Teeling Single Malt

The original Teeling distillery was established by Walter Teeling in 1782 in Dublin. It eventually closed as a result of the decline in Irish whiskey sales. In 1985, John Teeling bought a state-owned industrial potato distillery on the Cooley peninsula. He added a column still and in 1987 launched the Cooley Whisky Distillery and set about re-launching forgotten Irish whiskey brands such as The Tyrconnell. When the Cooley distillery was sold to Beam in 2012, John’s sons Jack and Stephen negotiated with Beam to sell them 16,000 casks of aged Cooley whiskey. With these stocks they set up the new Teeling Distillery in Dublin, where the first run of whiskey flowed in March 2015. Teeling Single Malt consists of aged malt whiskey up to 23 years old that was matured in five different wine casks including sherry, port, Madeira, white Burgundy and Cabernet Sauvignon.

The nose is light and fruity, with lemons, grapefruits and some honey. I also got some grassy notes. This is fairly pleasant but far from complex.

The palate is medium-bodied and slightly spicy. The fruit flavours are much more prominent than they were on the nose: the lemons are back, together with pineapples, oranges, as well as vanilla, and followed by a hint of cinnamon. This is good!

The finish is surprisingly long and warming. Lemon flavours are back one more time, slowly dissolving into a rather woody finish.

This is a single malt that is easy to sample. I liked the fruity palate best, while the nose really is a bit too light for my taste. No rough edges here, just a fine and enjoyable whiskey.