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Tyrconnell 10 Year Old Madeira Finish

Average score from 4 reviews and 8 ratings 80

Tyrconnell 10 Year Old Madeira Finish

Product details

  • Brand: Tyrconnell
  • Bottler: Unknown
  • ABV: 46.0%
  • Age: 10 year old

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@talexander
Tyrconnell 10 Year Old Madeira Finish

I can't believe it's been a full month since I wrote my last review - it's been a very busy July! Time to get back at it, methinks. This one is part of the standard Tyrconnell range of 10 year old single malts finished in either Sherry, Port or Madeira. The bottle code on this is L14114.

The colour is a very light amber. On the nose there is light Demerara, rum raisin, toasted coconut, papaya, cocoa and tapioca. A bit citrusy. Toasted almonds. With water it gets maltier, and adds a sourdough note. The richness of the cask is nicely balanced by what seems to be a light malt.

Spicy on the palate with mouth-pulling tannins, more Demerara, chocolate cream, pineapple and more coconut. There is no doubt that this is finished in a fortified wine cask, though if I tasted blind I might think it was a port cask, being so rich. Water makes it spicier and even more mouth-pulling! Delicious and salivating.

The finish is long and deep with oak, dates and allspice. As some of you may know, I'm always cautious with finished malts but this one works quite beautifully (more so than the Sherry Cask and especially more than the Port Cask variations). Very easy to drink but also enormously complex. Jim Murray scored this a 91 (though from a different bottle code) and John Hansell scored this a 93, calling it the best Cooley whisky he had every tasted (I wouldn't go quite that far). This may become a staple in my house.

It sounds really good, but I'm really trying not to buy a bottle of every whisky that sounds good. I was there on unrelated business and saw the bottle and was very tempted.

My mother asked me to pick up a bottle of wine for dinner. I picked a store that had a brand of apple cider that my wife likes to surprise her. That store happened to have several Tyrconnells. I saw it. I saw the attractive price. I remembered the positive review. I went and picked up the wine and the cider. I left. Do I have lingering thoughts? Yes. Will I regret this in 10 years when I haven't made a dent in my collection? Probably not.

@OJK

Nose, Taste, Finish and Balance are graded out of 2.5 each:

Nose: A toffe-fudge punch to the nose sends you reeling, and just as you gain your senses there's a strawberry mousse pie straight to the face. As you stumble punch-drunk back to your corner, a refreshing lychee and mango sponge clears your senses and entices you to get back up for the second round. Full on it may be, but anyone would be sucker for punishment for this onslaught of exotic fruit and marauding molasses. 2.5

Taste: Gentle and warm, this is an all together more sensual affair, with the soft embrace of sweet cocoa bean and malt-marinated oranges slowly nursing your palate. A little zing of oaky spice acts as a smelling salt to further revive you from the indomitable nose. 2.0

Finish: Like the very end of an ice-cream cone, when you take that last bite, and there's still the banana ice-cream inside, the sweet malty cone and the banana ice-cream mix together perfectly on the palate, with the chocolate and tropical fruit sprinkles that were coated on the edge of the cone coming to the fore as you chew further, it's the best bite of the whole experience. 2.5

Balance: If this is anything to go by, then I am going to have to explore Madeira cask finishes more prolifically. This is a whiskey that truly stands out from the crowd, no matter how many whiskies you may have in your collection. Full on and engaging, it disarms you with its sweetness, seduces you with its exotic fruit character, and compels you with its depth of distinct flavour. If you were inviting whiskies to a dinner party then this guest would certainly bring charisma to any occasion. 2.0

Wow, @OJK! This sounds fantastic!

It's now at the top of my wish list...

@markjedi1

This Tyrconnell Madeira Finish, which will set you back about 60 EUR, is a so-called 'limited release', but easily obtainable in Europe, so I'm quite sure that is just another marketing technique.

This Irish whiskey first matured for 10 years on American oak and was then transferred to Spanish Madeira casks for the finish of several months.

The nose is a very pleasurable one with an abundance of marzipan, forrest fruits, frangipane, oranges, honey, barley and wood. Very exotic, thank you very much.

Those fruits are more pronounced on the palate, adding flavours of papaya, raisins, apricots, pineapple and even some mango. Hell, there is even some chocolat and a whiff of spices. I feel like I'm on a South American beach or something! Rather dry, but well balanced.

The finish is long and warm. In the end, the fruit gets overpowered by the spices, though.

Deze whiskey has two brothers: the Sherry Finish and the Port Finish. I have not yet tried those, but heard some good things about them.

@SvenFonteyn

I was looking forward to taste the madeira finish as I allready tried the sherry and port finishes and they are very nice. The madeira finish is a disappointment. It has the nice oily tyrconnell taste, but the madeira does not add anything to it.

@Mark - Despite your being a tough man, you are usually fair - and you are here as well. I just opened a bottle of said material and am suitably impressed (in contrast to Bruich Rocks which smells like old bologna). The T Madeira has a lovely bouquet and very good taste. I would love to have it go against a BM16 as an example. Regardless I think it could have stood a couple more years to really craft the taste. I would be comfortable in giving an 82 as a minimum and maybe up to an 85. I would rather drink this than an RB12 to the best of my memory.

I tried this dram at a recent event in Ghent. I must say, I disagree with this review (although I cannot compare it to the port or sherry finish, because I didn't have those), but this Madeira Finish was absolutely stunning, one I will definitely get.

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