Knappogue Castle 15 year old

Update Tuesday evening, September 30: Added new information from Castle Brands (see comments).

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Knappogue Castle has taken a sudden left turn and released an aged expression. They have, until now, released "vintages" which, in Knappogue's case, means stamping the bottles with the year of distillation. The most recent vintage was 1995. Bottled in 2007, the whiskey within is about 12 years old.

Now they have released a 15 year old single malt and it's not the product of a single year's distillation. Instead it's a vatting of three casks, one each from 1990, 1991 and 1992. This has yielded just 600 bottles at 43% ABV. It is not chill-filtered or coloured so there has been no interference with the natural taste of an aged malt.

Knappogue's original 1990, 1991 and 1992 vintages were made by Cooley. Subsequent production moved to Bushmills. This release is, once again, based on Cooley malt. As I've said before, the 15 year old single malt, single cask releases from Cooley have been exceptional so there is every reason to hope that this too is great whiskey.

Unfortunately (for me) Knappogue Castle 15yo will be available in select markets in the US only.

Green Spot on the move

Update Friday, Sep 26: Although the new shop is opening in October, the old shop closes today, at 5:30pm. I had a final look around and took some pics which I've added below.

I was given a tour of the building earlier in the year and saw some really old bottles of wine in the cellar covered in decades of dust, impossible to identify. These were left over from the days when Mitchells stored wine collections on behalf of their customers. A couple of customers never claimed their bottles. Well, I asked if they found anything interesting under the dust and it sounds like they had some fun sampling various 50-year old wines and champagnes!

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The home of Green Spot whiskey, Mitchell & Son on Kildare Street, is moving to the CHQ retail building in Docklands. The shop has been living on borrowed time since the end of 2005 when it was sold to the owners of the Shelbourne Hotel.

Mitchells have traded at 21 Kildare Street since 1886, though the company was founded even earlier, in 1805 (on Grafton Street, where McDonalds is now).

It is sad to lose one more link with Dublin's past but the CHQ building will make an appropriate home for Ireland's oldest wine importer. It was originally built as a bonded wine and tobacco warehouse in 1820. It also hosted the Crimean War Banquet in 1856 to celebrate the return of 3,000 Irish soldiers.

The new shop will open on Monday, October 13th. So you only have a couple of weeks left to visit Kildare Street to pick up a bottle of Green Spot just as your grandparents did.

Danny Boy Irish whiskey released

The aforementioned Danny Boy whiskey began shipping last month. Although this is not a Cooley brand, it is a 15yo Cooley single malt. I had high expectations for this, therefore, given that the best Irish whiskeys I have tried have been the Tyrconnell 14/15yo single cask, single malts from Cooley.


Although Danny Boy is matured alongside Tyrconnell, and in identical ex-bourbon casks, it won't be the same for several reasons. First, it is a vatting of multiple casks to produce a limited annual run of 2,500 bottles. Second, it is 40% ABV rather than the 46% of Tyrconnell 15yo. Lastly, to ensure clarity of the product at the lower ABV, Danny Boy has been chill-filtered, which must have some effect on taste.

Another startling difference is the price. Tyrconnell 15yo can be had from The Whisky Exchange for GBP£46. Danny Boy goes for £75. You would typically expect the non-chill filtered, single cask whiskey to attract the premium but that's not so here. Perhaps the pricing strategy will be different in the US. Certainly the Danny Boy brand will have a far greater resonance there where the song of the same name is much loved.

Presentation is also a factor. To quote a Cooley representative:

The packaging for Danny Boy reflects its pedigree with the crystal style decanter and gold cap and each bottle coming in a high quality presentation box with a signed certificate from [Master Blender] Noel Sweeney personally guaranteeing the provenance of the whiskey.

Anyway, the important question is: what's the whiskey like? It certainly held my interest, though I can't rate it above the Tyrconnell 15yo (or, indeed, the Tyrconnell 10yo port finish). For the more formal tasting notes, I'll hand you over to noted connoisseur and collector of Irish whiskeys, Adrian Phelan:

Nose
Sweet and syrupy, ripe white flesh fruits (apple and pear) and vanilla cut with the sharpness of citrus (lemon). A touch of salt and also some wood presence.

Taste
A bit bitter to start then a slight burst of wood spice but quickly mellows out to some gobstopper sweetness. Then back to burnt marmalade. 

Finish
Dry at first with a touch of perfume but the sweetness is there too. A bit short though.

For a different take, here are the notes supplied by Cooley:

Nose
Fresh grain with an unmistakable barley fragrance. Ripe fruit, all spice and even toffee... reminiscent of a rich fruit cake. 

Taste
Silky smooth but intense on the pallet, with all of the classic pointers of the Cooley DNA, honey and lemon. 

Finish
Clean oak evident in the after-taste due to the influence of the ageing and amazingly complex in a range of subtle afternotes... liquorice being one.

Drinks festival in Dublin

A convivial time is promised at Farmleigh House in the Phoenix Park, Dublin, this weekend. Bord Bia (the Irish Food Agency) is hosting the first national independent drinks festival where we will have the chance to sample products from Ireland's smaller, more innovative brands.

Whiskey lovers will make a beeline for the Cooley and Hot Irishman stands but there will be a few other grain spirit-based tipples on offer too: Boozeberries and, I hope, Bunratty Potcheen (caution: this site may induce flashbacks to 1995).

The event is free and all details can be found on the Bord Bia website.