Around this time of year, there are always plenty of new Irish whiskies released to capture the Christmas gift market. Here is a round-up, but don’t delay, some will sell out very quickly.
I have already covered The Liberator Batch 2 (€65); Double Port Finish (€50); Teelings Renaissance Part Two (€140) ; The Celt An Chéad Bhlás (€75); and the Irishman Founder's Reserve Oloroso Cask Finish (€75). All are still available and worth buying.
Dingle recently released around 8,000 bottles of their Fourth Single Pot Still Whiskey, priced at €95 per bottle, half of which will be exported. Deeply flavoured with figs, raisins and dark chocolate, this would make a great Christmas whiskey. At the same time, a further 500 bottles of Pot Still Cask Strength have been released, a first for Dingle Distillery, for €350 a bottle.
Midleton launched the 38th edition of Very Rare, the last produced by distiller Brian Nation. His place has been taken by Kevin O’Gorman, a man with 22 years experience in Midleton. The Very Rare 2020 (€180) is elegant and smooth with the complexity one expects from this whiskey.
Following Green Spot, Yellow Spot and Red Spot, the final in the series, The Mitchell & Son Blue Spot (€80) has been released. Aged in bourbon, sherry and Madeira, this seven-year-old cask-strength whiskey is brimming with tropical fruits and spice.
James Fox is offering a single cask Midleton Very Rare Pot Still Irish Whiskey, exclusively through their store and website. Laid down in 1998, 162 bottles were made, available for €995 a bottle. As you would expect, it is a magnificent complex whiskey.
Roe & Co released the second edition of their Cask Strength; the 2020 edition (€74) is a richly flavoured smooth 13-year-old single malt Irish whiskey. Bushmills still have stocks of their Causeway 1995 Malaga Cask (€400). Lastly, Lough Ree Distillery mark the closing of Lanesborough peat-fired power station on December 18th, with the release of two very limited edition peated whiskeys, The Station and Mountdillon, both €65 a bottle from celticwhiskeyshop.com and lrd.ie.
