Origin: Ireland
Type: Single Malt Irish Whiskey
Strength: 53.3%ABV
Ageing casks: Ex-Bourbon and ex-rum
Chillfiltered: No
Added colouring: No
Owner: Dream Whisky
Average price: € 126.00
Official website: whiskeymatthew.com
Vote: 88/100
The first structured project within the new whiskey label of the Maltagliati/Mazzieri duo, which was created in collaboration with several Italian chefs to unite Italian cuisine and distillate, a combination that was perhaps once seen as risky but is now a solid reality.
For this Cuisine Collection, we start with the single cask chosen with Jacopo Ticchi of Trattoria da Lucio in Rimini, an Irish triple distillate that after an initial ageing in an ex-bourbon barrel has been refined in a cask that has contained Australian rum for thirteen years: as the name suggests, the profile is designed to marry with grilled cuisine.
Tasting notes
On the nose, we are in the region of vegetal peat, which marries evocations of rum by kneading sizzling, moist leaves and wood with muscovado sugar, aniseed, marzipan, nutmeg and balsamic vinegar. The smoky compartment drives the aromas, scattering herbs (thyme, dill) over a burnt pineapple juice reduction and a gust of wet stone. In the background, an impression of coffee liqueur peeps out.
Liqueur that starts with the first sip and then settles in the background of the entire dram, as the tropical and roasted compartment arrives, where the smoke is like a sauce that enhances and doesn’t cover, accompanying fruit (pineapple, pomegranate, grapefruit, ripe cherry), sugar cane, nuts and liquorice root. Floral inflection between the vegetal notes that flow through the palate, still of herbs with just a balsamic hint, and a humid, saline and mineral component in the background. Pepper and sweet paprika.
Lingering smoky finish, tropical fruit, roasted nuts, coffee, Catalan cream.
So much for those who say that Irish whiskeys lack depth, here there is plenty of substance, the rum cask yields without covering, adding personality and three-dimensionality to a full-bodied and engaging dram that has a lot to say in the glass. And which is a pleasure to listen to.