I was on errands in Dublin but managed a little break in the recently refurbished Distilled premises to catch up with what’s new in Irish Whiskey.

The former Porterhouse Bar has been given a fresh face-lift & re-named Tapped whilst their Whiskey Bar remains reassuringly the same inside.
With such a plethora of new Irish Whiskey on the market I was a little dumbstruck as what to choose from their overflowing shelves. In the end I went for a new Donegal distillery in the shape of Crolly Distillery – or Croithlí if you wish to use Irish.

Croithlí have three Single Malt bottles on the market. None of them are actually distilled at the site – it’s far too young a project for that yet – but they have finished the sourced single malts in a variety of virgin oak casks to accentuate the differing flavours each wood-finish brings to the table.
Given a choice of Irish, European or American Oak – I went for Irish.
Labelled as Sessile Single Malt this bottle shares the same ex-bourbon matured malt as the others before being finished in virgin Quercus Petraea Oak barrels – otherwise known as Irish Oak – which in this instance has been sourced from Slovenia!
A rather soft nose greeted me.
Lovely oaky tannins with a heaviness reminiscent of Midleton’s Dair Ghaelach series were evident on the palate.
Opened up more on the finish where the woody influence shone through.
Very engaging.

An entertaining experience would be to try all three wood influences on a back-to-back tasting to tease out the different flavours each displays.
Sadly I wasn’t in a position to do that on the day – perhaps for later.
A wonderful way to showcase the distillery in advance of their own distillate being ready.
Sláinte

Review of the refurbished Porterhouse Bar here.
Crolly Distillery website here.