Irish Single Malt Whiskey 14 Year Old 2001 Kintra

Erik Molenaar, the man behind Kintra, is spending most of his time getting his own distillery Wagging Finger off the ground. His gin is a hit, but in the short term he also wants to distill his very own single malt. This means that he is currently going somewhat slow with Kintra, his company that bottles whisky independently. Let us try a 14 year old Irish malt, of which the distillery is kept quite secret.

I do like this dirty nose full of sherry influence with loads of fruit on the left (think peach, raisins and in this case even slightly rotting oranges) and a dusty attic, earth and even some wood glue or putty on the right. Loads of candied sugar and even a drop of balsamic vinegar, which makes it stand out. I would never have thought of an Irish distillery if I were to nose this blind. The sherry cask is simply too dominant. Nevertheless, this is a grand nose.

It is oily and immediately spicy on the nose with nutmeg and black pepper. Next to the dark fruit, it becomes very sweet on espresso with whipped cream, sprinkled with cocoa powder. Burnt coffee beans precede the fruit, that now consists of dark berries and raspberries. It’s all good.

The finish is fairly long and drying, but does remain dark and sweet until the death.

Not your typical Irish whisky, far from it, but quite interesting in my opinion. Just a tad too dry towards the end, but aside from that this is a very nice dram at great drinking strength. Bushmills? Cooley? I have not the faintest.