The new year didn't properly kick off until last week, with the first Irish Whiskey Society tasting of 2010.

Scottish native (and founder of the society) Michael Foggarty brought us on a tour around the coast of Scotland, stopping at each island distillery along the way. The whiskies had nothing particular in common but they were individually interesting and the clockwise progression helped to fix a little better in my mind the geography of that country.

Aside from the Talisker, all of the bottlings were new to me. We tried:

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  Arran 1997 Single Cask: I have been to an all-Arran tasting before and really didn't take to their base malt. This Arran, however, was a single cask independent bottling and quite different to the whisky I remembered.

  My Rating: 7.5

• 

  Bunnahabhain Darach Ùr: Aged in new oak, slightly peaty. I didn't like this but it was notable for a certain saltiness, the first time I've ever found that in a whiskey.

  My Rating: 5

• 

  Jura Superstition: Michael described this as "rubbery" and that was spot on. Awful. Nobody liked it.

  My Rating: 3

• 

  Ledaig 15yo: A fine whisky, I reckoned the only flaw was the still raw, slightly peated taste. Happily the same distillery produces an unpeated version under the Tobermory label so now I'm on the lookout to try that.

  My Rating: 7.5

• 

  Talisker 10yo: Not for me, but many liked it.

  My Rating: 5

• 

  Scapa 16yo: This was a curious one. An unusual soft taste that I didn't quite get a handle on. Intriguing. This was voted favourite of the night, though not by me.

  My Rating: 7

• 

  Highland Park 18yo: I've never heard a bad word said about Highland Park 18yo so my expectations were already high. And yes, it's excellent. Easily my favourite of the seven and the only one I would readily buy a bottle of. Michael also recommended the Highland Park 12yo as the best value whisky in the world, so I'll have to seek that out too.

  My Rating: 8.5

All in all, it was a great start to the Irish Whiskey Society's year. Lots more good stuff is planned so keep an eye on our events page.

2010 will also be remembered as the year the society went global. Our newest member is none other than Mr Rich Nagle of the Sláinte Irish Whiskey Blog, who came all the way from Boston for the meeting on Thursday (OK, not just for that!). We all enjoyed meeting him and trading ideas on the future of the society. I also suspect that Irish whiskey export figures will show a spike around the same time he departed Ireland.

Something unusual happened last week in Ireland: our Minister for Finance reduced the price of alcohol. The price difference between here and Northern Ireland was enticing hordes of southerners across the border to load up on wine and spirits. While there, they were picking up the rest of their weekly shop. The government estimated the loss in VAT and excise for 2009 at between €72m and €112m.

To reduce the incentive to travel north, excise duty was reduced in the 2010 budget from €39.25 to €31.13 per litre of alcohol. There was an extra bonus too, with a drop in VAT from 21.5% to 21% (effective from Jan 1).

So what does it mean for a typical bottle of whiskey, 70cl, 40% ABV? We'll calculate the excise duty plus VAT on that duty before and after the budget:

Before:
40% * 0.7 * €39.25 * 121.5% = €13.35

After:
40% * 0.7 * €31.13 * 121% = €10.55

Reduction: €2.80

Enjoy!

I refer you to a post on John Hansell's blog for a slew of Irish whiskey updates.

There is solid info on the changing composition of Jameson Rarest Vintage Reserve from year-to-year, and news on the availability of Powers, Redbreast and Paddy in the US (I know that's going to make a certain person happy!).

Note also the implication behind the arrival of Redbreast 15yo in the US. Even in Ireland, we thought we had seen the last of this. It was so well-received, however, that there is more on the way for all of us. As a 46%, non-chill filtered, pure pot still Irish whiskey it's unique, and a real showcase for the traditional Irish style.

We had the last Irish Whiskey Society meeting of 2009 on Wednesday.

Before scoffing a few top-notch whiskeys we rattled through the formality of our first AGM. The President, Gary Mongey, recapped the year and it really was amazing to see everything that had been achieved in such a short time. The society is now a well-oiled machine with varied, monthly tastings and money in the bank for future cask investments. It also had a significant role earlier in the year bringing a brand new whiskey into the world.

There won't be any let up in pace in 2010. The programme of tastings has already been sketched out and contacts made within the industry to get access to the most knowledgeable speakers and most interesting whiskeys.

The future is exciting but there wasn't any difficulty pulling minds back to the present when we started on the whiskey tasting part of the evening. We called this one "The President's Selection", and it should be an annual event. The idea is that we up the budget for the last meeting of the year to buy some especially fine whiskeys, as selected by our president and vice-president.

Our VP, Leo Phelan, introduced the whiskeys. The thumbnail images are links to full-sized photos of the bottles we tried, on the Irish Whiskey Society's Flickr account.

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  Midleton Very Rare 2008. Any tasting that starts with Midleton VR has to be special, right? There is no doubting the refinement of Midleton. It is a blend, the grain whiskey being used to dial back the assertiveness of the pure pot still component. Only the best ex-bourbon casks are used to age the whiskey for between 12 and 25 years so there are no strong sherry or woody notes.

  I like the idea of letting the spirit itself speak as clearly as possible and I'd drink Midleton any day of the week. But it still underwhelms and at €135 it's too expensive. That said, it's different every year and I've only sampled one other vintage.

  My rating: 7

• 

  Bushmills 21yo. This was the only standard bottling from Bushmills that I had not tried so I was glad to have the chance finally. It has a very unusual nose, down to it's maturation half-and-half in oloroso sherry and bourbon casks, followed by two years in ex-madeira casks.

  Normally I'm not a fan of smelling anything but whiskey from a whiskey. I don't want it to smell like port or sherry, for example, and this Bushmills has the discernable scent of fortified wine. It's quite muted though and the balance of flavours is so good that it just works.

  My rating: 8.

• 

  Tyrconnell Single Cask 15yo. Up to now this has been my favourite Irish whiskey, a mouth-filling explosion of vibrant flavours. This particular bottle, however, failed to set anyone alight on the night. No doubt this is down to variation between single casks. My own bottle has Cask No. 957/92. This one was 3176/92.

  My rating: 7

• 

  Bushmills Millennium Cask #142. At the turn of the century, Bushmills sold matured casks of whiskey distilled back in 1975 to interested parties, bottling and labelling it on their behalf. There is a lot of this about still so it can be had for about €100 a bottle. I had never tried it though.

  As with the Tyrconnell, there is significant variation among the casks so quality varies. I like the base Bushmills malt, matured in bourbon casks, so I enjoyed this one too.

  My rating: 8

• 

  The Irishman Cask Strength. This is a very unusual Irish whiskey "blend". It contains both pure pot still and malt, but no grain whiskey. This was my third time to try it and every time I've been really impressed. At 56% it packs a wallop but it's exceptionally well-balanced and has a very even finish without dryness.

  My rating: 8.5

• 

  Tyrconnell 17yo Single Cask. This is the same whiskey as number 3, above, just two years older. There was an audible gasp in the room as we nosed this one. It's magnificent, and it follows through fully on the palate. It just sparkles, and keeps developing in the mouth and on the finish.

  This whiskey is not even on sale yet so we were very fortunate to be the first to try it, from a bottle without a printed label. Cooley has very little stock of this age so for a few years to come this expression will be very limited.

  This is recognisably the same whiskey as the 15yo Tryconnell I have at home but it has a little more clarity, a little more refinement. This is my new favourite Irish whiskey!

  My rating: 9

This is probably the Irish whiskey story of 2009, at least as far as I'm concerned.

The tale goes back to 1959, when the Grand Canal that crosses this country was closed to commercial traffic. That broke a longstanding link between the canal and various distilleries that received water-borne raw materials and fuel, and sent out whiskey by the same route.

One such distillery was Locke's in Kilbeggan. That distillery went silent but has been revived in recent years by Cooley. The canal spur to Kilbeggan hasn't fared as well - it's now dry.

A founding member of the Irish Whiskey Society, Michael Slevin, was aware of this history through his other passion, boating, and from his memberships of the Inland Waterways Association of Ireland and the Heritage Boat Association. He persuaded all of these organisations to come together to mark the 50th anniversary of the closure of the Grand Canal to commercial traffic.

He also convinced Cooley to supply a couple of casks of single malt that would be symbolically hauled along the dry canal spur, then placed on board a 1929 barge for the trip into Dublin.

All this came to pass and the casks were bottled as two single cask, cask strength whiskeys under the name Locke's "Grand Crew", in honour of the boatmen who plied the waterways back in the day.

I was very privileged to accompany barge 107B into the centre of Dublin last Monday. It was a beautiful day and a thoroughly calm and peaceful way to travel. It's very rare nowadays that an original canal boat makes it into Dublin. The waterway is not maintained the way it used to be and progress can be difficult. So it is no wonder that heads turned and people stopped to watch the unusual sight of a barge pass through the city.

And the whiskey? Half-a-dozen casks were selected by Cooley with the final selection made from these by a committee from the Irish Whiskey Society. I got my first taste of them at our last meeting. They are 9 year old, cask strength, single cask (ex-bourbon) malts. And they are wonderful. I have at least one bottle of each on order (one of the benefits of belonging to the society).

Jim Murray likes Grand Crew too. A sample of cask 696 (the slightly better one, in my opinion) made it to him just in time for this year's Whiskey Bible. It got a rating of 93.5, a "near faultless little cracker".

Here's a nice gift for whiskey lovers - a pack of Knappogue Castle miniatures. There are three bottles in the pack, one of each of the last three vintages released, ie 1993, 1994 and 1995.

Knappogue Castle is a single malt, distilled at Bushmills (prior to the 1993 release it came from Cooley). It's entirely bourbon cask-aged and is not coloured. The "vintage" for Knappogue is the year of distillation.

The releases have been getting older as time goes on. The 1993 is 8 years old, the 1994 10 years old and the 1995 13 years old. Normal-sized bottles of this whiskey can vary from these ages because the 1994 and 1995 versions were released in multiple batches.

The miniature set is €14.99 at the Celtic Whiskey Shop.

I was at a wedding in County Clare over the weekend and managed to slip away for a couple of hours to check out O'Lochlainn's Whiskey Bar in Ballyvaughan.

It's a beautiful, genuine, little pub with a friendly atmosphere. It's fitted out like a 1930s grocers, which is exactly what it was. The shelves are filled these days with a remarkable collection of rare Irish whiskeys, a collection begun by the current owner's father.

It looks like a whiskey drinker's paradise and, indeed, there is a wider selection of whiskeys for sampling than in most Irish pubs. Unfortunately, the choice doesn't go beyond the basics. The whiskey menu lacks lots of obvious, readily available whiskeys. For example, you can have a bottom-of-the-range Connemara, but not the 12 year old, single cask, cask strength or sherry finish versions. Likewise there is a "no age statement" Tyrconnell but no 10 year old port / madeira / sherry finish nor the magnificent 15 year old single cask.

Because, I assume, of the strong tourist trade, prices are at Dublin levels. A Powers 12 year old is €5.50, a Connemara €5.00, for example.

I hope O'Lochlainn's expands its whiskey menu. In the meantime, it's still a great place for a sociable drink.