Staying in America are a series of exceptional speciality bottlings of fine quality with plenty additional information from High N Wicked.
I’ve chosen their No 4 release – Aeneas Coffey – as it celebrates this Irishman’s invention of the continuous still which kick-started the growth of whiskey in today’s world.
Suitably it’s a single grain Irish Whiskey distilled in Cork, finished in madeira casks & presented non chill filtered, natural colour – as all High N Wicked offerings are – at 50% ABV in a cool looking bottle.
These are one-off style of whiskeys not normally available & I’d certainly be tempted to try them!
Triple Dog Irish Whiskey dares to be different – at least from the information on it’s website here.
The bottle design is certainly catchy – vibrant red & contrasting black with a dog’s head logo.
The distillery of origin is given – Great Northern Distillery in Dundalk – which is not always forthcoming for a sourced brand.
I can’t vouch for the taste as Triple Dog Irish Whiskey is an American brand & not available in Ireland. It does seem to have collected a number of awards since it’s release however.
Triple Dog’s Instagram page does appear to portray a youthful, fun & female focused brand.
When the Powerscourt Distillery first released sourced whiskey under their Fercullen brand name there was a big play stating the Head Distiller – Noel Sweeney – had a part in distilling the original liquid during his tenure at Cooley Distillery.
Now Noel has moved on from Powerscourt they have a new distiller – Paul Corbett, who himself came from Clonakilty Distillery – does the personality of the distiller make a difference to the perception of a whiskey?
It clearly does in some circles.
Individuals obviously do make a difference – but is Fercullen trying to re-create a Noel Sweeney style of Cooley Whiskey? Or will they create their own unique distillery character?
Distillery character is a term I have issues with.
Cooley can, did & still do create a whole range of flavour styles under the one roof. All distilleries can. The distiller – or distillers – can choose which style they wish within the limitations of raw materials, distillery equipment & maturation regime utilised.
I don’t believe it’s purely down to the location or shape of the stills – although there will be a degree of influence these factors bring to the table – they don’t define the final product.
Most whiskeys released are pre-envisioned before being distilled with a specific style or flavour profile in mind. All the variables are tweaked accordingly to attain that goal.
Cognisant of that, the 2 miniatures before me both represent what Powerscourt wish to present – regardless of whether they are sourced or distilled in-house.
Fercullen Falls Small Batch, 43%, Blend
Powerscourt do not have Coffey Stills to distill grain whiskey – so by default this blend contains sourced spirit. It does say Bottled For Powerscourt Distillery on the back label though. According to their website it also contains some of Powerscourt’s own distillate too – read about it here.
Pale golden brown. Soft, sweet & honeyed nose. Smooth & easy palate. Gently warming with a lovely little prickly bite on the finish.
An approachable easy blend with a touch of character on the rear.
Fercullen Single Malt, 46%
Despite saying Bottled For Powerscourt Distillery on the back label, the website states 100% Distilled in Powerscourthere. Mit Farbstoff is also on the label – added caramel to you & me – with Non-Chill Filtered on the website.
Pale golden brown. A gentle musty nose, slightly nutty. Smooth yet rich palate. Honeys, caramel, soft vanilla & more of that nuttiness. An engaging prickly bite on the rear from the 46% ABV. Finishes off quite dry.
An elegantly easy single malt boosted by that non-chill filtration.
Thoughts
Both of these represent to me a sweet, smooth & honeyed style of whiskey. If anything the blend is brighter, cleaner, more balanced & ultimately more satisfying on my palate. The single malt does offer more depth but the bite on the finish is slightly at odds with the overall smoothness – even if it does add character.
It’s still early days for Fercullen’s own malt – so it’s lovely to get a peek at the potential yet to come. At present it’s very much in the Cooley Malt style of whiskey. Personally I’d like to see some more divergence from that in the coming years.
What Powerscourt Distillery does have is a fantastic visitors experience set in stunning scenery just outside of Dublin.
I’d recommend you get down there to enjoy the whiskey!
With America being the largest export market for Irish Whiskey it’s no wonder there’s a whole plethora of brands that feature on liquor store shelves across the pond that are never seen in their home country.
Fighting 69th Irish Whiskey is one of them.
The name honours the 69th US Army Regiment, initially founded in 1849 as an Irish militia in New York.
The brand taps into this rich historical regiment with a label featuring many aspects of this celebrated fighting unit – which you can read about in the website here.
I failed to find any information as to which Irish Distillery – or distilleries – supplied the whiskey for Fighting 69th however.
Nonetheless it does represent the deep Irish connections still extent in the USA.
McCormack’s Irish Whiskey was brought to my attention by a random tweet featuring a photo of a French supermarket spirits shelf.
The discussion mainly revolved around the varying prices brought about by the taxes charged in the respective countries – but what interested me was the fact that sitting beside a well known staple – Bushmills – is a brand unheard of in Ireland – McCormack’s.
A bit of digging reveals it to be a West Cork Distillers brand. For it to be listed in LeClerc stores suggests it’s quite a big seller. A European Supermarket Magazine article from January 2024 has E.Leclerc as the largest retail chain in France – view article here.
The Pogues Streams Of Whiskey is the 3rd version of Pogues Whiskey to hit the shelves.
All of them are presented in visually striking bottles.
Black was the colour of the 1st one. A blended Irish Whiskey hailing from West Cork Distillers. Dunnes Stores stocked this at one stage.
Red signified the Irish Single Malt version – also sourced from West Cork Distillers.
Purple is the choice of this 3rd edition. Also a blended whiskey but representing the London-born-to-Irish-parents-heritage of The Pogues singer Shane MacGowan, Streams Of Whiskey is a High malt blend of whiskies distilled in Ireland & the UK – as stated on the front label of the whiskey.
It doesn’t say who distilled them – but it would be safe to assume West Cork did the honours here too. The UK – or full flavour English Whisky as on the website here – portion is probably a little harder to confirm.
Halewood are the parent company for The Pogues Whiskey. They own a number of distilleries around the UK with one of them – Bankhall – just releasing a range of matured English Whisky. Could this be the source?
Mulling over who distilled it however is no substitute for tasting – so a glass was poured.
Dark golden brown with decent legs. No mention of chill filtering or added caramel – so I assume it has both.
Quite a shy nose. Hints of sweet oakiness & caramel with an underlying burnt toastiness.
Smooth palate with a sweet mouthcoating feel.
Came alive on the finish for me. A dry spicy tingling, burnt toffee, dark chocolate & warm caramels.
Has a different taste profile than the previous 2 examples & found it very entertaining.
For the price point, Streams Of Whiskey offers a visually striking bottle to grace any shelf, a fabulous collaboration with The Pogues band as well as an intriguing taste that folks can discuss the merits of the various components while enjoying a few drams.
Glad to have picked this one up with the last of my Amazon vouchers!
One of the Irish Whiskeys uncovered in my sojourn to ProWein in Germany was Kerrighan’s.
I had a very quick sample as the show was coming to a close & found it an easy going blended Irish Whiskey.
On searching for further details it appears to be a Great Northern Distillery offering for a French distribution company by the name of Les Producteurs Réunis.
It’s certainly flying the Green for Irish Whiskey in France!
Their website also showcases many other brands spanning various spirits categories.
Pity I didn’t have time to explore more of them at the show!
The latest release from Terra Spirits of Bailieborough, County Cavan attracted the ire of local gender rights campaigner River Sheridan.
The spokesperson for the Cavan Non-Binary Coalition denounced the naming of Mr Whiskey as perpetuating the tired old stereotypes whiskey is a male only drink & projects an exclusory image of Ireland’s historical brown spiritwhich omits the non binary community.
Ms Lillian Farelly – Inclusivity Awareness Officer for Terra Spirits -had previously stated the Mr Whiskey brand is the beginning of our export expansion plans into the American market. We are very excited with our new range of whiskeys & hope to roll out a whole family of titles including a Mrs Whiskey, Pink Whiskey & Rainbow Whiskey.
We welcome River Sheridan to work with us in developing these concepts. She added.
On hearing their son was getting involved in the demon drink River’s parents quickly called to collect their child.
He’s only 17 and not allowed to drink is all our reporter could hear as they quickly bundled River into the family car to take him home.
He’s been a very naughty boy were the last words from Mrs Sheridan.
No further contact from either party was forthcoming.
At first glance you’d expect Suntory Ao Whisky to be a Japanese brand – and it is – but there’s an Irish Whiskey component in it’s blended make-up.
The Irish Whiskey in question hails from the Cooley Distillery in Co. Louth.
Suntory own Cooley – along with Kilbeggan too – and Ao celebrates the internationality of Suntory’s global reach by using whiskies from Scotland, America, Canada, Japan & the aforementioned Ireland to create this World Whisky.
I’ve not yet manage to sample the delights of Ao – yet I did see it available in Travel Retail at Dublin Airport.
Seems a very apt venue to offer this well travelled World Whisky in!
WestmeathWhiskeyWorld 