I’m primarily a bourbon and scotch drinker, and I don’t typically enjoy Irish whisky, as I find it too light and sad, but this one has really started to grow on me. It smells very light and fruity, but there’s a familiar bourbony undertone to the nose that is impossible to ignore once you discern it. It’s as though you’re visiting Ireland and run into an old pal from back home in Kentucky. “Hey bro, how’s it going? Did you stick your finger in my whisk(e)y?” It goes down quite smoothly, as it should at 40% abv , but this juice is a lot more flavorful and complex than many other whiskies I’ve had at the same proof. Up front on the palate there’s a soft, grainy flavor which is soon joined by bananas, caramel and nutmeg. It reminds me a lot of bananas Foster, which is a good thing. On the back end, that bourbon note which was discernible to the nose becomes evident to the tongue in a toasty flurry of expatriated flavors. This is basically a nice, light(ish), sweet, dessert-type whiskey that can and should be enjoyed any way you please. I don’t know if I enjoy it so much because it’s freaking good in its own right or because of the bourbony characteristics it inherits from the double-bourbon-barrel aging. Who gives a crap?