Soba45
Method and Madness Single Pot Still Finished in Chestnut Casks
Single Pot Still — Ireland
Reviewed
September 27, 2019 (edited December 25, 2020)
I've refined my tasting approach to pour, wait a bit, smell, taste neat spit out (if the first dram of the session to acclimatise my palate to the alcohol), wait for a bit, smell, taste neat and consume, add a few drops of water (dependent on the whiskey) repeat, wait consume more often with food. I find the method seems to really get the most out of what the whiskey has to offer. It paid off in spades with this one. I'm a BIG fan of the Midleton distillery. With the demise of Glendronach and to a certain degree Laphroaig it's moved to the top spot in my preferred distillery list. The diversity of offerings from the Spot, the Redbreast, Powers and now Method and Madness ranges (plus more) each quite different from the other.. it's almost like a few distilleries rolled into one which given it's history I guess it is. Anyhow the nose on this one was beautiful. Cacao (I paired with chocolate cake leftovers from the cake we were making for my 5 yr old sons birthday), ginger, sherry, chestnut, caramel and more. On the first couple of tastings I was disappointed but over time it opened up the spicy oakey caramel chestnut flavors coming to the fore. Now this is not a perfect whiskey by a long margin. Even with time and attention it's young and slightly harsh on the aftertaste but it has one unique quality... it's unique and interesting. I took a punt and grabbed a bottle and although I don't regret it for the $70USD price I wouldn't grab another. Definitely worth a try, maybe a buy.
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@Soba45 I saw that! Excited to try some despite silly prices for Irish whiskey. This one is retailing for $90.
@WhiskeyLonghorn I think you are in luck. Method and Madness is now distributing to the USA!
@PBMichiganWolverine That sure must be annoying :-( We don’t have many good outlets, but the few major whisky sellers all ship country-wide at very reasonable rates so the price and availability is the same everywhere. One downer is that we simply never see many expressions over here- there just isn’t an Aussie allocation for some whiskies.
@cascode yeah but at least AU has it uniform across the country. Not US. Changes state by state, depending on unions, regulations, and shipping laws.
@PBMichiganWolverine Australia’s dumb excuse laws make it prohibitive, and I think NZ might be similar. As an aside, it’s funny to hear someone say Tasman Sea - we usually call it “the ditch” :-)
@PBMichiganWolverine I looked and for $15 I can get a bunch to USA but alcohol is only allowed on the special freight which is over double that. Then they'd have to be redistributed.....yeah bit of a pain!
@Soba45 @cascode is just across the Tasman Sea —-that might work
@WhiskeyLonghorn Pity I can't be part of the sample swap program. @LeeEvolved @PBMichiganWolverine @dubz480 and others are in heaps of great stuff to share. I might look at sending a test package across to someone later this year to see if it makes it.
@Soba45 lucky! My local store sells it for $280 USD. If I sold o e of my kidneys I could bring that bottle home.
@WhiskeyLonghorn Yeah I love that range. I scored a bottle of the 21 year for $140USD in Duty Free last week.. very very excited to open!
@Soba45 I could drink Redbreast for the rest of my days and be quite content :)
@WhiskeyLonghorn Yeah it's random where gets what. I have been hanging out for Red Spot but no luck even though Yellow and Grren spot no worries. Are you a fan of the Midleton range too?
Jealous you found this one! Haven’t seen it stateside yet.