Teeling 9 Single Cask Port Cask [Re-review]

So I’m at the Teeling distillery. A year ago. And I have a choice between a few single casks they have. Two of them are fill your own bottles.

That’s exciting. I want to do that. I’ve never done that. I’ve been around when someone else did that, sure, but I’ve never done it.

So now I have two options (I bought the other one). Do I buy Teeling 9 Single Cask Port Cask, or do I purchase Teeling 25 Single Cask Ex-bourbon Cask?

Based on the formatting, you know which one I purchased. See I asked around, and the 9 year was an interesting, unique whisky. The 25 was a subtle, almost Lowland Scotch single malt. Most people weren’t fans, it was more for whiskey nerds.

So I purchased the 9 year. This is a re-review, as I tried it at the distillery before hand. Why did I purchase it? Because for a port cask it didn’t do what I expected. Then I said “Wait, I know whiskey nerds… this will be perfect.”

Thus it was opened during a tasting. Because if I don’t show up to a tasting with a world whisky, the world will turn pink. Which isn’t a bad thing, it’s just hard on the eyes.

Let’s see how my bottle tastes, shall we?

Price: €100

Region: Ireland

Cask No: 11650

Fill Date: 05 Aug ’07

Bottled: 22 May ’17

Cask Type: Port

Abv: 59.2%

Colour: 5YR 5/10

Nose: Pink eraser, cotton candy, wax, floral, BBQ smoke

Initial nose is quite odd. Glad we gave it time to open up, and while I can’t say what the cask has done in the past year, it benefits nicely from it.

Nice floral. There’s no plum here. So the idea this is a port cask and that this is giving you floral notes is kinda odd.

Taste: Cherry, earth/cumin, black pepper, strawberry

Cherry is not something I’m used to. A full maturation port cask and it gives you more sherry notes? It’s confusing, to me.

Lovely earth, cherry, and black peppery. Water adds some strawberry, which I’m not loving, though no rough notes. The youth is here, on the taste. Wish there was more to it.

Finish: Beef broth, sand, cotton candy, coconut, peach, sulfur

And then the finish makes up for the whole thing. I almost want to guess that the cask was used for sherry, then used it for port, and then somehow used it for Teeling’s whisky.

Which is confusing. None the less, those light sugar notes from the nose or the floral notes come out more, there’s elements of young wood that’s developed nicely, and even some sulfur, to really confuse you.

Conclusion: I picked up this whiskey because it’s so odd. The other person at the tasting who loved Irish whiskey enjoyed it. I originally have issues with wanting a port influence whisky like I’m used to and then ending up with this whiskey. That’s not to say it’s bad. It’s to say I was plums, dammit.

Overall an interesting floral bomb. A unique whiskey. Proof that Irish whiskey isn’t always weak, and that Teeling has some nice stuff.

82/100

World Whiskey review #305, Ireland review #81, Whiskey Network review #1377