Teeling Single Cask Port Matured - Distillery Exclusive

This review i actually did 2 months ago and forgot to post it, so here we go. I received this sample from my GBS (Georgia Bourbon Society) connection @garyaturner He got this at the distillery in Ireland and I believe filled the bottle himself. This is an 11 year old single cask that was either fully matured or finished in Port Wood. Bottled at cask strength of 60.1% ABV and is non chill filtered and natural color an amber with pink hues to it. The cask in question is cask #11703. Strong hits of alcohol on first nosing, followed by honey and sweet fruity Port notes. Barley sugar, green grapes, both fresh and canned peaches, blueberries and boysenberries. Some oaky notes but not as strong as I was expecting. Powdered sugar and simple syrup. The sweeter notes fade and are replaced with mostly just cereal notes and a nuttiness, like Honey Nut Cheerios, almonds and Brazil nuts. Water brings out more cereal notes with some toffee and an odd chalky note. The berry notes remain but are not highlighted any further, slightly minty with a bit of caramel. There is heat on the palate but not quite as much as the high ABV would suggest. A big explosion of flavor. Very malty, grain forward with honey coming in close behind. Pepper, oak and some barrel char. The fruity Port notes are there but they come and go so quickly that it’s hard to isolate them. Somewhat rich, but also a bit bitter. Some peaches and berries but not much else in the way of fruit, maybe pears. Water takes a lot of the heat out. The oak is more prominent but with much more bitter tannins. A medium to full bodied mouthfeel that is astringent with heat. Thick and chewy. The finish is medium long with berries, cereal malt and honey. I’m not a fan of Irish whiskey in general, and it would seem that even cask strength Teeling isn’t enough to convince me that they are worth the time and effort. That doesn’t mean I’m going to stop trying to find a good one though. This one had some good things going on, but also some not good things. Too heavy on the cereal notes, too light on the Port. 3.25 Cheers.