Locke’s Irish Whiskey

This past year (2018) I had lots and lots of plans. Finish my accounting schooling, find a new job in a new career space, uppercut a dolphin, and review enough Irish Whiskey to finally hit 100 total reviews.

I’m happy to say I got most of that done, and Flipper isn’t giving me shit anymore. As for posting them, I may have gotten behind what with learning derivatives and underwater combat moves. So I’m posting them now! Yay!

Up first we had Locke’s Irish Whiskey. Turns out the Locke family owned Kilbeggan, back when they called it “Locke’s Distillery”. That’ll stop any confusion. The distillery closed back in 1953, along with a lot of Irish distilleries that sadly closed.

Now made with Cooley through Kilbeggan Distilling company, they use double distilled malt and grain whiskey that’s been aged. A slight bit of peat (less than 2%) is added, and a bit more malt than other Irish blends.

Oh, and all of the casks are “fresh bourbon”, with some 2nd and 3rd fill bourbon casks used too.

Sounds fun. From what I see this has since been discontinued, and there’s now an 8-year-old version. Let’s see what a bit more malt does, shall we?

Price: Discontinued

Region: Ireland

Abv: 40%

Colour: 5Y 9/8

Nose: Floral, bread dough, caramel, cereal

Light, bit floral, has some of the telltale yeast/bread dough and caramel. No real harsh alcohol notes, thankfully.

Locke this one up cause it’s easy drinking! I’m sorry. Seriously I just needed to get that out of my system.

Taste: Smarties, caramel, gummies, smoke

Floral/cheap chocolate/sugar mixed with more caramel and some gummy/fruit sweetness. So sweet it’ll end up in Locke-er-room talk! HA!

Okay, sorry, I’ll stop. Very one dimension. Lots of sweets, none of them too rich.

Finish: Rockets (the Canadian ones), nutmeg, cereal, grassy

Grassy, cereal focused, and some shock of that super sweetness going on. Shorter finish, really Locke’s in it’s taste profile and leaves.

I regret nothing.

Conclusion: Not offensive. Not really interesting either. I’m not going to drink too much of this to get Locke-jaw (sorry). It’s very sweet, probably mixes really well, and overall won’t be bad to pour for someone to mindlessly drink.

That said it’s very sweet and the nose can be rough if someone isn’t ready for that Irish yeast note. It’s nice as a change up, but the promise of extra malt making it nicer never really materialized.

63/100

World Whiskey review #342, Ireland review #90, Whiskey Network review #1643