#Dingle Single Malt - Batch No.2

[thewhiskyphiles]

Whisky New Releases 2017 Week 49

#Whisky New Releases 2017 Week 49 top picks from @Kilkerranwhisky @Englishwhisky @Sprinbank1828

Whisky New Releases 2017 Week 49

Welcome to The Whiskyphiles New Releases, our weekly report on the best of both the official and independently bottled whisky recently released.

Our top picks this weeks are:

Kilkerran 8 Year Old Cask Strength

The Norfolk – Parched

Springbank 10 Year Old Local Barley

Sláinte!

Barry@TheWhiskyphiles

Berry Bros. & Rudd

Westport 1997 (cask 3291) (bottled 2014) £111.24

[greatdrams]

Dingle Batch 5 Single Malt Irish Whiskey

let’s begin

Dingle Distillery is based in the most beautiful part of Ireland, so how could they not make the best whiskey?

Cracking Views

Dingle is on the west coast of Ireland, part of what is known as the Wild Atlantic Way. This dramatic name, of course, is how the tourism board of Ireland describes “a really nice view”.

Not to be too sarcastic, the Wild Atlantic Way actually is one of the most beautiful scenic routes you’ll ever take. It’s got some of the best views you could ever imagine, and some pretty excellent distilleries along the way.

Dingle Distillery is one of those, having been founded in 2012 in the small village of Farrenredmond, in the Dingle area of County Kerry. The distillery was started by Oliver Hughes, Liam LaHart and Peter Mosley, who already owned and operated the Porterhouse Brewing Company.

It made sense to open a distillery. Whiskey, especially Irish whiskey, was becoming increasingly popular at the time and is still growing in popularity today.

Batch Production

Dingle Distillery have released a number of whiskies wince opening, each with a different batch number (starting and 1 and now at 5). Lots of distilleries do batched whiskey, but not all do it as well as Dingle. It gives them a nice niche, were people are looking for truly artisan drams made in small batches by independent makers.

Small batch is a label a lot of new distilleries attach to their malts, but simply by identifying their drams as Batch 1, Batch 2 etc., Dingle look like they are actually upholding that description.

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Tasting Notes for Dingle Distillery Batch 5 Single Malt Irish Whiskey

Bottle cost: €69.95

Matured in a wonderful combination of Madeira, bourbon and Pedro Ximenez casks, Batch 5 is a brilliant malt.

The nose opens with bright vanilla, caramel and oak. It is rich and smooth, with a lovely elegance to it. There is a definitively sweet side that you can ferally taste the bourbon elements coming through from.

The palate is full of honey, caramel and cinnamon. Dried fruits give it a slightly chewy note. Raisins, apricots and dates are beautifully sweet and bring in a little bit of warmth. The sherry notes are well developed and go perfectly with the sweet bourbon.

The finish is dry and gentle, with lovely notes of vanilla throughout.

Dingle Distillery is doing the Wild Atlantic Way proud with the quality of this malt. An excellent way to embrace Irish whiskey.

Have you enjoyed a Dingle malt before? Let us know what you think in the comments!

The post Dingle Batch 5 Single Malt Irish Whiskey appeared first on GreatDrams.

from GreatDrams https://ift.tt/3gTYADj Greg

[whiskymoro]

Dingle Cask Strength 1st Small Batch Release (60,7 %)

Dingle Whiskey Distillery i den naturskjønne småbyen Dingle i County Kerry ble startet av tre herrer som også står bak Porterhouse Brewing Company, som revolusjonerte mikrobryggerimiljøet i Irland midt på 90-tallet og som har en utmerket pub i Dublin (jeg har ikke tall på hvor mange liter øl jeg har avlastet dem for gjennom årene …). De fylte sine første fat med whiskey den 18. desember 2012, og tre år og én dag senere, den 19. desember 2015 ble ett fat, Cask No. 2, tappet og lansert som en svært eksklusiv «preview» til rundt 350 euro pr. flaske. De første whiskeyene som i praksis var tilgjengelige for almuen og til en fornuftig pris (ja, «var»; de er allerede utsolgt, så vidt jeg vet), kom på slutten av 2016, og er uten aldersangivelse. De lager også utmerket gin og vodka forresten, de er begge lett tilgjengelige i Irland. Dette er en cask strength-utgave av Dingles trippeldestillerte single malt (det kom også en tapning på 46,5 %). Den har ligget på bourbonfat. 500 flasker. (Forresten: Dingle-tapningene jeg har anmeldt tidligere, kom nok fra Cooley, og var med på finansiere destilleridriften før de fikk klar sin egen sprit)

På nesen fikk jeg pære, råsprit (kanskje ikke overraskende, alderen tatt i betraktning), vanilje, malt, nesten litt ginaktig til tider også, blomster og grønne epler. Smaken var søt og ganske fyldig, med eple, vanilje, oljete, et hint av konvoluttlim (noe jeg så langt har forbundet sterkt med Cooley; jeg ser for meg at eventuell briljering i blindmakinger framover nå er spolert!) og krydder. Avslutningen var preget av vingummi, vanilje, litt krydder og malt. Middels lang. Med vann kom det til litt sitrus og malt på nesen, i tillegg til en god del vanilje; smaken ble en anelse fyldigere og avslutningen litt mer maltaktig.

Dingle bruker et destillasjonsapparat som gir mye «reflux», som igjen gir en mild og snill råsprit, sammenlignet med mye annen råsprit. Det, og sikkert flere faktorer, gjør at den fungerer overraskende bra i såpass ung alder. Generelt virker det som om det er en slags trend blant nyere destillerier at de satser på at selv råspriten skal være drikkbar – dette var faktisk ikke milevis unna stilen til f.eks. Ballindalloch, Chichibu og Box, som alle har utmerket, ung whisky i stallen etter min mening. Ungt og lovende er det, men allerede med en fin maltfylde og kompleksitet, og Dingle er nok et destilleri som det kan være verdt å følge med på framover. Det lover i hvert fall godt når prisnivået de har lagt seg på er 60-70 euro for den nedvannede whiskeyen og drøyt 100 for cask strength, noe jeg ikke tror er spesielt grådig i dagens marked.

Karakter: 80/100

[whiskytastings]

Review #174: Dingle Batch No. 1

46.5% ABV, natural colour, non-chill-filtered Producer: Dingle Distillery, Co. Kerry, Ireland Owner: The Porterhouse Brewing Co.

In many people’s opinion, myself included, Dingle Batch No. 1 is one of the most important Irish whiskey release of the new millennium. It is the whiskey release that marks the beginning of a new era for Irish whiskey, and I’m very excited to review this whiskey and share my thoughts. 

Before Dingle Batch No. 1 was released in November 2016, despite the many dozens of Irish whiskey brands on the market, all Irish whiskey, all of it, was produced by only three distilleries: Bushmills in County Antrim, dating back to 1784, the New Midleton distillery, founded in 1966 in County Cork, and lastly Cooley distillery, located in County Louth and founded in 1987. Between them, the companies behind these three distilleries market not only quite a sizeable number of own-label brands, including single malt, single grain, pure potstill and blended whiskeys, but also contract distill for other companies and supply partially and fully mature whiskey in bulk to independent bottlers. 

In the last few years however, the most incredible change has happened in the Irish whiskey industry. An ever increasing number of new whiskey distilleries has started to spring up all over the country (check out this map of whiskey distilleries in Ireland I posted last September), and Dingle distillery in County Kerry was the very first of them. It was founded in 2012 by Oliver Hughes of The Porterhouse Brewing Company, who operates a microbrewery and chain of 6 brewhouse pubs in Ireland, London and New York. Oliver had been visiting the Dingle peninsula in Kerry with his family for many years, and fell in love with the town. When the idea was born to branch out the business into distilling, Dingle town was his first choice for the location, and not just for the fact that it makes Dingle the westernmost distillery in Europe. The equipment consists of a mashtun, five wooden washbacks, three large copper pot stills for the production of triple distilled whiskey, as well as a smaller pot still (named Oisín) to produce gin and vodka. The stills were first fired up on 1st December 2012 and soon after, the first casks were filled with new make malt spirit. 

With a production capacity of only two casks per day, Dingle can produce only a fraction compared to the big players, and its production methods are very much geared at competing for quality rather than quantity. The stills for example are equipped with a boil ball, a bulge in the lower part of the neck just above the pot. This increases the amount of reflux in the still, and thereby the amount of copper contact that the spirit vapours have, before rising up the neck of the still, which has the effect of giving the spirit a lighter and more delicate character. 

While the plan was always to produce whiskey, Dingle actually made its first mark with the production of gin and vodka, spirits that do not need to age and can be sold immediately, which helped in keeping the business afloat. Due to the lack of a column still, Dingle uses neutral grain spirit sourced in Sweden as the base for their gin and vodka, and re-distill it in Oisín, the afore-mentioned small still. Whiskey, of course, needs to age at least three years before it can legally be called so, and as such the first Dingle whiskey, Cask No. 2, was released in December 2015, almost exactly three years after production began. This was however an extremely limited release of only 200 bottles, that was geared at the collectors market, and as such is almost entirely unobtainable. 

Almost a year later, the first ‘regular’ release of Dingle has become available last November, aptly called Batch No. 1. It consist of 7500 bottles of regular-strength whiskey as well as a 500 bottle strong Cask Strength whiskey. Both have been 100% matured in first-fill ex-Bourbon casks and bear no age statement, which in this case would have been pretty much pointless anyway since the whiskey is still less than 4 years young. Both bottlings have not been chill filtered and are natural in colour.

A second release of approximately 3500 bottles, with the composition as the first release, is planned for early 2017. Going forward, the distillery has put down whiskey maturing in ex-Sherry, Port and a few other casks, so we can expect releases with different cask types some time in the future.

Eye: The Dingle Batch No.1 comes in a sturdy white cardboard tube. The bottle has a thick solid glass base, with the name of the distillery embossed into the edge, which makes the bottle feel quite weighty. It has a large wooden cork stopper and above the label features the company logo, a Wren Boy with a sheaf of grain in one hand and a scythe in the other. The back label depicts an oil painting by Liam O’Neill named Over Conor Pass, that commemorates the 100th anniversary of the 1916 rising. The whiskey itself is very pale with a colour of white wine + 1. Nose: Kirsch schnapps, grappa, green vegetal aromas, fresh cut grass, faint fruit, vanilla, cumin, cardamom and a flinty mineral-ness. Opens up considerably with a few drops of water or after allowing the glass to sit for a while. Then much more fruit forward with peach, lychee, lemon curd and a hint of pineapple. Palate: Medium sweet, light bodied with a buttery mouthfeel and initially predominated by the young spirit, with slightly sharp grappa, faint fruit, cotton candy. After some time, the more fruity flavours come out with lemon and lime, tropical fruit and luscious sweet honey flavours. Finish: Short to medium with not a huge amount of development, but remaining extremely clean. Verdict: Clearly a very young whiskey, the Dingle Batch No. 1 nicely showcases the superbly clean distillery character with lots of grain and fruit aromas and a buttery undercurrent. The initial sharpness, that was present after the bottle was first opened, mellowed significantly and the whiskey continues to open up with the addition of some water. 79/100

Final remarks: I was very curious to compare this whiskey side-by-side with a couple of other young whiskies that I had reviewed recently, particularly the Wolfburn Aurora and the Glenglassaugh Revival. Different to the Dingle Batch No.1, these whiskies were aged in more than one cask type or employed finishing casks to get as much flavour into the spirit in as short amount of time as possible. On the one hand I think it is extremely noble by the folks at Dingle to only use ex-Bourbon casks for this initial release and present the whiskey in its purest form, but in comparison with the Wolfburn and Glenglassaugh bottlings, it clearly tastes a lot more spirity. With that in mind, I’m really looking forward to future Dingle expressions that have been matured in other casks type, and with more wood influence. 

[greatdrams]

St. Patrick’s Day Round Up of Irish Whiskies and New Whiskies for 2020

let’s begin

The one day every Irish person looks forward to most is right around the corner, so we’re looking at the best whiskies to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day with this year, and those to keep an eye on.

The Best 2019 Irish Whiskies

We’ve brought together some of the very best in Irish whiskey, brought out in 2019. What better way to celebrate st. Patrick than with the very latest Irish whiskey?

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1. Midleton Very Rare 2019 Edition

Bottle cost: £151.20

Matured in lightly charred ex-bourbon casks, this malt is a blend of Single Pot Still and Grain whiskies. It has a wonderfully warming spice to it, with hints of more floral, delicate notes throughout. There is a gentle, smooth caramel that goes perfectly with the cinnamon heat of the Bourbon casks. Yet another stellar release in the Midleton Very Rare range.

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2. Kilbeggan Small Batch Rye

Bottle cost: £29.13

Ok, technically released in November 2018, but that’s close enough, and it’s so good we couldn’t not include it on the list. Made with 30% rye grains in the mashbill, this is a really intriguing Irish whiskey. The malt is very sweet, with lots of chocolate, pastries and orchard fruits throughout. The mouth feel is exceptionally smooth and there is a great oak note.

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3.Red Spot

Bottle cost: £90.21

Having been absent from the Spot Whiskey line up for about 50 years, Red Spot, a 15 Year Old Single Pot Still Whiskey has been brought back to life. In 2019, Mitchell & Son decided to revitalise their Spot range by bringing back Red Spot. This is a heavilysherried malt, having been matured in Oloroso, Marsala and Bourbon casks. There are lots of fruits and spices from beginning to end.

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4. Tyrconnel 16 Year Old Oloroso and Moscatel Finish

Bottle cost: £65.79

A limited edition Tyrconnel malt with an intereting combination of finishing casks, this malt is simply excellent. If you’re looking for something a bit different but with excellent flavours, then this Tyrconnel is perfect. It is delicate and floral but with lots of sweetness and spice as well.

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5. Writers' Tears Cask Strength 2019 Release

Bottle cost: £88.33

Writer’s Tears is fast becoming everyone’s favourite Irish whiskey brand. This is the 9th annual release and it really is brilliant. There are wonderful notes of malted grains, oats, honey and caramel, with a big finish on nutty, dried fruits and oak notes. Not to be missed.

Ones to look out for

Thinking beyond St. Patrick’s Day, there are still plenty of new Irish whiskies to be enjoyed.

1. jj cory

A really interesting brand that has been revitalised by the Chapel Gate whiskey bonding company, JJ Corry is definitely one to watch. They have been experimenting with interesting maturation techniques. For instance, The Battalion has been matured in Mezcal and Tequila casks and has a make up o 60% grain whiskey and 40% malt. We’re looking forward to seeing what else comes from JJ Corry.

2. Dingle Distillery

One of the smaller producers in Ireland, the Dingle Distillery is set in one of the most beautiful places in the country. And they make damn fine whiskey there too. They are a very localised producer but make incredible malt.

3. Powers

With new packaging released recently, Powers seem to be reinvigorating their brand. Could they be feeling the heat from the influx of new Irish producers in recent years?

4. Proper No. Twelve

Conor McGregor might be a fierce competitor in the ring, but there were doubts when he released his first whisky. We’re not speaking to the quality of the malt here, but the celebrity power behind the brand seems to have made them very successful. One to keep an eye on.

The post St. Patrick’s Day Round Up of Irish Whiskies and New Whiskies for 2020 appeared first on GreatDrams.

from GreatDrams https://ift.tt/2v3JfgZ Greg