Slieve Foy 8-year (Irish Single Malt)

Slieve Foy 8 yr. Irish Single Malt

Irish whiskeys are so distinct from those produced in Kentucky, or Scotland.  They're lighter, brighter both in hue and taste, with characteristic herbaceous 'green' flavors, and an almost thirst-quenching quality unmatched by whisk(e)y from anywhere else.  Thinking of this, and looking in my cabinet, I realized that I needed an Irish, and lawksamussy did I find one!  Serendipity and an often-misplaced penchant for improvisation led this time to fine fruits.  This nondescript bottle had crouched in my periphery for long enough... my hand wavered over the Jamie's 12 (a favorite), and moved to the left.  A sheaf of great online reviews nudged it on its way.  I was not disappointed.  A must-try for aficionados of that island's golden whiskey, this is a dangerously drinkable single malt, bottled at cask-strength (two or three drops of cool water per dram help it uncoil a bit).    Subtle, feminine, beguiling.  Yummy!

Nose: immediately reminds of fresh-baked bread, and muscat, high-toned, verdant, and tropical: banana, papaya, passionfruit; grassy and floral

Palate: briny pine needles, raw almonds, and Meyer lemon, unctuous white tea and juniperskin, heather and chamomile, with a maritime finish; and just at the end, fading, fading, a breath of mossy smoke...sneakily compelling, with an almost haunting aftertaste like a gloaming echo in a steep valley, the bright blood in your mouth as you trudge up its side

Islay have another! (forgive me, please)

All right, y'all!

I haven't been up on here in a few, and i apologize for the lapse... I'll be posting the notes I've written over the interim, so's we can all catch up again!

Here's a taste-off of my two favorite affordable Islay malts... Both compare quite favorably to Lagavulin 16, head-to-head, and though the Laggy is unquestionably the superior dram, when price is factored in (~ $85 for Lagavulin 16, ~$50 for the whiskies below), the jury remain stubbornly out.

Caol Ila 12 yr

Nose: A wave of honeyed citric tropicality: Meyer lemon and papaya; fresh apple cider… Maritime clay, creekmud, and franjipani… All coiled ‘round with sexy, briny campfire smoke.

Palate: Sweet speysidey roasted walnuts burst apart in smoky delicacy, with a concupiscent, briny hit that makes one unable to resist waves-on-basalt imagery… This hit flows on into more tightly wound, smoked salmon flavors that finally leave one with the slightest echo of the taste of seawater and kisses on the tongue.  An after-echo almost like gruyere.  Complex and compelling.

Laphroaig 10 yr

Nose: A higher-toned, ashy smoke with the marked aroma of heavily roasted oolong tea; crushed shells and tidewater sand.  Sweet, soft saddle leather that fades to old books and black peppercorns.  Grand-avuncular and somehow reassuring; masculine.

Palate: Immediate sweetness of raw almonds that shimmers into sylvan, mossy smoke, the black earth under a rotting cedar hulk; a much woodier, ashy smoke on the finish, showing pepper and cherryskins and then, just at the end, iodine blood, before finally breathing its last as a waft of marzipan