Peach

Teeling Brabazon Series 2

Teeling Brabazon Series 2

While Teeling Distillery was founded in 2015, a quick look at their offerings will show releases carrying much older age statements. This is because when John Teeling sold the Cooley Distillery to  what is now Beam Suntory, one of the stipulations of the sale was the family taking 16,000 casks of whiskey with them. It is from these casks that many of their older bottlings are derived, whiskey essentially sourced from themselves. The Brabazon series from Teeling kicked off in 2017 and was named after William Brabazon, the 3rd Earl of Meath, who oversaw the development of the New Market area in Dublin that would eventually become the Liberties district where the current distillery resides. There have been four entries in this series as of this writing. The Brabazon 2 was bottled in September 2017 and matured in a various sizes of ex-port casks.

Starward Nova

Starward Nova

Starward distillery was founded in 2007 by David Vitale. Producing whiskies from the outset, Starward received investment from spirits conglomerate Diageo in 2015 via their Distilled Ventures program, which allowed the distillery to expand their facilities. Starward Nova is the brand’s signature offering, featuring malted barley fermented with brewer’s yeast. It then goes into a variety of casks from Australian wineries, namely shiraz, cabernet and pinot noir from the Yarra and Barossa vallies, where it remains for the entire maturation of approximately two years. Starward asserts the aging process is accelerated due to the area’s volatile climate.

Caol Ila 15 Year Unpeated

Caol Ila 15 Year Unpeated

Caol Ila is the largest distillery on the island of Islay, producing over 2 million liters every year. The vast majority of that goes into Diageo-owned blends like Johnnie Walker Black Label, but there still remains some for eventual release as single malts. While the 12 Year is their single malt cornerstone, the distillery has been releasing a yearly series of unpeated whiskies over the past several years, including the 17 Year. The Caol Ila 15 Year is the first of a reported thirteen releases in the series.