TYRCONNELL 10-YR MADEIRA CASK
If you’ve read
any H&T, you’ll know I loves me some Irish; you’ll also know it’s a
category i find to be much undervalued, at least here in the PDX, my bailiwick. For my birthday, I decided to explore the top
shelf… Tyrconnell, a wonderful single-malt distilled at Cooley, comes in three ‘extra-aged’
versions, finished in port, sherry, and madeira casks, respectively. Having previously tried whisk(e)y finished in
the first two media, and a fan of the fortified wine in question that initially
seasoned these barrels, I went with the Madeira cask.
N: Fleshy tropical flavors (papaya, liliko’i) hung
on a wide swath of funk, much like the animality underlying the bright citrus
of a calamansi; calvados and lemon candies
P: Chamomile tea, papayas, and white
peppercorns; whiskey’s answer to torrontes; cookie dough and fine vanilla
bean-infused creme fraiche…
Tropical and
dense, almost excessively so; kinda like a version of Slieve Foy on steroids. This is delicious and interesting, but in the
end perhaps a bit overwrought. It may
well be ‘worth’ the $80 price tag, but there are other Irish single malts on
which I would probably spend my money next time. The aforementioned Slieve Foy, weighing in at
$30 less, comes immediately to mind…
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