St Patrick's Day (ish)

 

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.

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.

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.

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.

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%.

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.

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.

Pick and Mix Drams

June's line up

For June's Zoom tasting we asked five different members to select a whisky to share with the rest of the club, for a bit of a pick and mix type of evening.

Green Spot Zinfandel

And we started off with Jasper taking us through a bit of his own history with whisky over the nine years he's been a fan, culminating in his experiences as part of our community.

He chose something from Ireland for us to try, in the shape of Green Spot Zinfandel wine cask finish. This smelt lovely and strong on the nose, and sweet as well, and went down smoothly and easily on the palate. The nose especially was fantastic, went the club consensus, giving us a great start to the night. One surprise was that it was 'only' 46%, we'd generally pegged it at something above 50 given the powerful nose. Someone added water but was a bit less keen on it after that, yet overall this was a very decent dram at a solid price point of £57.

Glenglassaugh

Katherine was up next to take us to Scotland, more specifically Speyside and the Glenglassaugh distillery, bringing back memories for her of walks on Sandend beach near Portsoy on the Moray Firth coast. She'd picked out a bottle from the Octaves expressions, aged in casks made from wood which had previously held a range of sherries.

A good nose, the familiar raisiny and dried fruit kind of smell you get with distilleries from that part of the world. But as it happened, ultimately not quite as sherried on the palate as the nose suggested it would be. We felt this was a little bit nondescript in the end, there was a bit of maple syrup and bacon, the beginning of a hint of burnt tyres as well, and a little smoky too which we weren't quite expecting. Nice enough but perhaps not quite worth the price tag - it's available for about £50. It's 44%.

Dunville's 12yo

Next it was Pedro's turn and, befitting his name, he selected something finished in Pedro Ximenez sherry casks. We were going back to the island of Ireland and Belfast, for a Dunville's 12-year-old, Dunville's being an old name in whiskey resurrected as a brand in recent years by the Echlinville distillery.

Perhaps not quite as nice on the nose as the last two, we got a bit of nail polish remover along with some spiciness and a hint of custard. There was no lingering finish to it though, at least in the breakout room I was in (other groups seemed to like it a little better!). There was a surprising lack of PX, there was certainly a hint of it but it wasn't exactly in the forefront of the drink. At £95 it was a bit on the expensive side for what it was, but still enjoyable overall and good to have tried it, which is the whole point of the club really. It's 46%.

Talisker 8yo

Matt chose dram number four for us, a 2010 8-year-old Talisker bottled into a sherry butt, bringing back some wedding memories for him of his marriage to fellow club member Becky.

This gave us a bit of an island vibe, befitting the Skye distillery. This was salty and smoky, light and fishy. A little bit bitter at the very end perhaps, but really this was very nice, we'd definitely drink it again. Considering it had spent eight years in a sherry butt we were surprised it wasn't a slightly darker colour. There was a really interesting mix of flavours in there though, from bits of chocolate, a certain peppery thing going on, maybe even rhubarb.

Balcones!

The last dram of the evening was picked out for us by Chris. Known throughout the club for his love of Balcones Brimstone, he insisted this was not it!

But as we would soon find out, he had gone back to his favourite Texas distillery for something different, in this case the Balcones Dream Big, bottled by indie Simply Whisky. It smelt fiery, like ginger ale. There was no doubt it had a high ABV, but even we were surprised when Chris revealed it clocked in at no less than 65.7%. Just a four-year-old, it really left an impression on us. Stringent at first before it goes smooth and vanilla, the flavour sticks with you, a really long aftertaste of marzipan, almond and marmalade. It's £85.

While it was a great way to finish the night, the dram of the evening poll was won by whisky number four, the sherry-matured Talisker. Congratulations to Matt! And thanks to him and all the club members who presented bottles, and to everyone who joined the tasting.