Irish
Roe & Co makes its mark with this trio of single malt, grain and blended whiskies
Aug
Solera, Flor & Original: a trio of whiskies to rebuild the famous Roe & Co whiskey brand near its original Dublin home
The name Roe & Co once heralded the very best of Irish whiskey making but since its closure in 1926, little was heard of the distillery that was once the largest by output in Ireland or Britain.
In 2019, Diageo brought the brand back to Dublin’s centre, not far from where it once stood. While it’s not the original building, the former brewery powerhouse that is now home to the whiskey maker has been transformed into a remarkably attractive distillery building. Situated just across the road from the Guinness Storehouse, it’s a natural stroll from one Diageo visitor experience to another.
Since then, the distillery has won multiple awards for its visitor experience while developing a range of sourced and own-made whiskies that reflect the ambition of its head distiller, Lora Hemy. Taking a deep dive into Spanish distilling tradition, she brought the best of Spanish fortified wines to bear on her Irish whiskey-making engine.
So far, alongside her master blender, Caroline Martin, she has produced a trio of elegant and deeply flavoured whiskies: a single malt, a single grain and a blend with lots more coming down the line.
The Roe & Co Solera Single Malt is the first whiskey release entirely distilled on-site in Dublin 8 and was made using a four-layer criadera solera system in the maturation process.
Solera is a Spanish term which describes a fractional blending process often used in the maturation of cognac or wine, where the liquid being aged is shared between casks in stages. It’s a complicated and delicate process.
The Solera system has four layers. The first uses both refill and first-fill American oak ex-bourbon barrels to mature the whiskey.
A portion of that whiskey is then shared into what they named an alligator-charred American oak barrel for the second layer. The alligator reference refers to the wood’s texture being like alligator hide after an extremely deep charring.
The third layer involves moving a portion of the whiskey into chestnut barrels that have two different toasting profiles.
The fourth layer of the solera system transfers the whisky into four types of sherry casks.
These four layers (or cask types) bring different flavour profiles. The first is sweetness, the second adds roasted notes, the third brings spices, and the fourth injects lots of rich fruit and raisin notes. It’s a complicated approach that eventually becomes a cascade of transferring whiskey of different ages between casks to recreate the same flavour profile in each bottle.
It’s a non-age statement release, and on the nose you can expect to find lots of dark sugar, vanilla, apples and pears. This leads to a palate with tropical touches of coconut alongside walnut, dried fruit and sweet spice on a medium finish. It’s bottled at 48%.
Flor translates from Spanish as Flower, and it’s used to reflect the delicate layers of flavour in this 14-year-old single-grain whiskey. Generally, single grain celebrates the gentler side of the whiskey palate and is increasingly popular among whiskey makers.
This bottle uses fortified wine casks from Jerez in Spain, namely Amontillado and Fino, to mature and shape the whiskey. The word Flor also refers to the thin layer of naturally occurring yeast that is created at the top of these casks during maturation.
This yeast gives sherry its distinctive fresh taste and bread or malt notes. Flor is generated by allowing much more air to circulate in the sherry wine cask than other types of wine, and it’s an indigenous yeast type to Spain and its sherry-making regions.
This was the first permanent release from Roe & Co. and offers a light flavour profile characterised by nuts, citrus, and orchard fruits. On the nose you’ll find apricot, coconut, and lots of oak, followed by jam, citrus, fresh cream, and almonds on the palate and finish. It’s a delicious single grain that’s here to stay.
This blended whiskey is a premium marriage of grain and malt matured in ex-bourbon barrels. For many, it’s the entry point for the Roe & Co range and, as such, works hard to build confidence in new fans.
A Gold Medal winner at the Whiskey Masters 2020, it’s bottled at 45% and is a creamy and balanced pour that offers lots of floral notes on the nose with spice, sugar, vanilla and pears on the palate.
Developed by master blender Caroline Martin, it captures the balance of intense fruit in the malt and the gentle creaminess of the grain.
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