What to Drink for St. Patrick's Day, Part 4B

Today, we'll continue on with our review of our Irish whiskey portfolio. Scroll through our earlier posts to see our other Irish selections.

John Powers

Powers Gold Label is the best-selling Irish whiskey in its native Ireland. The nose is mellow, with upfront buttery caramel and bright honeyed cereal. There is also a little fruit, like a bit of blackberry jam or cherry pie filling. A splash of water opens up some light herbal, grassy notes.

On the palate you get a wash of melted butter and shortbread, then quite a lot of dryness, which finally subsides with cinnamon, clove, toffee and green apple skins. The body is quite full, with a slightly oily quality. A splash of water cuts through the body, without adding much in terms of flavor, except perhaps a few hints of fruit blossoms or fresh-cut grass.

The finish starts small and grows, giving you loads of honey, graham cracker, butterscotch, and more green apple skins.

Kilbeggan® Irish Whiskey

Kilbeggan® is a unique Irish Whiskey. Like most Irish people, Kilbeggan® is easy going and approachable, but with its own distinctive style. The finest grain and malt whiskeys are blended together for a smooth, sweet taste and lovely malt finish, a characteristic of our pot still that is over 180 year old and still at the heart of Kilbeggan® Irish whiskey.

Making Kilbeggan® requires three key ingredients – pure clean water, with which Ireland is fortunately blessed, cereals of grain and barley and most importantly experience. Our traditional Kilbeggan® Irish whiskey is left to sleep for at least 3 year's and a day, but very much often longer.

As the whiskey matures in the barrel, the angels take their share – the natural breathability of the casks used to mature the whiskey is a crucial part of the flavor so no-one can begrudge the angels their share, which can be as much as 2% a year. And that leads us to...

Kilbeggan barrel room

Kilbeggan® 18 Year Old

Noel Sweeney, our Master Blender, has sampled all of the oldest casks of grain and malt whiskey matured in the ancient granite warehouses in Kilbeggan and hand selected only the best casks to create this small batch release of only 4,000 bottles. Kilbeggan® 18 Year Old highlights everything good about Irish whiskey with its beautifully balanced sweet, smooth taste with the extra character and dimensions created from over 18 years maturation - in the original warehouses from 1757.

Midleton Very Rare Irish Whiskey

Its production is limited, so each bottle of this Midleton very rare whisky is dated, numbered and signed by the chief distiller.

Aroma: Rich, with vanilla sweetness on a layer of oak char from the influence of American white oak ex-Bourbon barrels. A soft floral note introduces the sweet spice of cinnamon, green pepper, and garden mint. Beautifully rounded with hints of green apple and banana.

Taste: Full, with the sweet spice of vanilla, cinnamon, and licorice and the flinty note of barley grains. Ripe fruit combines with the charred oak, adding to the complexity.

Finish: Sweet spicy flavors that linger, fading slowly to leave the last word with the barley.

PADDY Irish Whiskey

They trace their lineage back to 1779, but the name comes from a salesman, one Patrick J. O’Flaherty, who took the job in 1882. He was so good at what he did, that orders came in not for Cork Distilleries irish Whiskey, but for "Paddy Flaherty's Whiskey." In 1913, the name of the whiskey was officially changed to PADDY.

Not all whiskey is created equal. What separates PADDY Irish Whiskey from others is the addition of malt and the triple distillation process, which makes it soft and mellow. After fermentation, the wash is pumped to the first of three copper pot-stills; the Wash Still for distillation. Under the care of the Master Distiller, this process is repeated two more times: Once in the Feint Still and again in the Spirit Still, to get that great Irish Whiskey taste. It’s then filled into oak casks to rest and mature for years before the final careful blending process.

PADDY is a blend of three whiskeys: Malt, Grain and Pot-still. The Pot-Still gives it a silky mouthfeel, the grain delivers a light and fragrant taste, and the malt rounds it off with sweetness. The final result is a whiskey ready for the night ahead.

Redbreast Single Pot Still Irish Whiskey

We carry three different products from Redbreast. First up is their 12 Year old.

Full of aroma and flavor, Redbreast 12 Year Old benefits from a strong contribution from distillates which have matured in Oloroso sherry casks, giving it its trademark Christmas cake character.

The nose is complex, spicy and fruity, with evident toasted wood notes. It's full flavored and complex on the palate, a harmonious balance of spicy, creamy, fruity, sherry and toasted noted. The finish is satisfyingly long, as the complex flavors linger on the palate.

Redbreast 12 Year Old Cask Strength comes straight from the cask, unfiltered and undiluted.

On the nose, it's a fruit explosion: figs, dates, ripe banana, sultana, red apple and lime. Spices combine with sweet vanilla and pine. On the palate, deep full dried fruit, a touch of citrus with aromatic oils and spices. Vanilla sweetness leads to toasted oak and barley. An exceedingly long finish, with a rich complexity of spices and fruit, slowly fading through sweet butterscotch to barley.

Redbreast 15 Year Old, launched as a limited edition, is now a permanent expression. It's matured in a combination of Spanish Oloroso sherry casks and ex-Bourbon barrels. It's fully round and mellow, with the succulence of fleshy fruit combined with spices and toasted wood.

We'll finish our look at Irish whiskey tomorrow.