Glendalough 7 Single Malt

I’m in Glendalough at the Glendalough hotel drinking Glendalough 7 Single Malt while enjoying the Glendalough mountain air, sunshine, and overall happy about thinks.

It’s like I found the key to happiness in the Glendalough of life.

Wait, that only is funny if you pronounce it correctly. Dammit! It ends with “lock”, so it’s a… dammit.

Glendalough is Ireland’s first craft distillery, located in a beautiful town that is close to where they shot parts of Braveheart. Five friends from Wicklow and Dublin decided they’d start up a distillery to get back to the rich heritage of craft distilling that happened in Ireland prior to Ireland being fucked right out of the whiskey game.

Which they totally aren’t still annoyed by. Totally. This isn’t sarcastic at all.

Luckily Irish whiskey is coming back, with a vengeance. Or maybe without the vengeance. While they haven’t quite hit the 200 distillery count they had at the turn of the century, Glendalough leads the way. They make poitin, whiskey, and now a range of seasonal gins.

Glendalough 7 Single Malt was aged for seven years because the number 7 shows up on a regular basis (continents, seas, days of the week, light spectrum, etc.) Also St. Kevin, the guy who is seemingly saying “What the FUCK?” on the bottle spent seven years in the wilderness.

Thus they pull this out of ex-bourbon casks after seven years, and have seven silver crosses on the label. And if you go to Glendalough (beautiful place), you’ll find seven churches, and pay seven tithes, and then probably go home… once.

Let’s see how this tastes, shall we?

Price: $69.95 CAD

Region: Ireland

Abv: 46%

Colour: 10YR 7/10

Nose: Cereal, peach, white raspberry, gravel, cloves

Initial note smells like breakfast. No, not the breakfast that is going around me at the moment. That’s a warm breakfast and I notice no peaches or cereal. Why? Well it’s Ireland, peaches aren’t really growing here. Oh, and cereal would be cheap.

Some earth on this one. Little bit of spice goes well with each of the flavours. Fruit comes and goes. The gravel bashes it down, like faceplanthing on my driveway.

I joke. I don’t really have a driveway.

Taste: Peach juice, barley, butter, basil, wheat, light malt

Sweet, and then grain, then butter, then herbal, then grain again, then more grain.

What I’m saying is if you have an issue with grains, you may not enjoy this. It’s very cereal forward.

Finish: Peppery, cereal, lemon, herbal, dusty, cloves, malt

Finish has more to it then the age would denote. Lots of pepper, cereal, and spice to it. Good malt notes here eventually develop.

Conclusion: Interesting whiskey. I think it’s young, but at this point it’s developed some really nice flavours, especially given the age. It’s quite cereal forward. While they don’t say it’s triple distilled, I get the feeling it is.

The nose was fruit forward, the taste and finish are cereal forward, fruity, and have a nice malt taste. That said, it’s simple. None the less, I’d be fine having this as a daily dram.

And yes, I know I reviewed two daily drams in a row. So I sound repetitive. Oops.

76/100

World Whiskey review #239, Ireland review #57, Whiskey Network review #1058