West Cork Glengarriff Series Peat Charred Cask Single Malt

Finally an Irish Whiskey that I adore.

Very strong peat on the nose. The peat does mellow out a bit after your nose gets used to it. Strong peat taste and very bitter at first taste. The bitterness lingers long after swallowed. It also masks any other flavor other than the peat. I added a bit of water to see if that helped, still bitter. Added ice and it did make it more palatable but still very bitter. Some people might like this if they like bitter like IPAs but just too bitter for me.

Nose: Green apples. Hard candies. Waves of peat smoke, not too heavy though. Caramel. A little pepper. Some malt. A beautiful nose! Palate: Smokier than the nose. Fruitiness more complex, citrus coming through alongside the apple. More hints of pepper. Subtle sweetness of honey and taffy. All rounding out with malt. Finish: Medium-long. Very warm. Smoke and apple lingering. Overall Score: 91. This is delightful. I had been sold on West Cork from the first time I tried their Black Reserve but this has just raised the bar immensely for them. This is an absolutely delicious whiskey. I read some comments that made me a little weary but I certainly was not expecting a heavy peat nose and palate like a Laphroaig. So I wasn’t let down in any way. This is easily my new favorite of the West Cork selections.

Licht rokerig qua geur, maar qua smaak meer rokerig

A while back, I expressed interest in trying some unique Irish whiskies. @LeeEvolved gave me a nice list of Irish whiskies that stray from the norm. On this list were a handful of West Cork bottlings, a distillery I've been seeing more and more but have yet to try. Upon finding this, I decided to buy. It's a very interesting concept (not peated like Connemara but aged in peat-charred casks) and comes in one of the coolest of whiskey bottles I've seen to date. Nose: Very green and grassy. Some vanilla sweetness. A bit of spearmint. Some rubber; somewhere between tire rubber and the rubber on a turf football field. Cinnamon and black pepper. Hay, wet grass, and tree bark. Citrus notes of orange and grapefruit, along with banana. Faint smoke. Confusing nose, but has grown more cohesive as I've worked through the bottle. Palate: Vanilla and caramel. More of the grassy, earthy, green notes. Tree bark and hay. Some more spearmint. An interesting cured ham note. Pear, and, instead of apple, I'll go with Mott's apple sauce. More banana and grapefruit. Toffee and malt. Cinnamon, black pepper, and oak. Faintly smoky and ashy. Like with the nose, this has improved significantly since I've opened it. I initially got the rubbery notes from the nose, but am not getting them on this tasting. Finish: Almost like banana Laffy Taffy. Toffee, vanilla, and honey sweetness. More banana. Spearmint and wintergreen. Cinnamon, black pepper, and oak carry out this surprisingly long finish. Tough one to score. Admittedly, I came into this tasting ready to beat this one up. I had tried on three separate occasions, including earlier this week, and had not enjoyed it all. Yet, tonight, I had a very different experience with this one. Apart from the rubbery nose, everything just seemed more cohesive, balanced, and interesting. Not for nothing, this is the first time I've tasted this out of glencairn. I've said this before, but glassware can have a massive impact on your experience with a particular expression, some more than others. For this reason, I only write my reviews when using a glencairn. I've got a little over half a bottle left to figure this one out. Initially, I had this pegged at 2 stars flat. After having the benefit of time and a tasting from a glencairn, I've settled on a score of 2.75. I will likely update this review at least once. It's certainly a unique whiskey. Maybe not one I'd recommend, but it's growing on me.