favorite Irish whiskey you want to see reviewed (or just some love)! As a special thank you to my website subscribers (love you all!), each of these comments are worth 10x more than an Instagram tag!
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Tomorrow on the 17th @amongstthefernsco and I will be tasting through just about everything we have, so stay tuned for a big finale. I'm glad to be changing pace on the distillery tonight. Let's see how this unique Irish offering turned out.
This bottle was unwittingly shared with me for review by Brendan Winch; Amongst the Whiskey thanks you for the dram!
Company on Label: Teeling Whiskey Company (Cooley Distillery)
Whiskey Type: Finished Irish Whiskey
Mash Bill Percentages: 95% Corn, 5% Malted Barley
Proof: 92°
Age: NAS (aged 6 years in Californian cabernet sauvignon barrels)
Further identification: This is a rare example of a single grain Irish whiskey, which means it was column distilled from a mash of multiple grains, often corn, rye, unmalted and/or malted barley, and wheat and made at a single Irish distillery; it is stated as being non-chill filtered
Nose: Woah, definitive corn sweetness up front here. There's a lighter oak and dust level compared to many of the other releases I've been through. Faint metallics and a light floral undertone are hard to pick up, but nice on the senses. Hm, a swirl brings out a funky savory note I wasn't expecting here. Wet cask iron (a sin) keeps coming back to me on this. I really can't say this nose early on does much for me. Time for a sip to see if things open up!
Again the nose stays quite tame here as just traces of oak continue to rise off the surface of the whiskey. Ah, here we go - now I get a bit of a lemon twist over tea with a soft honey; if this were warmed to the point of steaming I could mistake it for a hot toddy. Copper and caramel flash up briefly before the red berry fruit parfait medley comes back to show off again. The empty glass smells of red licorice, moss, campfire ash, and sweet cornbread.
Palate: Yum, yum, yum! That first sip was a complete 180 from the nose. Oh wow - the fruit parfait on this is just delectable. It's got some slight effervescence as if you popped a whole bunch of nerds candy in your mouth all at once. There's just an incredible softness to this that makes it feel like my tongue is being gently put to bed after falling asleep in the car. It's dessert savory like a really nice frosting, but devoid of that cloying sweetness some other Irish whiskeys drive at you. There is a bit of creamy coffee bean that I love to find. It also almost comes across like it has a flat milk kind of mouth feel which surprisingly is a lovely experience here. The fruit I mention at the start that I can pick up on are strawberry and red raspberry while a syrupy grenadine flavor ties them together. There is definitely a thicker, creamy yogurt feel to this which makes the parfait comparison still feel like it is ringing true later in the glass. This develops really well with time, but continues to be quite subtle. This is a pour you need to be paying attention to in order to pick up its character. The slight metallic feel I had early on in the nose transferred now to the palate as well. My last sip is a creamy, dreamy array of vanilla granola, light orange zest and soft florals that fade slowly into a long linger of faint peach brandy.
Rating: 4/5
This one is surprising for its own unique reasons. I think this is the type of release that if you're not paying attention you could crush way too many drams of this very quickly, and that would be a damn shame because this whiskey shines best when you take your time with it. This also feels like most of the magic comes on the first sip and you're left chasing that high a bit through the rest of the dram. I hope you can enjoy some of this in a glass near you soon to see what I'm talking about. Cheers!
Must add selection
Simple mashbill 95/5 yet such complex flavor notes. I always do appreciate when the mashbill is disclosed. What are they hiding when they don’t talk about it? None of us can Duplicate their bottles so just tell us… Either way your pallet and your nose are phenomenal.
I haven’t had the single grain in a while - will deed to give it another try! I got to visit Teeling just before the pandemic started in 2020 and am itching to go back. - @whiskywhisdom
I think I know the next Irish whiskey I'm adding to my collection!
This sounds good - I'll be popping three Teeling Small Batch tonight for St.Pats, finished in rum barrels I believe. Should be quite different from this but we'll see! Cheers!