Clash of the Cooleys - Article from www.maltmadness.com
Jack
Teeling of Cooley (Irelands's last independent distillery) dropped me an e-mail
last week to let me know he wouldn't mind seeing some more Irish whiskeys featured
on Malt Madness. Quite right - Irish whiskeys used to be a relatively obscure
segment (especially here in Holland) but over the last few years interesting
things have been happening in Ireland. And many of these things have been happening
at Cooley's. The distillery was founded by John Teeling as recently as 1987.
John Teeling acquired a potato alcohol plant in the Cooley peninsula on Ireland's
east coast. The plant was converted into two distilleries; one pot still and
one patent still operation. Pretty soon other people like Willie McCarter, Paul
Power and Lee Mallagahan joined forces with John Teeling in competing with the
sole producer of Irish whiskey in the world at the time; Irish Distillers. Partly
thanks to these alliances, Cooley now owns a large number of brands, including
Locke's, Kilbeggan, Millars, Tyrconnell and Connemara. Cooley is a public unlisted
company with over 300 shareholders. It has been a while since I sampled anything
from Cooley, so Jack's bottles will enable me to update the Irish Whiskey part
of the Deviant Drams section.
I started off with something really special; the Greenore 8yo (40%, OB, Bottled + 2004). What's so special, you ask? Well, for one thing it's the very first Irish single grain whisky. What's more, it has been matured in bourbon and rum (!) casks. Until last year I was convinced I didn't like grain whiskies after an encounter with the Blackbarrel in the early 1990's. I realise now that that's just as senseless as making a statement about single malts based on an encounter with Drumguish or Loch Dhu. Nose: Subtle, but developing very quickly. From a sweet flowery start to smoke in seconds. More powerful grainy elements after a minute. Very entertaining, a good summertime whiskey. Gentle but firm. It sweetens out after a few more minutes with honey and something nutty. Something 'earthy' in the back of the nose. One of the most complex Irish whiskeys I've tried! Wow!!! I was expecting something like Blackbarrel but this is closer to Olivier's Garnheath '69. Taste: Fairly weak start, developing into a bittersweet centre. A tad uneven in the finish. Relatively smooth for a grain whiskey, but it's still a little too 'gritty' on the tongue for me. A dry heat livened up by flashes of menthol freshness. Gooseberry skins? Maybe too dry. Not the perfect profile for somebody with a sweet tooth like me, but the nose wins the day. Score: 72 points - and that's from a freshly opened bottle, mind you! An unexpected surprise. It had something that reminded me of the 'Platte Valley' corn whiskey, but this is much smoother and more complex. The Greenore does present me with a little problem, though. It's both an Irish whiskey and a single grain whiskey at the same time, so I'm not sure if I should list it under Irish whiskeys or under single grain whiskies. You know what? I'll just go completely crazy and list the Greenore under both...
OK, time to proceed with dram #2; the Tyrconnell NAS (40%, OB, Bottled + 2004). An earlier expression I tried (bottled +/- 1999) did pretty well with a score of 75 points. Nose: Veggy and spicy with a hint of oil. Opens op with more fruits emerge quickly. Then some sour beer notes float to the foreground. A lot of quick developments. More power and a hint of smoke after five minutes. A nice profile, but a tad superficial. Taste: Sweet, malty start. A soft beer-like bitterness on the tongue as well. Score: 73 points . Light and refreshing, but it could do with some more complexity. If memory serves the bottling from the late 1990's had more 'substance' in the mouth. No real reason to switch to the Irish here but if you do, this performs above average.
OK, now we get to the fun part of the evening... I've always been a fan of the Connemara, a peated whisky from Ireland. So far I've tried 5 different batches of the standard version without an age statement and all of them scored in the upper 70's. The Cask Strength version I sampled a few years ago did even better, but that one was hard to find in Holland. Now I have the chance to try two fresh bottlings; a new expressission of the C/S at 60% and the brand new 12yo.
The Connemara 12yo (40%, OB, Bottled + 2004) was only released in October last year and I hadn't had a chance to sample it before. The packaging is absolutely brilliant; the bottle comes in a wooden tube with wooden inlays - quite classy and unlike anything I've seen before. Now let's see if the whiskey is any good... Nose: Sweet organics and spices. Very interesting. Most complex bouquet so far. Then the peat emerges - lots of it. Salt liquorice. Something medicinal as well. Did I imagine that hint of mint or menthol in the back of the nose? Some sour fruits? Opens up beautifully after two or three minutes and shows lots of development. Rotten peanut. Hint of chloride? Vanilla pudding? The best nose on any Irish whiskey! Is it just me or are Irish malts becoming more characteristic - i.e. more like Scotch? Taste: Starts off softer than the nose - and it isn't as sweet either. Dry. Smoky finish. The smoke becomes the dominant impression after a few minutes. It lacks depth, though. Nothing wrong here, but the mouth feel is nowhere near as big and beautiful as the nose. Score: 81 points . A step up from the NAS version, although it isn't really convincing on the tongue. With a palate to match the nose it might have made the upper 80's, where no Irish malt has gone before... Even as it is, it outclasses some Islay malts - some recent OB's from Bowmore in particular.
The last dram of this clash of the Cooleys was the Connemara NAS Cask Strength (60%, OB, Bottled + 2004). This bottle is the latest expression in a dumpy bottle; a version bottled (in a tall bottle) at 59% I tried for the last time in January 2003 scored 82 points, making it the current #1 Irish malt in my book so far. Nose: Oooaaah. Starts of surprisingly light, grainy and complex. Strawberry yoghurt? Smoke emerges after a few minutes, followed by organics. Maybe some wood? With a generous splash of water some more salty and peaty notes materialise. Taste: Nice! Bittersweet, hot and smoky (and surprisingly drinkable) at cask strength. No big change with water.This fire water should satisfy even the most hardened Islay snob. Score: 82 points. Every bit as good as the previous expression that came in a taller bottle.
All of these bottles were freshly opened for tonight's session. I'll put them on my shelves and let them 'break in' for a few months before I give them another go. Based on these first results, it seems that Cooley has more to offer to the average malt maniac than Midleton or Bushmills. But then again the Jameson 18yo I tried in Leiden in May wasn't bad either with a score of 76 points. Maybe Cooley isn't the only Irish distillery that's starting to rival its Scottish counterparts - I'll have to investigate further in the forseeable future. Meanwhile, I can heartily reccomend both new expressions of Connemara.
You can find more information about all these whiskeys at www.cooleywhiskey.com. And that's it as far as this log entry is concerned. The four new whiskies I tried don't count for my Track Record (only Scotch single malts are eligble), so I'll return to more familiar territory (i.e. Scotland) next time.
Sweet drams,
Johannes
From - http://www.maltmadness.com/#Latest
Past Press Releases
July 2004 - Gold Medal Bonanza in London
June 2004 - Barry Fitzwilliam Maxxium - Exclusive Irish Distributorship
May 2004 - Connemara Whiskey website goes live
March 2004 - Connemara cleans up at 2004 San Francisco World Spirits Competition
March 2004 - Interview with John Teeling, chairman of Cooley Distillery with Starchef.com
January 2004 - Cooley Distillery sponsors the Irish EU presidency
13th October 2003 - Connemara peated 12 yr old Whiskey introduced
18th September 2003 - Highlights of Chairmans comments at AGM
