Irish pot still sips to sample at Whiskey Live weekend
Whether you're attending or not, doing a comparative tasting is a sensory-led way to lock down your understanding — say of the key Irish styles of single pot still, single malt, single grain and blended whiskeys.
This can be done at home for the price of a round in a pub. Miniature 5cl bottles (or minis) are widely available in off-licences. Ordering online from the likes of Whiskey Live's organisers Celtic Whiskey Shop will broaden your choices.
You could equally conduct your own comparative tasting of one style, such as single pot still. This quintessentially Irish whiskey has close connections to single malt. Both are distilled in traditional copper pot stills, whose rotund bellies and elegant necks were once standard. In the 19th century, Irishman Aeneas Coffey patented his more efficient continuous column still that now produces grain-based whiskeys, vodka and others.
The term 'single' means the whiskey has come from one distillery. How they differ is that single malt is made fully from malted barley (heated to trigger germination) whereas single pot still also contains unmalted barley and, potentially, other ingredients like oats, rye or wheat in its mash bill (aka recipe). Single pot still developed in Ireland as a way to avoid late 18th-century tax on malted barley, but became beloved for its distinct spice and oily texture.
Books have been written on the style's development and nuances, the bible being historian Fionnán O'Connor's A Glass Apart: Irish Single Pot Still Whiskey. Industry definitions have been written too, and feisty manifestos challenging these: Peter Mulryan of Blackwater Distillery has been doing an erudite, irreverent and ever-entertaining job of interrogating what he sees as the unfairly restrictive industry definitions of the style, which currently only allow up to 5pc of those 'other ingredients'.
Each of the distilleries featured here will be pouring at least one pot still whiskey at their Whiskey Live stall and, in some cases, masterclasses. Look out too for old guard examples of single pot still such as Redbreast, Middleton Very Rare and the Spot family and other disruptors such as Killowen Distillery.
Whiskeys of the week
Blackwater Clashmore 1824 Irish Whisky, Waterford, €95 (50cl), 47pc, limited to 420 bottles
A fascinating reimagining of a heritage pot still mash bill from 200 years ago, with 51pc unmalted barley, 24pc oats, 20pc malt and 5pc turf-smoked malt, aged fully in a sherry cask as Irish whiskey often was. Its rich amber hue heralds dark apple syrup, sticky toffee, dates and raisins, with a wisp of turf smoke and a fine spice and pithy bitterness giving grip to that richness. Or try Blackwater's 'experimental pot still' Oaty McOatFace, with nearly one-third oats. The Wine Centre, Celtic Whiskey Shop, James Fox, irishdrinkshop.com, blackwaterdistillery.ie
Micil Earls Island Single Pot Still Irish Whiskey, Galway, €59, 46pc
Taking inspiration from old-school Connemara fuisce with delicate hints of turf smoke and coastal iodine character, and from Galway's trade links with a Bordeaux red wine cask finish adding red fruit to candied orchard fruit aromas and earthy notes of leather and beeswax. Selected SuperValus, McCambridge's, Bradleys, Celtic Whiskey Shop, micildistillery.com
Skellig Triple Cask Single Pot Still, Kerry, €65 (70cl), 43.4pc
This award-winning Six18 Step Collection limited release was finished in PX sherry casks and briefly in a peated cask — though you'd hardly know it. Layered and moreish, fresh and earthy, with salinity and spice, orange peel and tropical fruit, heather and hay. Delicious. Molloy's, Celtic Whiskey Shop, The Wine Centre, The Vinyeard Belfast, DrinkStore, skelligsix18distillery.ie
Writers' Tears Copper Pot, Carlow, €50 (70cl), 40pc
Walsh Whiskey produces a Writers' Tears single pot still, but this is an unusual blend of single pot still and single malt (both produced in copper pot stills) once known as the 'Champagne of Irish whiskey'. Warm and viscous with fresh fruit salad meets vanilla fudge and spicy ginger notes. O'Briens, Mitchells, Celtic Whiskey Shop and independents, walshwhiskey.com
Two Stacks Single Pot Still – Double Barrel, Co Down, €60 (70cl), 43pc
Finished in ex-American rye casks to embolden the spices, this is punchy with caramel, vanilla, coconut, prunes and marmalade, peppery but softened by wild honey notes and oily creaminess, finishing leafy-fresh. (Dram in a Can, €8, 10cl). Celtic Whiskey Shop, The Wine Centre, Blackrock Cellar, thecru.ie, twostackswhiskey.com
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