Green Spot Chateau Montelena Single Pot Still

Nose: characteristics of a Irish whiskey, vanilla Palate: excessively smooth, creamy, sweet, clean, tang, hint of zin

Gentle and sweet

Light yet buttery and creamy. Butterscotch.

N: Very fruity with cereal grains - comes across a bit like a grown-up version of Fruity Pebbles or Fruit Loops. That sounds bad, but it works. Oh, and that bowl of cereal is swimming in red wine, not milk. Super grown-up version... I'm not mocking it. It actually works and feels robust. The (let's say vaguely tropical) fruit mixes with the cereal notes and an obvious red wine note nicely. There are also hits of raisin (or other, less sweet dried fruit), toffee, and caramel - all adding balance and richness. P: It's basically the same as the nose, but maybe the order of appearance is different. I get raisin, toffee, red wine grapes, red wine, pot still spice, caramel, vanilla. Then it moves to an oaky bitterness which serves as a sort of middle or early finish. Faintest hint of chocolate in it too. Finish is pot still spice laying over top the lingering oak tannins and a little bit of vanilla. This is really tasty and I've really enjoyed this bottle. (I opened it on inauguration day figuring an Irish whiskey finished in California wine barrels was somehow fitting for the new administration.) But I don't think I'd pick this over the regular Green Spot again. The fresh green apple in that bottle is just super interesting and appealing to me, and that bottle costs $30-40 less. If they were priced the same, I might switch back and forth, but this is just not quite worth the significant upcharge. Value aside, this is a really nice Irish single pot still whiskey with a red wine twist that works and is interesting - the wine barrels are not just a gimmick. Certainly worth trying if you dig red wine and Irish whiskey.