Teeling 21, b.2013, Vintage Reserve, Silver Bottling, 46% abv.

The story supposedly goes, John Teeling launched the Cooley Whiskey Distillery in 1987 on an industrial potato distillery in hopes of reviving old Irish whiskey brands. Around 2011, Beam International entered negotiations with the Teelings over the acquisition of Cooley distillery. Brothers Jack and Stephen Teeling negotiated with Beam to let them acquire 16,000 aged Cooley casks. These casks would form the foundation for Teeling Whiskey, which launched in 2012, the first and only operational distillery to have been founded in Dublin since 1976.
This bottling was supposedly batch 1, having been matured in ex-bourbon barrels and then finished in Sauternes wine casks.

Nose: peaches! Backdrop of light honey and vanilla, but seriously peachs, peach skin, peach flesh, peach jelly, freshly pressed peach juice.

Palate: a little viscous, initial palate is sour, some roots, a little earthy, young tree branches, mid palate has some peaches, some bitterness from the earthy roots, back palate has burnt peaches. A peach grenade.

Finish: long, a little sour, very light peaches in the background, but then its full fledged peach jelly on the the tongue.

Dry glass: wood, vanilla, peaches in ice cream.

The bartender said it's actually Bushmills and is one of the best offerings from Teeling. This whiskey was all about peaches. Peaches permeated into every aspect of the tasting, obviously on the nose, all over the palate but mixed with other aspects, and then subtley on the finish initially but then full out peach jelly on the tongue.

Grade: B+

Whiskyfun.com, Serge Valentin, sgp:651, 88 points
Whisky advocate, Jonny McCormick, 87 points
Whiskynotes, Ruben Luyten, 90/100

Image courtesy of Eric Yee.

Eric Yee

🇭🇰 🇺🇸(LA, SF) -> 🇯🇵 (京都, 東京) -> 🇰🇷 (서울, 부산)