Mourne Dew Distillery is the first legal distillery to operate in the Mournes for many centuries. We are the inheritor of a distilling tradition that has endured through the tumultuous history of this great island.
From the high tables of the clergy; with drinks replete with exotic concoctions of luxurious ingredients reminiscent of a modern style gin, to the open hearth of the humblest cottiers where recipes for home made poitín using whatever ingredients their little farms could offer were passed from father to son.
Mourne Dew
Appearance – This Whiskey is light Gold in colour, and it slowly drops quite thick legs. As it’s being drunk it soon becomes syrupy on the glass.
Nose – Straight away I’m getting pineapple, peach, pear, and cocktail cherries with pencil shavings, there’s some menthol in there also.
Once it’s sat for a while perfume starts to come from the glass, with cereals/grains, it’s becoming more floral too, if the glass is covered and a big nose full of aroma is taken after its uncovered there is a note of furniture polish.
Palate – The palate is instantly spicy, a very nice surprise tbh, and it’s quite strong. White pepper, cinnamon, a touch of liquorice, along with chilli’s, and then a tropical fruit sweetness starts to develop, definitely more of a stoned fruit affair now, the pencil shavings type wood note is also coming forward, it’s nicely balanced and doesn’t overpower the sweetness. It also has a nice mouthfeel, it certainly sticks to the palate for a good while.
Finish – The finish is medium in length, it’s a long medium mind you, and it’s full of spiciness. Darker fruits, with ginger, chilli’s, dark chocolate and black pepper, and right at the end a touch of salinity.
My thoughts – I’m writing these notes with a blind sample, that I’m really enjoying. The colour gave no indication of spice, but that’s one of its major characteristics. The whole thing is nicely married, has a nice development too, and a lovely spicy finish. After finding out which whiskey the sample was I asked them a couple of questions on Twitter, and the blend is 80:20 unpeated:peated, and they used American oak bourbon barrels for both and finished off the unpeated in IPA casks, and the phenol count is approx 10ppm. I didn’t find the peat, this could be because I’m accustomed to heavily peated whiskies.
Would I buy a bottle? – Yes I would, I could very easily sit with a drop of an evening, it has notes I really enjoy actually, that are not typically what you might expect from an Irish Whiskey, but they sit well with me.
Thanks to – Paul/@_PMcDermott (Twitter).
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