Teeling Single Malt

I have tried the Teeling single malt before. Obviously this is purchased stock, for Teeling does not yet have its own whiskey on the market. This is either Cooley or Bushmills. Anyway, as I really enjoyed the previous batches, I am looking forward to this 2016 release.

The nose is still quite fruity, but shows more citrus this time around (lime, grapefruit and lemon). Very grassy and a touch floral too. Think heather honey, freshly peeled Granny Smith, some cherries and white grapes. It even reminds me a bit of white wine. Summer in your glass.

It is very light on the palate. Again apples and citrus fruit, but also quince and some dried peach. Fresh rhubarb. Green banana. Nicely seasoned with pepper and ginger. A pinch of cinnamon. The oak does make me pull some faces.

The finish is medium long, a touch drying and spicy.

Well, I found the batch from 2015 much more to my liking as it was much more tropical, while this one is rather a summery light weight. But still very affordable: between 35 to 40 EUR.

As usual, I'm going to do a run of Irish whiskey reviews over the next couple of days, to celebrate St. Patrick's Day! Let's start with a distillery that opened on March 17 2015 - Teeling.

Teeling Single Malt is a vatting of Cooley malts finished in various casks - port, sherry, white burgundy, cabernet sauvignon and Madeira. It is NAS (though apparently there are some malts over 20 years old in here), non-coloured and non-chill-filtered. This particular one was bottled in September 2015, and I think it's been open for almost a year.

The colour is a light yellow, with a slight greenish tinge. On the nose it is crisp, clean, triple-distilled Irish malt, with lemon, cantaloupe and a hint of coconut. Grassy. Very light toffee. Unfortunately, water just mutes the nose. A nice balance between the fruit and the malt.

A little bit hot on the palate, the grassiness continues with more lemon, buttered croissant and spice (cloves and white pepper). Nutty. Mouth-watering. Green banana. Bitter. A bit too intense (though water smooths things out), given the gentleness of the nose.

The finish is a little rough, with toasted oak and lemon meringue. It's not bad (and I prefer it to their Small Batch) but it seems off-balance and unable to live up to the promise of the nose.

Colour: White wine.

Nose: Chocolate, vanilla, dusty oak, fruity – grapes and a touch of citrus.

Palate: Sweet, vanilla oak, spice. Once the spice subsides you get sweet and fruity notes with red grapes and citrus.

Finish: Nutty, dusty oak and later a hit of fruit again.

Overall: Having tried Teeling’s Small Batch before and loving it I had high hopes for this one and they certainly didn’t disappoint! At around £40 – £45 a bottle it’s a little more than your other standard single malts on the market but in truth It’s worth the money if you’re looking for something a bit different from the usual offerings on the market.

From a 5cl bottle from the Trinity pack, bought in 2016. This is still from stock bought from Beam when they bought the Cooley distillery and still as advertised from stock aged up to 23 years.

Colour is light but deep golden.

Nose is really quite distinctive. The first whiffs of honeyish barley malt and crystal cereal notes of unmalted grains, are soon consumed by some wonderful big citrus fruity notes or lemon and grapefruit, citrus peel, fresh bread dough, baked french bread, vanilla and a little bit of banana ester and icing sugar. There's some white wine vinous notes going on here. Buttery white burgundy and lemon chardonnay.

Body is rich, full flavoured.

On the taste the citrus notes are fantastic. Grapefruit, lemon, citrus rind, slight honey and spice, some of that crystal cereal unmalted barley grain, little banana ester note, lemony white wine chardonnay or Chablis vinous.

Finish is all about the fruit citrus grapefuit, white wine vinous and some warming hotness in the back of the throat.

So good that I'm tempted to buy a bottle.

Teeling Single Malt whiskey is reviewed from a mini, bottle code L14 11 304 11:48. Teeling Single Malt is a no age statement ("malt whiskey aged up to 23 years old") using sherry, port, madeira, white burgundy, and cabernet sauvignon casks

Nose: mellow barley-malt with many subtle pleasant wine overtones, and very noticeable vanilla. The cabernet sauvignon influence is particularly evident, as is the white burgundy. Pleasant, smooth, mellow. Score: 22/25

Taste: even more multi-faceted wine complexity is observed in the mouth. It is lovely to be able to watch the many nuances from the various wines here. This reminds me a lot of Tullamore DEW 10 yo single malt, which also uses multiple wine cask maturation. Great sweetness is here balanced by some intense tart-sour citrus. There is plenty of wood influence here. Score: 21.5/25

Finish: stays winey to the end, with a lot of sour on the close. Score: 20.5/25

Balance: very good in the nose, good on the palate. Score: 21/25

With Water: 1) high-pitched sweetness is brought out in the nose, and 2) low-pitched fruit tannins not far from black licorice flavours are brought out in the mouth. This is pretty interesting with water added

Total Sequential Score: 85 points

Strength: good strength of flavours in the nose, very good strength of flavours thereafter. Score: 22/25

Quality: great wine flavours, good wood flavours. Score: 21.5/25

Variety: plenty of variety in the wine elements; otherwise good variety. Score: 22/25

Harmony: lovely harmony in the nose; good harmony on the palate; fair harmony by the finish. Score: 20/25

Total Non-Sequential Score: 85.5 points

Comment: this is my third Teeling whiskey. I find this Single Malt to be "pretty good", with some interesting wine elements. The Teeling Small Batch Blended Whiskey I did not find attractive, and the Teeling Single Grain with Cabernet Sauvignon Finish I liked very much. My advise? Try before buying, maybe a mini...

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.

For their first own produce we’ll have to wait a few more years, but that shouldn’t stop us from sampling some of stuff they ordered from other distilleries. They should be a perfect representation of what the owners are trying to achieve for their own future line, not? They seem to have been bitten by the same bug as some of their Scottish competitors, relying heavily on wood finishes to give their NAS that extra nudge. However these boys from Dublin have taken it to a whole new level: one cask finish?, that’s preposterous, let’s make it five! Five wine-cask-finishes including Sherry, Port, Madeira, White Burgundy and Cabernet Sauvignon, let’s hope they didn’t smother the spirit.

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Description: originating from either Bushmills or Cooley, treated with five different wine cask finishes and bottled at a generous 46% ABV level.

Nose: oh it is one of those soft Irish noses, the obligatory fruit salad: green apples, grapes, charentais melon, fresh wood scrapings, softsoap and powdered sugar

Mouth: thick body, quite coarse and drying on the palate. I think I describe it best as dried figs coated in cinnamon and white pepper, poured over with lemon syrup.

Finish: short and mainly cinnamon driven, but also a hint of port and mouth-drying oak tannins.

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Verdict: Yet that same imbalance that seems to plague all Irish whiskey, soft nose, cursory finish, yet a powerful palate. Overall it is a strange concoction of different flavours, but obviously not by grace of the spirit. These are just traces of the large variety of wines that were mixed in with a rather young spirit. It’s the whiskey equivalent of a microwaved three course dinner.

The Teeling distillery is the first new distillery in Dublin for over 125 years. Their single malt expression is a vatting of 5 different wine cask finish whiskeys (Sherry, Port, Madeira, White Burgundy, Cabernet Sauvignon) bottled at 46% (now we’re getting there!).

As all the different finishes come from the same distillery this is termed a “single malt”.

The nose is very pleasing with notes of vanilla, some Bakewell tart type jamminess and citrus fruits.

Slight oiliness to the plate with some marmalade and some spice.

Rounded off by a medium length finish of slight sweetness and slight saltiness.

A very accomplished expression and one that made me sit up and take notice. This is a distillery to keep eye on.

The sons of John Teeling (who put the Cooley distillery on the map and recently sold it to Beam) stepped into their father’s footsteps and recently opened a new distillery in Dublin. The Teeling whiskey that currently appears on the market is old Cooley stocks (or even Bushmills). This is one of those: the Teeling single malt. It is said that this whiskey contains different vintages up to 23 years old. It matured on a range of different casks: port, sherry, Madeira and white wine from France.

It is soft, syrupy and immensely fruity on the nose. Sweet apples, melon, fresh figs, overripe cherries and some citrus. Just a tad of oak that translates into vanilla and cloves. Becomes sweeter as you leave it to breath. Be careful when adding water though, for that suppresses the fruitiness somewhat and brings more wood to the fore.

It is succulent and sweet, but very spicy up front. Think cloves, white pepper, ginger and some liquorice. The fruit is still very present, but now more like the dried variety. Think peach and apples, but also melon and figs. Somewhat zesty which makes it a bit prickling. Very good. Diluted it loses some sweetness, but never becomes too dry.

The finish is not overly long, but certainly long enough. It remains spicy and becomes a bit dry at the very end.

Great as an aperitif, but also matches well with a sweet dessert like pastry with fruit. Good strength, but can take water.