Irish

Method and Madness Virgin Hungarian Oak

The Method and Madness brand was launched a number of years ago as the experimental lab at Midleton distillery. Mildeton is the starting point for a number of familiar Irish whiskey brands, and this lab is a place where the different masters and apprentices can come together and share knowledge and ideas. The result is an exploration of many variants in Irish whiskey, from single grain to single malt to pot still, but using elements that are rarely seen. It’s a place to push the envelope and take risks to discover something new. Most of these elements, at least so far, are featured as different cask finishes. The Method and Madness Virgin Hungarian Oak is a single pot still whiskey finished for an undisclosed amount of time in virgin Hungarian oak casks.

By Adam | January 30, 2022 | Foreign | No Comments |

Originally created as a boutique blend in 2009, Writer’s Tears is a vatting of 60% single malt and 40% single pot stills, containing no grain except barley. In the subsequent decade, the whiskey has garnered various industry awards and mentions by luminaries such as Jim Murray and Ian Buxton. Writer’s Tears is likely a blend of whiskies from the Cooley and Midleton distilleries. There being only a handful of operating Irish distilleries, though more are in the works, it is quite normal for brands to source their whiskey to order and blend, finish or otherwise finish producing the final product. Like Canadian whisky, finding the source of the actual contents of the bottle can sometimes be challenging. Walsh Distillery began its own distillation in 2016, so we assume that as production continues and their house stock ages, the company’s portfolio will contain more of their own product.

By Adam | August 8, 2018 | Foreign | No Comments |

One could be forgiven if you think this Irish whiskey is masquerading as a Scottish whisky. Only twice distilled, unlike the usual triple distillation of Irish malts, with the barley peated, Connemara is a relatively new whiskey that seems to hearken back to an Islay more than anything. It has done well, winning nearly a dozen competitive awards over the past decade. When the Irish whiskey industry was in full flower a century and more ago, though, there were some that incorporated peat smoked barley (the Scots never had the market cornered on using peat for a fuel source, after all) and it is not horribly unusual to find an Irish whiskey double distilled today, even if it is not the norm. Still, this Connemara expression out of Kilbeggan Distillery, which is owned by the Cooley Distillery, bears the imprint of John Teeling before he sold Cooley to Beam Suntory in 2014. There are cask strength and 12 year offerings available in the United States and other expressions elsewhere in the world.

By Adam | March 17, 2018 | Foreign | No Comments |

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