Day Twenty Two in the Whisky Advent Calendar
*In this series, I’m working my way through the 2015 Master of Malt Whisky Advent. I had surgery in the middle, so we’re behind on the official dates.
It’s Irish Whiskey time. Teeling is new to me, but I have their single malt in the whisky vault at the school, and it’s one of my go to Irish whiskies when I’m not drinking scotch.
Teeling Whiskey Tube
History
Teeling dates back to 1782, and is one of the older Irish whisky families. In some form or fashion, the Teeling family has stayed involved in the whisky trade every since.
The new Teeling distillery, started by Jack and Stephen Teeling, is the first new distillery in Dublin in 125 years marking a return to the days when Irish whiskey ruled the world. It’s just down the road from the original distillery, and it has 3 copper pot stills which makes it a true return historically to the origins of the craft.
On a small interesting footnote, Jack and Stephen’s dad, John, founded the Cooley distillery. They are now owned by Diageo (just like everything. Including possibly, this computer I’m typing on). The Cooley distillery produced Kilbeggan, Greenore, Connemara, Tyrconnell, and 2 Gingers.
Tasting
Teeling Small Batch. I’m looking forward to trying this one.
On a small side note, I was drinking Lagavulin tonight when I realized I had forgotten to review the next day’s whisky. There’s a solid chance that even after the water I just drank and the bread I just chewed, it’s going to change my experience of the whiskey. My apologies.
Irish whiskey has such a different nose profile. I love it, but it always takes me a few minutes to get into the headspace to figure out what I smell.
I still get caramel like I do in most Irish whiskey, but it’s mixed with a tangy/sour note that reminds me of green apples. Oddly enough, the first thing that popped into my head was the smell I get when changing the ink on an ink pen. A sort of industrial deep note of something heavy. It’s a weird thing, because now that I’ve typed that, I can’t seem to repeat it.
Let’s chalk it up to late night and too much Lagavulin.
The taste is killer. Maybe one of the best Irish whiskies I’ve tried up to now. I think I figured out the industrial thing. I pick up lemon in the taste now. It reminds me of those fake lemon flavored wet wipes for cleaning kitchen counters.
I think the lemon notes mixed with alcohol reminds me of those cleaning supplies. But now that I know it, I can ignore the alcohol part of that equation, I just get lemon, apples, and vanilla. There’s a slight bite on the end, which makes me think it’s got rye, or it’s the higher alcohol content.
Okay, I cheated now. I just looked on their website to see what they did to it. It turns out.. Rum barrels. That must be the nice rich sweetness I’m finding inside the vanilla and fruit combinations.
I like this one. If it’s any example of the future of Teeling, count me in for the ride.