Type: Irish Single Malt Whiskey
Strength: 43%ABV
Ageing casks: Ex-Bourbon First Fill, finished in ex-Port
Chillfiltered: No
Additional coloring: No
Owner: West Cork Distillers
Average price: € 30.00
Official website: www.westcorkdistillers.com
Vote: 83/100
Let’s get back to the finishings of the Cork Irish whiskey, this time using ex-Port Quinta Da Boeira casks.
Not to be confused with the 12-year maturation in similar casks, this bottling comes from an unspecified first maturation in ex-Bourbon first-fill casks, and is part of a series that focuses precisely on Bourbon-based NAS (bottles of unspecified ageing) with different refinements.
Tasting notes
Warm and spicy notes on the nose, with plenty of nutmeg, cardamom and cinnamon on macadamia, prunes, dates, malt, ginger biscuits. Profile a bit ruffian but pleasant.
In the mouth it’s rather peppery at the start, proving to be quite dry and taking up the tones of the nose, albeit with a less complacent and more bitter streak of nuts, ginger, marzipan, liquorice root, fondant. Malt biscuits.
The finish is moderately long, again sweet but always with a bitter hint of nuts, fondant, malt, prune.
A whiskey that despite its youthful simplicity still manages to offer some interesting ideas, with a more fascinating palate than the olfactory approach. And for the price range in which it is found, a well repaid entertainment.