The following notes have kindly been uploaded by Greg Szczepkowski, @bogstandarddram. You can follow Greg on Twitter, using the button at the bottom of this post.
Type of whisk(e)y – Irish whiskey.
How long has the whisk[e]y bottle been open? – Newly opened.
Introduction to the whisk[e]y (casks used, distillery, is it a special release etc) – First ever cask from barley grown by Tipperary distillery, on their own land. It was contract distilled elsewhere (West Cork most probably but it’s not disclosed) and then spent more than 3 years and 2 months in single ex-Rioja cask from Bodegas Faustino (known rioja brand, at least in Ireland).
Full details can be found by scanning the bar code on the bottle label. It leads to the website:
http://www.tipperarydistillery.ie/2020.10.01, have a read!
Appearance – Light golden with delicate red tint.
Nose – Red currants, warm dough, cocoa mousse, red jam on buttered toast, cranberry juice drink, red wine, sugar on grapefruit, bread crust. Toffee, sawdust and touch of copper.
Palate – Biscuits, chewy sponge cake, spicy chutney, burned bread crust, char. Not to sweet.
Finish – Pepper, spice, medium to long, fresh, touch of wax then coffee and a bit of saltiness and charred oak.
Overall thoughts – I had the honour to taste this whiskey on behalf of Jennifer Nickerson, the Director at Tipperary Distillery, who kindly sent me a generous sample of this special bottling. The full bottle comes in wooden box, with wax sealed cork. With rather hefty price tag of 150 euro and only 280 bottles released, it is most likely targeted towards serious collectors chasing “the 1st bottlings” of new distilleries.
Having said that, it is a very serious contender in barley heavy, organic, terroir category of Irish whiskeys. I enjoyed it much more than few samples of other, much larger Irish brand associated with this category. The cask has not been tainted by sulphur, at least to my palate I could not discern it. The berry, dough, sweet, spicy quality is very pleasant and very well balanced for a spirit of this age. Especially that it came from a cask of a decent size. Copper/metallic notes of young spirit are well incorporated and do not produce unpleasant off-notes. Tipperary Distillery is here to stay, that’s for sure!!
Many thanks to Greg, @bogstandarddram (Twitter) for submitting his tasting notes.
Follow @bogstandarddram
