Origin: Clonakilty (Ireland)
Type: Blended Irish Whiskey
Gradation: 55.8%ABV
Ageing casks: Ex-Bourbon, finished in ex-Cognac
Chillfiltered: No
Added coloring: No
Owner: Clonakilty Distillery
Average price: € 89.00
Official website: clonakiltydistillery.ie
Vote: 65/100
Founded in 2018 in the town of the same name in County Cork, Clonakilty is the crowning dream of the latest generation of the Scully family, with a long tradition as grain farmers.
So it’s not just barley on their land at the foot of the Galley Head lighthouse, which after triple distillation in three pot stills is aged in warehouses overlooking the ocean.
Production started on 4 March 2019, with gin of course, while for the whiskey originating from their distillation we’ll have to wait a little longer.
In the meantime, their portfolio offers bottlings from externally acquired casks that finish maturing in their warehouses, playing on finishes such as Port, Burgundy and Cognac.
They also offer limited edition bottles finished in beer as well as made exclusively for online shops.
This is in fact a special edition for the online shop Irishmalts, a blend of malts from 2008 and cereals from 2010 (60 and 40 per cent composition respectively), which after spending an indefinite amount of time in ex-Bourbon casks finished maturing for twenty-two months in an ex-Cognac cask, which produced 265 cask strength bottles.
Tasting notes
Straw yellow with copper highlights in the glass.
Baked pear and vanilla emerge on the nose, followed by plums, dried apricot, nutmeg, caramel and pencil shavings. Slight touch of milk chocolate. Simple and silky.
Dry and peppery mouthfeel, very woody, echoing the nose with cooked pears and apples, sultanas, caramel, liquorice, hazelnuts. The alcohol is well balanced, but the aromas are rather flat and overwhelmed by woody tones.
Medium-long and very dry finish of wood, hazelnuts, liquorice, apple.
Young malt, too young perhaps, with the influence of wood that eats up all the whiskey leaving little room for the rest, with an undertoned and flat aromatic palette. A pity.