If you can put this exclusive St Patrick’s day whiskey tasting together then your collection is very rich indeed
A tasting flight should take you on a journey. Each glass should contain whiskey that has its own story and can stand alone against each of the other pours. Selecting the whiskies to build the ultimate St Patrick’s day whiskey tasting is no simple task. Put a cask-strength single pot still next to a delicate grain release and both could cancel each other out. Similarly, pitting a heavily-peated whiskey against a smooth sherried finish can only teach you which you prefer and, depending on the order in which you taste them, can potentially spoil the enjoyment of the third glass in the sequence.
How to build a whiskey flight
If you’re tasting whiskey side-by-side, each glass needs to build in complexity – in flavour, texture and aroma. For a beginner tasting this is pretty straightforward. You start with a grain whiskey, lead on to a blend, then a single malt and finish with a single pot still. This is a simple but elegant journey through the Irish whiskey category. Each glass brings you further on a journey to the last pour.
Done correctly, a whiskey tasting isn’t a linear affair at all, but a circular one. By the time you have tasted the last whiskey a return to the first will give you an entirely different experience than when you first tried it. This is why the person leading the tasting might suggest you don’t finish each whiskey one by one but leave some to return to for a second judgment. Your perception of each whiskey’s spice, oils, aroma and textures change as you taste the others. Your taste buds open and your olfactory senses come to life with each separate pour.
The Ultimate Flight
For this tasting, we want to try four of the best Irish whiskies on the market and also put a spotlight on whiskies that are determinedly hard to find right now in retail. That presents a challenge. We know each whiskey is great – but in what order do you place them? Here’s our take on the ultimate whiskey flight for St Patrick’s Day.
1. Green Spot 10 Single Cask
Single Pot Still
We’ll start this flight with the youngest of the four, this 10-year-old Green Spot exclusive. It’s one of only 192 bottles and comes with a cask strength of 58%. It definitely appreciates a drop of water to unlock the huge number of layers of aroma and flavour in this elegant single pot still whiskey.
The original Green Spot was a 10-year-old release and so this bottling has a very special resonance for fans of the Spot range. It connects directly with the staring point of this most-famous of Dublin origin whiskies.
The aroma is loaded with summer fruits and zesty citrus notes packed on top of vanilla and oak. The palate delivers bursts of all those pot still spices with jasmine tea tannins and lots more fruit. It’s a superbly spicy whiskey that continues through the finish, sparking your palate for the next stage on this delicious whiskey journey.
2. Teeling 24
Single Malt
The second pour in our flight is a leading member of Teeling’s Vintage Reserve Collection, a series that represents some of the oldest Irish Single Malt in the world. Each limited edition bottling in the Vintage Reserve Collection is designed to showcase the distillery’s approach to the craft of Irish whiskey. It includes a 28-year-old, a 30-year-old and a 37-year-old, alongside the Renaissance Series 2 and 3.
The 24-Year-Old captured the attention of the jury at the 2019 World Whisky Awards, who recognised the whiskey for its maturation, craft, body and flavour. They described its “Beautiful nose of orange peel, chocolate truffle and nuts. Caramel as well. Full-bodied with fruity pineapple, honey and salted caramel. Creamy on the palate with hints of new leather. Long lasting finish with vanilla, fruity pear and apple notes.”
Bottled at 46%, this fine single malt was laid down in ex-Bourbon in 1991 where it spent 21 years before being finished in Sauterne wine casks for a further three years. It was a sell-out everywhere it was stocked.
3. Bushmills Sauternes
Single Malt
The third pour in this flight is another cask strength option from the Co Antrim distillery of Bushmills. A 56.3% single malt this delicious bottle was released as part of the 2021 Causeway Collection, an annual release from the Northern Irish whiskey maker. Each whiskey in the collection is finished in a different cask type and released exclusively in one country. The Sauternes bottle was an Ireland-exclusive release. Sauternes is a sweet French wine from Bordeaux. It’s made from sauvignon blanc, Semillon and muscadelle grapes that impart an elegant and rich wine, thick with flavour.
The whiskey in this release spent over seven years in oloroso sherry and bourbon barrels before spending around 2.5 years in the Sauterne cask, soaking up the sun-kissed raisin profile of this wonderful wood. The white wine influence is delicate and fresh but combines with the single malt beautifully, bringing layers of apricot and caramel to the fore.
4. Method & Madness 28 Port Pipe
Single Pot Still
This is an incredible 28-year-old single pot still that spent six years in bourbon before transferring to ruby port pipes for 22 years. It’s a luxurious Irish whisky that captures all the sweetness and luscious tropical notes that port is celebrated for.
Port comes from the Douro valley in Portugal where its makers halt its fermentation by adding a grain spirit to preserve the sugars and thick layers of flavour just at the right moment. This process also ensures residual sugar remains in the liquid which, in this bottling, has infused the whiskey with lots of plum, raisin and cinnamon notes.
Only 486 bottles of this luscious 56.1% single pot still whiskey were released, making it a hugely popular collector’s edition. A pour of this elegant and flavour-packed whiskey is a wonderful and iconic end to the ultimate St Patrick’s Day flight.
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