Teeling 15 The Revival Vol. 1 & Vol. 4

Teeling. Many people have heard about it, and I personally have written quite a bit in the past.

What do we need to know though? None of this. Really, it’s all for fun and really just something I do for fun. And you read it for fun. That’s a great thing otherwise, as I’m pretty sure it stops us all from going insane and attacking ourselves like it’s the Purge.

So in my need to keep humanity from losing their minds and potentially killing each other and fucking what remains, I’ll dive into a brief version:

Teeling used to be a distillery in the Liberties, one of many that were there before the Irish whiskey industry went through its own version of the Purge, though with slightly more death.

Eventually, the Teeling family started up the distillery again, and to celebrate it coming back from the dead they released The Revival series. It’s quite the event, as this is the first distillery to open in Dublin in 125 years.

What we have today is Volume 1 and Volume 4 from this lineup. I had previously reviewed Volume 2 and Volume 3. Each one uses different casks, finishes or full maturation, all done without chill filtration, no added colour, and a limited run.

That said, the ‘limited’ amount is quite a lot, so we’ll skip that part.

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Teeling 15 The Revival Vol. 1 is up first. This is entirely aged in ex-rum casks for 15 years. Rum casks have had an odd history with me. I want them to be great. And Teeling has a standard release that uses them that I enjoyed alright. I’ve had others that I’m meh about.

So how will this one stack up? Let’s see, shall we?

Price: No longer available

Region: Ireland

Bottled: 10.2015

Outrun: 10,000 bottles

Cask Type: Ex-Rum barrels

Abv: 46%

Colour: 10Y 9/6

Nose: Passionfruit, nutmeg, oatmeal cookie, molasses, orange

Big tropical flavours. Lots of cereal and sweet. Good amount of spice there, though not a spice bomb.

So basically they found really strong rum cask, and it suplexed the nose on this one.

Taste: Apple/apple syrup, cinnamon, butter, cereal, pineapple, molasses

Wow. Not tropical. Well not completely. It’s like this went from tropical to local fruit. Lots and lots of apple. I realized that I became an adult when I started craving apples.

More butter, more apple, more spice, less tropical.

Finish: Cereal, apple, cinnamon, mango candy, brown sugar

Clean finish. Sadly that’s the nicest thing I can say here. It’s clean, very light. That’s nice.

What few flavours I picked out ran away like most people would during the Purge.

Conclusion: Tropical notes throughout, a clean, though light and too quick finish. It’s nice to sip on. Really, knowing it’s a rum cask, and knowing other rum casks, this is nice. They did some tasty things and was unique in the taste and nose.

If the finish was better, it’d be right up there with Volume 2. However as far as rum casks go, congratulations to Teeling for making something nice. Especially since it isn’t casked strength.

80/100

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Teeling 15 The Revival Vol. 4 changes things up from Vol. 1, above. This one takes an odd cask and finishes the whiskey, rather than fully maturing it.

Price: N/A at the LCBO

Region: Ireland

Bottled: 2017

Outrun: 10,000 bottles

Cask Type: Ex-bourbon, then finished in Ex-Muscat Port wine barrels for 12 months

Abv: 46%

Colour: 5Y 8/8

Nose: Sour pear, white chocolate macadamia nut cookies, floral, caramel

Initial sour, off note with pear, though that becomes sweeter, nuttier, and overall more complex. This jumps between simple and complex, with some normal notes (pear, caramel) and other sweeter, complex aspects.

I’m torn between wanting more and enjoying the one strong note.

Taste: Mango, yeasty bread, pear syrup, cereal, golden syrup

Tropical mixed with the standard yeast notes of an Irish whisky. Then this opens up to a very sweet, very syrup forward whisky. And unlike Chris Rock, I don’t prefer syrup.

That’s a butt joke.

Finish: Earth, peach, honey, brine, chemical

Finish is more balanced, though brine and chemical tasting. It’s not rough, though compared to the rest, the port finish hasn’t helped the finish.

So like some guy in Finland who steps over his fellow countryman when he falls, the finish doesn’t help the finish.

I’ll show myself out.

Conclusion: An interesting whisky. I do like the idea of mixing port and vanilla ex-bourbon casks together to create something new.

That all said, did it work? Kinda? There are some sweet notes, there are some interesting combinations, and they certainly gained something on the taste. However, it may have needed more time, or something else.

Probably my least favourite of the Revivals so far. I like what they tried, it just didn’t work this time.

76/100

World Whiskey review #310-311, Ireland review #83-84, Whiskey Network review #1430-1431