Writers Tears
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.
Vicomte 8 Year
A decade or two ago, it might have seemed the very picture of strangeness to have the rise of French whiskies we’re seeing even though the country has long been a large consumer of scotch. The distillery itself is old but the company who owns it is based out of Florida, Venturi Brands. Unlike many current whisky companies, Vicomte and Venturi seem cloaked behind non-functioning websites and precious little information about the whisky beyond what is listed on the label. Though the Vicomte 8 Year was only released in 2015, so it remains to be seen whether it can break into the markets it desires. It is aged entirely in ex-Cognac barrels and the barley is from the Poitou-Charentes region.
Connemara
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.