Irish coffee truffles

It's about that time of year when we carefully select our Christmas whiskey, to be enjoyed after sundown on the big day itself. But we shouldn't forget those who seem reluctant to embrace the unalloyed joy of the amber liquid in its pure form. For some, the good stuff must be smuggled past their defences, cloaked in other flavours and textures, in discreetly named packages that gloss over the alcoholic contribution.

As my contribution to this holiday subterfuge, I offer the Irish Coffee Truffle...

Ingredients (for about 18 truffles)

• 170g quality dark chocolate (70%)
• 150 mls Avonmore Cream
• 2-3 teaspoons ground instant coffee made into a paste with boiled water (or an espresso, if you prefer)
• 30 mls Kilbeggan Irish whiskey
• Milled white chocolate, finely chopped almonds or chocolate vermicelli to coat

Method

• Bring the cream to the boil
• Break chocolate into pieces
• Add to the cream and whisk for a while until completely melted
• Continue to whisk for a short while
• Whisk in the coffee and whiskey
• Pour into a shallow container and cool completely in fridge or freezer
• When set, make into walnut-sized balls and roll in any or all of the coatings

Happy Christmas!

A century of Irish whiskey

Most of the whiskey I tasted at Thursday's whiskey society meetup was distilled before I was born. It's never happened before and, since I'm still piling on the years myself, it's very unlikely to happen again in the future. So it was one to savour.

For the last formal tasting of the year we traditionally hand two fistfuls of cash to the president and challenge him to present us with six bottles that will blow us away.

Our current president, Leo Phelan, is a noted collector of both Irish whiskey and of historical information regarding Irish whiskey. So we ended up with an expertly curated guide to a century of Irish pot still whiskey. In a year when the Irish pot still style relaunched with a bang, it was very apt.

Jameson, but not John Jameson!

Another well-known bottle collector and expert, Irish Whiskey Chaser, was also at the tasting and has described it in wonderful detail so I'll confine myself to some short comments:

1. Midleton Single Cask Pot Still. This was an amazing coup for the Celtic Whiskey Shop back in 2009. Serious whiskey drinkers at the time were gazing forlornly through the gates of Midleton distillery, imagining the wonderful pot still whiskey being made within, but seeing it come out mainly in the form of mass market blends. What were the chances that the mighty multinational, Pernod Ricard, would throw a bone in our direction? Slim, we thought, until this particular chink of light. That trickle of spirit has now became a flood, with the relaunch of the Single Pot Still style, including several entirely new mainstream bottlings.
   
   There is nothing wrong with this single cask whiskey but, in my opinion, Midleton only reaches the most lofty heights when it adds the blending dimension. A little bit of sherry makes a huge difference. [7/10]
   
2. Jameson 15yo. Given what I just said, I should like this one, a blend of bourbon and sherry pot still from 1999. This was my least favourite of the night, however. I occasionally find a softness in a whiskey that has as much appeal for me as a warm, flat Coke. It's clearly just me though, because this was the room's overall favourite. Leo commented  that this bridged the old and new pot still styles. I can definitely see what he was getting at here. Give me the old one or the new one though. [5.5/10]
   
3. Dungourney 1964. Now we were into the realm of the closed distilleries. This was from the old Midleton distillery. 30 years in wood (though you would never know from the taste) and an unknown mix of casks. Whiskey of the Night for me. [8/10]
   
4. Old Irish Gold. Distilled no later than 1957, this one is quite mysterious because it's not known from which distillery it hails. The casks made a very roundabout journey from Ireland, via Scotland, to Germany where the whiskey was bottled. Interesting, and different. A strong effect of pineapple yoghurt on the nose and brown sugar in the taste. Actually quite pleasing to me. [6.5/10]
   
5. Old Comber 30yo. Like the Dungourney, this had lots of time in wood. It was apparent on the finish but I initially took it as a light sherry so it's not excessive. We were back to 1953 at this point. [7/10]
   
6. William Jameson "Irish American". This was a Frankenstein's monster of a whiskey, and one which I had never heard of. I take the "official" bottle photos for the society's event pages but I was not allowed to even glimpse this one in advance, to preserve as much mystery as possible. The Irish part of this was distilled in 1914! It was shipped to the US and, in 1934 or thereabouts, blended with American "straight whiskey". We had an all-rye tasting earlier in the year and we were getting distinct echoes of that here. This blend wasn't bad, and it was more palatable than the full-on rye. A long-forgotten marriage of styles, but perhaps worth a little amateur experimentation at home with modern equivalents. [6.5/10]
   
7. Locke's Single Pot Still spirit, 3 months old. Cooley's Innovation Manager, Alex Chasko, brought along a bottle of this stuff, which I have tried straight from the still on another occasion. It's made to the old Locke's recipe which includes 5% oats alongside the malted and unmalted barley. The rawness of the new make is moderating nicely, and it has even picked up a decent colour at this early stage.

And so, having looked back over the last hundred years of the Irish pot still style, we swivelled our gaze forward again, towards the future of the style in the 21st century.

Connemara Bog Oak

Updated Mon, 7th November: Alex Chasko very kindly sent me some additional information which I have worked into the article below.

One year ago, Cooley's Innovation Manager, Alex Chasko, added a few chips of bog oak to a sample of whiskey and invited the Irish Whiskey Society to try it. Since then we have been on the lookout for an official Connemara "Bog Oak" release. Now it's here!

In-house cooper, John Neilly, took three standard ex-bourbon casks and fitted new ends made from bog oak (ie oak that has been buried in a bog for thousands of years). Connemara whiskey that had already been maturing for some years was refilled into these casks which were then stored on their sides to allow as much contact between the whiskey and bog oak as possible.

Some leftover pieces of bog oak in the cooper's workshop

Most (80%) of the whiskey is the same heavily-peated malt that was released a year ago as Turf Mór. Since that was 3 years old then, this component would be 4 years old now. To that, Alex added malt from casks of varying ages between 8 and 15 years old, with some 6-year old too. According to Alex, this was to "develop the flavours from the bog oak and give the liquid some balance". The whiskey spent between 10 and 12 months in the bog oak casks. On October 31st, it was bottled at cask strength (57.5%).

There are only 1,000 bottles of this Bog Oak produced. This is a much smaller run than for the Connemara "Small Batch Collection" series we have seen in recent years. (The Small Batch Sherry Finish and the extra-peaty Turf Mór ran to about 20,000 bottles each.) Instead, the Bog Oak is marked "Connoisseurs Collection" and also carries Alex's signature which is a nice, new touch. Apparently there are other projects in the works that will come in around this size too.

Let's try it... There is some peat on the nose but it's playing well with other notes of hay, and a touch of boot polish. Very inviting. The taste is pretty peppery. Although much of the whiskey is only 4 years old, I can't detect that youth in the spirit, but the peat is still quite lively. When that fades, we have a gorgeous sweet, zesty orange marmalade. The finish is dry and long without a hint of wood. That's a good trick.

Adding a few drops of water... Lots of oily precipitate! That tempers the initial heat. Now we have a very balanced whiskey. The peat is exactly where I like it: contributing to the ensemble without being obvious. There is nothing about this whiskey that I wish was different. It's a cracker!

I asked Alex what, in his opinion, was the effect of the bog oak on the whiskey:

I think that the bog oak did a few things. The most surprising thing was that it added the orange marmalade flavours that you picked up on in your review. It also brought the peat levels down a little in the nose and added a very nice long finish. So it did a few things that we didn't expect. That was kind of the fun of trying something new! 

... The bog oak changed the strong in-your-face elements of the heavy peat. I am not sure if it did this by reducing the phenol ppms or if it added other notes that resulted in a perception of less peat. The reason for the range of ages was to try and give some depth and dynamic. The bog oak was changing the Turf Mór and I wanted to help it with a small amount of older casks. So the Turf Mór was in the bog oak for almost a year and the older casks were in the bog oak for a little shorter time.

The Connemara Bog Oak has a recommended retail price of €250 and ships in a wooden case with a chunk of bog oak from the cask ends themselves (no second-fills there then).

This has been a great year for Irish whiskey. I can think of at least four bottlings that were outstanding. One was from Midleton: Power's John's Lane. The other three were from Cooley: Kilbeggan 18yo, Tyrconnell 11yo Sherry Finish, and now this Connemara Bog Oak. Well done, Cooley!

Made it at Bushmills

You might remember the Make it 2 Bushmills competition from earlier in the year. The two winners - friends Jonathan ‘Oros’ Oliff and Sean Tickner from South Africa - were invited to stay at Bushmills and taught the ins and outs of whiskey-making. At the end, they got to create their very own unique bottling straight from the casks in the warehouse (pics: cask samples, blending). They then took this back to South Africa for a big party. Nice prize, eh?

I was keen to hear what the guys came up with and Bushmills were kind enough to send on some details from Master Distiller, Colum Egan, himself:

Bushmills matured in new oak charred barrels for 20 years and married with whiskey aged in Cognac casks for over 19 years. An innovative Single Malt from my South African friends. The colour draws you to the bottle. Their special Single Malt arrives on the nose with a wonderful fragrant fresh fruitiness followed quickly by candy sweet vanilla. On the palate initial citrus and peach notes are quickly following by hints of butterscotch. The finish is velvet smooth with subtle caramelised sweetness.

I don't know of any new oak or cognac-matured components in the current Bushmills line-up so that sounds like a special sup indeed. Good age on it too. Alas, we won't be trying this one at the whiskey society. It looks like about 20 litres were produced and most of that has gone back to South Africa. A few bottles remain for display at the distillery.

Enjoy the party, lads!

New Cooley Poitín

Last May, Cooley announced they had just distilled their first Single Pot Still (SPS) spirit at Kilbeggan. (In other words, they added unmalted grains to their pot stills as well as the usual malted barley.) It turned out that they had quietly experimented with SPS at their main Riverstown distillery in Louth the previous year too, though we haven't had a sniff of that up to this point.

That's why it's a treat to find out that Cooley will release an SPS poitín (unmatured whiskey) next week. It has been triple-distilled in Riverstown in the big pots there and is bottled at 65%. It's Ireland-only, limited to 1,000 bottles, and each 50cl bottle will be around €30. It can be had from the Celtic Whiskey Shop.

If I get more details I'll post them here.