Gold Spot 9 Year Single Pot Still

Finally found this stuff! On the nose it's very fruity. Sour apple, apricot, and pear with the slightest hint of cereal. On the palate this stuff is decadent. It's smooth, sweet, and rich with a honey and cereal taste which gives way to a very mellow building finish. I love this stuff!

I kept passing on this, but it was at a friend's shop and I just wanted to grab something and it made sense. 140, a bit much but not bad. Nose - I really like how the irish have this jammy note with the pot still character. This one however up front is all kinds of crazy fruits. Think a waxy citrus lime, but there's a bit more to it. Toasted oak but more like you'd get on a buttered toast than some of these over the top american craft toasted bottles. I start to get hints of a jolly rancher, some kind of hybrid of pink and green without the sour. Now I'm getting more and more strawberry, even some cream. There are 4-5 fruit flavors I can't explain or just don't know. Really fruit froward. Taste - More creamy, oak, and still all those fruits. Rich mouth feel, good upfront flavor. And a nice but simple and dull finish, all be it some nice irish spice. A darn good whisky that I wasn't expecting given some reviews. I think this is just fine. I never had the blue spot, need to try it, but I'm happy with this guy. Would like it for less, but the yellow spot is over 100 and it isn't half as good as this. I'll give this is very strong 2.5. Again 2.0 is average. This is well above that but I save 3.0 for something a bit more special. This is a bit short of that for me.

Rich, honeyed stone fruits. Trades the delicacy of the red spot for intensity

O table for long caramel finish for 10 minutes.

Nose: apples, pears, apricots Palate: fruit with Carmel and vanilla. Seriously outstanding Finish: makes your whole mouth taste amazing. 4.75/5 stars. We traveled two hours to grab this bottle from a store around charlotte Nc. Totally worth the drive.

Admission up front: I saw a number of what seemed like middling reviews before trying, so was expecting to be at least a little underwhelmed. Also, I'm not the biggest Irish whiskey fan. Outside of Redbreast Cask Strength, I haven't been that impressed. But I also think I'm beginning to appreciate the subtle nuances of Irish whiskey, so there's some hope. The nose starts strong like many Irish whiskies do (the palate is usually where the let-down is for me). There's an unexpected big dose of dark caramel - the bourbon barrels seem to be playing an outsized role initially. Let it sit for a few minutes. Then comes tropical fruit, then red fruit. Pineapple, green banana, toasted coconut, assorted berries, covered in vanilla whipped cream. Shortbread cookie. Some clove, maybe nutmeg. Solid nose, but let's see about the palate. The palate actually does not disappoint. I suspect the higher proof helps here. All the flavors on the nose seem to deliver on the palate. There's some nice depth, and the flavors are well balanced. One can pick out a lot here and not be overwhelmed with one or two notes. For quality control, I did a small lineup with a couple other Irish whiskies from the cabinet. This was easily better than Knappogue 12 Marchesi finish. Compared to Redbreast Cask Strength, I thought the nose on this was better. The palate of the RB did have a bigger punch of flavor - owing I'm sure to the higher proof, but this had more depth and interest. Is this as good as Redbreast Cask Strength? I don't know, maybe. Seemed to hold up in the mini-tasting I did. But I was also half-expecting this to be ho-hum, so maybe it was helped by low expectations. The value is a little dubious, considering this seems to retail around $130 in the states, if you can even find it. The last bottle of RBCS I bought for $65, but I think those days are over, as it seems to be $90+ anywhere I see it now. I picked this up for $110, so the value difference isn't quite as big, and ultimately I'm pleased at that price. 4.25 - 4.5 range.

Nose: Fruity, floral, honey, mint, oak, red apple. Palate: Mouthfeel is viscous. Mellow for first half, with a huge ramp up to a spicy finish. Not as impressed with the palate to be honest. Finish: Medium length of roasted malt and spice. Yellow spot still better in totality than this.