Three Regional Irish Whiskies (Dublin, Wicklow, Kildare)

My wife has requested that she and I try more Irish whiskey. After making sure she’s not been replaced by a pod person or some sort of fairy that switched her out while in Ireland, I agreed. Thus we have a new, not so often series I’m calling “Irish for more whiskey”.

To start off this great series, my wife has recorded us reviewing the whisky. Below is a general idea of what we talk about, however if you want to hear our voices to really get in the moment, feel free to listen.

In the Celtic Whisky Shop in Dublin, of which we visited on this most recent trip. And while I was doing the whisky nerd thing, enjoying being around alcohol retail workers who know their stuff and aren’t setup as the Walmart of alcohol (looking at you LCBO), my wife found their collection of minis that cover the various counties of Dublin.

Each of these whiskies is sourced from the county, though the specific age, type, or distillery is not listed. You can see a picture here.

Suffice to say she bought one of each region we hit. As this was our first time in Ireland, we stuck quite close to Dublin. Next time we’re exploring more of the countryside.

So how did these regional whiskies stack up? Let’s see, shall we?

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Dublin

Price: €4 for the mini (we think)

Region: Ireland

Abv: 40%

Colour: 7.5Y 9/6

Nose: Yeast, butter, grass, cereal

Initial nose reminds me of younger Irish whiskies that make their way to Canada. Given that Canadians poisoned some American’s during Prohibition and called the poison whiskey Irish Whiskey, even though we made it, I can see why they do that. It’s fair.

Eventually it opens up to more grass and cereal. Kinda blaw on the nose. Other than some yeast though, nothing rough.

Taste: Caramel, guava, butter

Taste is quite light. If I had to guess, I’d say this is young, more grain heavy Jameson. Elements of tropical fruit, butter, and caramel.

Again, nothing huge, however nothing bad either.

Finish: Caramel, malt, brine, stale nuts

Finish is quite nice. There’s a mixture of nuttiness, with some staleness that’s not great, however the finish really steps up.

Like a real whiskey. Just about.

Conclusion: I’m pretty sure this is the standard Jameson whiskey, which does what we want it to: A simple, nice whiskey to sip on. Don’t expect it to blow your mind. The abv is too low there. The finish surprised me, and this was my favourite of the bunch.

71/100

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Wicklow

Price: €4 for the mini (we think)

Region: Ireland

Abv: 40%

Colour: 7.5Y 9/8

Nose: Sugar, raspberries, earth, biscuits

Fruitier nose on this one. Raw sugar goes to more of a fruit forward, tart nose. Nice amounts of earth and biscuits, though those don’t really mesh too well.

Taste: Nectarine, lime, almond milk, mint

Again, fruit forward, creamy, and lots of mint. Not really doing too much for me. Too much fruit, frankly. Almost feels one note.

Finish: Yeast/dough, rock candy, earth, heat

Finish is heavy on the yeast/dough. Was quite rough, with heat coming up, lots of raw sugar and overall pain

Overall was pretty rough. This is some young juice.

Conclusion: A young, I’m guessing whisky from Glendalough. I’d say go for older Glendalough, as I enjoyed them quick a bit more. Also visit the area, it’s beautiful and quite breathtaking. The Irish version of Banff, if you will.

This has a nice nose, a blaw taste, and then it beats up on the finish.

67/100

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Kildare

Price: €4 for the mini (we think)

Region: Ireland

Abv: 40%

Colour: 7.5Y 9/8

Nose: Earth, cereal, lemon rind, graham cracker

Initial nose has quite a bit of earth, then that subsides into more of a cereal note. Then that evolves into more of a graham flavour.

Quite nice nose.

Taste: Caramel, grass, yoghurt, floral

There’s some caramel, then a lot of dairy based flavours. Like when you have really, really good milk. The Americans won’t know what I’m talking about.

Imagine if your milk didn’t taste like burnt plastic and death. Yeah, that.

It’s interesting, though again, it’s somewhat blaw as we’re missing a dimension of fruit here.

Finish: Dough, grass, mineral, caramel

Finish has that dough/yeast thing going on that I talked about before. The young Irish, ship it off to Canada flavour. It subsides somewhat with time, though it’s pretty strong.

Conclusion: Not a rough one, and a nice nose. Overall the taste had something going for it but didn’t quite finish all of it, and the finish was rough, though not as rough as the Wicklow one.

A fun experiment in the end. It’s pretty obvious these weren’t meant to be opened up and rather collected as knick knacks, though for something like that, they weren’t the roughest drinks I’ve had.

We’ll leave that for Screech.

69/100

World Whiskey reviews #296-298, Ireland reviews #72-74, Whiskey Network reviews #1311-1313