sTemple Bar Irish Whiskey Flight 12/17/2019
     Our Ireland trip was highlighted by the holiday season. Lights were everywhere. People were shopping (almost all locally owned shops) and enjoying festivities everywhere. It was nice and cold, wintery and old European. Just like Scotland, everyone was warm and welcoming.
     We had to go to the Temple Bar of course. It’s a landmark destination for Dublin that has been serving since 1840. It is the focal point for a neighborhood named after it that includes other pubs and a famous hotel owned by Bono and the Edge (didn’t know this while I was there). As luck would have it, Temple Bar has a whiskey tasting room and retail store attached. Aly and I bellied up to the bar for a tasting!

​*Temple Bar Signature Blend    “5 yrs or so”  40% ABV  Port and Bourbon casks
     I was told that Middletons was in the blend.
     -smelled sweet  cherry
     -tasted slight oak with fruit
     -w/water smelled citrus sweet almost lemon
     -tasted tea biscuit – quickly goes to peppery oak

​*Temple Bar 10 Yr  40% ABV American Oak
     -smelled grassy sweet with sour apple candy
     -tasted apple candy
     -went to oak quickly
     -with water smelled apple candy
     -tasted bitter oak
     Water ruined this.

​*Temple Bar 12 Yr 40% ABV
     -smelled slight tar/smoke
     -tasted toast and oak
     -with water smelled light vanilla
     -tasted oak
     -trailed quickly

​     *Temple Bar 15 Yr 40% ABV Double Distilled, Bourbon Casks
     -smelled lemon, sugar cookie
     -tasted sweet pastry – went quickly to oak
     -with water smelled sweet cookie
     -tasted cookie dough – went quickly to oak with a little pepper

*Temple Bar 14 Yr Malbec Cask 43% ABV
     Aged in Argentinian Malbec casks
     -smelled slight rubber and floral
     -tasted rubber with wine
     -with water smelled rubbery and grassy
     -tasted wine – trailed rubber/pepper/oak
     I struck up a conversation with the young gentleman serving me. He appreciated my whisk(e)y knowledge and added this expression to my tasting. 

Aly was enjoying a nice Scapa while I tasted. 

​*Local Distillery- Dublin, Ireland. Method and Madness
Irish Single Pot Still   46% ABV
 
-Smells sweet vanilla with strawberry bubblegum
(Irish with no rubber hose)
-Tastes barely perceptible rubber with saltwater taffy-then quickly to peppery oak
-With water- very little- smells strawberry bubblegum with hint of vanilla
-Tastes pastry sweet with a touch of pepper and light oak
-Trails slowly! bitter oak
-No overpowering rubber hose in this Irish whisky

     My friend was in town and we had ourselves a tasting. John brought some whiskey and I opened my bottle of Lot 40. Here is what we had: 

​*Basil Hayden’s Dark Rye
-smelled sweet caramel
-tasted slight pepper w/sweet cherry candy
-with water smelled slight cherry dessert
-tasted cherry syrup with peppery oak
-trailed quickly slight oak

​*Lot 40 43% ABV
-smelled bourbon, sweet vanilla
-tasted sweet oak – trailed peppery  oak
-with water smelled sweet floral
-tasted bitter bourbon, oak
Water ruined this. 

Glendronach Comparison with John 
*My bottle: Revival 15yr
Aged in Olorosso only, bottled 5/2/13
 
-trails slowly with oak
 
*John’s bottle: Revival 15yr
Aged in Olorosso and PX casks, bottled 5/2/19
 
-sherry is rich but not sweeter
-trailed quickly and sweet
 
We both agreed that the older bottling is a slightly sweeter and overall and better taste. 

​*Highland Park Dark Origins 46.8% ABV
-smelled sherry w/slight peat smoke and hint of grassiness
-tasted sherry pepper, trailed quickly
-with water smelled lighter and sweet citrus
-tasted peppery, less sweet
-trailed slowly light smoke

​*Bunnahabhain Ceobanach 46.3% ABV
-smelled cookie dough and caramel
-almost a cooked meat smell w/slight peat
-tasted peppery smoked meat
-with water smelled cinnamon leather
-tasted peppery peat w/smoked meat
-trailed quickly