Hyde whisky from Cork newcomer Hibernia Distillers is a range of sourced Irish single-malt and single-grain whiskies … No. 3 is aged in ex-bourbon casks for 6 years without any fancy finish and bottled without chill filtration or added coloring at the “craft” strength of 46% ABV.
The “First Fill” on the label, of course, refers to the use of first-fill ex-bourbon casks (casks the previously aged bourbon but haven’t been used for anything else). These first-fill barrels have been used to age Balvenie malt for at least 12 years, and watered down a little bit to a reasonable 47.8% ABV. The whisky is not chill-filtered and has no added coloring (which is obvious by its pale straw appearance).
The Teeling Single Grain is a grain whiskey which means it is column distilled from a mash of multiple grains, often corn, rye, unmalted and/or malted barley, and wheat and made at a single Irish distillery. In this case, the mashbill was 95% corn and 5% barley and it was distilled at the Cooley distillery (now owned by Beam-Suntory). The whiskey is fully matured in Cabernet Sauvignon casks from Napa, California for “just under” 6 years (legally speaking, that means it is 5 years of age).
Like the rest of the line, Magnus is partly peated and partly aged in “sherry seasoned” American oak casks. Before you ask, that just means they took regular old ex-bourbon casks and sloshed some sherry around in them for a few months. This is becoming pretty standard practice in the scotch whisky industry, since nobody drinks actual sherry these days and real sherry barrels are hard to come by. Some refill casks are also used, but the distillery says the sherry-seasoned casks are a “high percentage” of the vatting. If you say so, Edrington. …
If for some reason you haven’t gotten your fill of my pontificating through reading this blog, you may be interested in today’s Brolic Whisky podcast by reader Dave. … Here’s the link. We talk about…
The aforementioned GDPR regulations go into effect on May 25th, in 5 days from this post. Because of the headaches and intense amount of website work this is causing me, I do not have time to write a review this week – you can thank the EU. A quick summary of the sources of my …
The Koval Millet whiskey is aged in 30-gallon new charred oak barrels (like bourbon distilleries, Koval sells all of its barrels after a single use). I was unable to find any information about the amount of time this whiskey spends in-barrel, so I would go ahead and assume it’s quite young. … Koval distillery in Chicago is an undeniable pioneer in this space, with various whiskies for sale distilled from millet, oats, spelt, wheat, and rye. All of Koval’s spirits are single-barrel releases, and all are made from organic grains farmed in the American Midwest.
Reader Gordon contacted me earlier this year to get my feedback on a series of videos that he had put together with his drinking buddy Johnathan. Gordon does an endearing, rambling style of video whisky review that makes me feel like I’m sitting around the firepit with him, chatting about our favorite subject over a dram. His perspective is refreshing and the videos are artfully composed. … I highly recommend checking out their channel and giving them a “Subscribe” to show a little support if you like their content.
The GlenDronach 18-year is named after the 1826 founder of the distillery, James Allardes. It is aged for 18 years exclusively in Spanish oloroso sherry casks, and bottled at 46% ABV without chill-filtration or added coloring. This has more deep, dark, concentrated dry fruit than I’ve ever experienced in a single malt. I’m not sure that’s actually a good thing. …
Buckle up for some changes around the blog. Hopefully not too many, but GDPR goes active near the end of May, and because I cannot guarantee that an EU citizen isn’t reading my site from a cellphone in Detroit, I must comply or be fined a minimum (!) of 2 million Euros.