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| The full line up |
Our March tasting, being sort of near enough St Patrick's Day, was an opportunity for club member James to take us through a selection of half a dozen Irish whiskeys, with the theme that these were all examples of drinks that were at least a little out of the ordinary for Ireland.
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| Dingle Samhain |
And we opened with the limited edition Samhain expression from the Dingle distillery in County Kerry. Matured in bourbon casks, this was finished in ex-Moscatel, and that's what helped it along to some interesting flavours. At first we thought this a smooth, middle of the road, easy drinker, a nice calibration dram for the evening. But as we had another couple of sips, we got more of the vanilla, marmalade and generally orangey notes. There was a bit of spice around too on the finish.
A good way to start the evening, this is 50.5% and you can get a bottle for £84.
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| Powers Irish Rye |
We moved on to the Midleton distillery for dram two, one of the giants of Irish whiskey best known as the home of Jameson's. The whiskey was Powers Irish Rye, calling on one of the older brand names from the history of Irish Distillers. It's a historic bottling, with a recipe drawn from records found in the company archives, and featuring 100% Irish rye.
Herbal was an early tasting note on this one, and spicy too, like medicine. There was also a sweetness about it as well. Parma Violets thought someone, although it reminded me more of dandelion and burdock. Peppermint was another shout. It's 43.2% but, perhaps most appealingly, comes in at just £33. This last revelation prompted a bit of a dash for people's phones, and a few more sales were duly clocked up.
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| Tide's In |
Next we were onto the first of two bottles from the Whiskey Factor, an independent bottler. We had in our hands a dram of Tide's In, a 13 year-old from An Fear Grinn. This was a single grain whiskey finished in Oloroso sherry. The first tasting note I have written down clearly fell victim to the autocorrect elves because it says it had a 'Spotify nose' but beyond that it was nice and punchy on the palate. Vanilla and chocolate were both to the fore.
It's 57.8% but didn't taste that strong, and the flavours were satisfying all round. Those who put a bit of water in said it didn't really need it. This was £77.
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| Gullion |
After a half-time break to recharge our beer glasses downstairs at the bar of the Britons Protection, we were back for another from the same Whisky Factor/An Fear Grinn source. This expression was called Gullion, a five year-old finished in a rye cask.
Fruity we thought straight away, with tasting notes including candy floss, aspartame and apples, along with some spicy notes and even a bit of Vimto (we are in Manchester, after all). "Very nice" was a simpler summary. The all-important numbers here: £66 and 46%.
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| Roe and Co single grain |
Dram number five took us to Dublin and Roe and Co, a Diageo-owned distillery created in 2019 with a close association with the nearby Guinness factory. Apparently their standard bottling is designed and marketed for mixing, but we had a bottle of a 13-year-old single grain to try.
There was not much on the nose but a very nice taste for sure. This had full maturation in a port cask, and at 58% it was strong (and tasted it). At £55, it was decent value as well.
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| Dunville's 18yo |
Which brought us to the last dram of our Irish half dozen, and we went to Echlinville in County Down, the first new distillery built in the north since Bushmills. This was the whiskey we pushed the boat out a bit for. Produced under another old Irish whiskey brand name revived for the modern age, Dunville's. We had an 18-year-old, finished in a Palo Cortado sherry cask.
And this really was something. Almost like a rum with fruity notes, especially banana. "Totally tropical" like the soon-to-be-history Lilt (RIP). This was £160 for us, although there aren't many bottles around and none are at that price anymore. It's 55%.
Which brought us to the dram of the night voting, and whiskeys five and six had to settle for joint second, as the Whisky Factor Tide's Inn - whiskey three - took the victory with 11 votes.
Thank you to James for choosing the whiskeys and leading us through such a great tasting, to all at the Britons for hosting us once again, and of course to all club members and guests for joining us.
