@1901 Thanks for that information - I was not aware of the complexity in ownership.

@Soba45 agree on that

@1901 Good research! I was aware of the micro distillery but not the sourcing part which as you say technically isn't sourcing as they owned bushmills but to cascodes point still isn't being transparent!

@cascode @Soba45 and I should say that Method and Madness is also an Irish Distillers brand. Irish Distillers have a micro distillery on the same site as the main Midleton distillery, with a brief to experiment and innovate and to allow apprentices collaborate directly with masters. I wouldn't be too hard on them if they experiment with finishes to juice sourced from their big daddy next door. From the bits and pieces I have seen they are open and transparent (bragging even) about that aspect.

@cascode @Soba45 To be fair to Midleton in this case it isn't that clear cut at least for the initial releases of the single malt. The Midleton distillery and brand is owned by Irish Distillers and at the time that the single malt was distilled in Bushmills distillery, that distillery also was owned by Irish Distillers. They sold Bushmills on to Diageo in 2005 before it changed hands again to Jose Cuervo. So in a strange way it isn't really a sourced whiskey (but I'm sure they could improve transparency nevertheless)

@Soba45 So definitely still sourced whiskeys. Grrr, transparency is a good thing, guys.

@cascode Uh interesting you are partially right. Weirdly the distillate for the single malt came from....Bushmills!

I may be wrong but I think that Method & Madness are still sourcing from Midleton and awaiting the maturation of their "own" spirits. Don't take that as gospel, however. Research needed.

@Soba45 Interesting - I've had the Method & Madness Single Malt which I also rated at 4 stars.