Method & Madness Single Pot Still Chestnut FInish Review

Method and Madness as a brand came onto the scene in 2017 and were initially focused on unusual wood finishes but also as a way for the apprentices at Midleton to play with different mash bills and maturation techniques. Essentially it allows Midleton to go all Willy Wonka and be playful with their whiskey in a way that they probably unable too with their heritage brands such as Jameson, Power’s and Redbreast.

They’ve released whiskies finished in all kinds of wood like Acacia, Wild Cherry, Maple, Hickory and Garryana oak, they’ve used different cask finishes such as Mezcal and they have used different mashbills such as the Rye and Malt with it’s 60% Rye/40% Malted Barley mashbill, the Oats and Malt which is 60% oats plus they released their own 7 year old single malt.

On top of these there have been well aged single grain and single pot still releases. Today we are looking at the core range Single Pot Still release which is finished in French Chestnut casks.

So in the Redbreast Cuatro Barriles video I said I’d define what a single pot still is and so that’s what I’m going to do.

Single Pot Still whiskey is protected under EU law with a GI or Geographic Indicator since 2019 and as such has technical file which defines how it is made.

It has to be distilled and aged in Ireland from a mash bill that is at least 30% malted barley and 30% unmalted barley with up to 5% of other cereals such as oats, wheat or rye.

Now this definition was very much the product of IDL, who it has to be fair, kept the pot still style of whiskey from dying out. But if you look back into history it’s clear that the mash bills used for single pot still whiskey were much more diverse with often much higher percentages of the other cereals.

Therefore we have distilleries such as Killowen, Boann and Blackwater who have distilled these vintage, non GI compliant mash bills to much acclaim back home in Ireland.

Let's Taste!

Method & Madness Single Pot Still Chestnut Finish 46% abv       $80

Mash Bill: 60% unmalted barley / 40% malted barley but this can vary

Maturation: ex-bourbon and ex-sherry casks vatted before finishing in French Chestnut

Nose: A healthy dose of ground cinnamon and ginger as well as sawdust and furniture polish. Strawberry laces, fennel, ripe red apple, copper and leather. Spearmint too with bay leaves and toasted hazelnuts. Vanilla fudge bars.

Palate: A pleasing oiliness to the mouthfeel – toffee chews, baked apple and banana, bitter dark chocolate and a little dried mango too. Clove, anise, cinnamon and a peppery bite followed by leather and finally that spearmint note again

Finish: Medium in length with baking spices, mint and cocoa powder.

Score: 7 out of 10

Overall: This is a very good whiskey from Midleton and I’m glad to see the standard has been kept since it’s first release in 2017. I’d happily recommend this over the Redbreast 12 or standard Green Spot release, especially Stateside where the price differential is only about $15 more for the Method and Madness.

The extra abv and non chill filtration really help with the delivery of the whiskey and the Chestnut finish is a fun aside adding extra chocolate notes too the party.

Cask finishes may not seem like such an amazing innovation these days so it’s the mixed mashbill’s that come from Midelton’s micro distillery that I’ll be really interested in going forward.

If you’d like to support my site and continued whiskey exploration there’s a ‘buy me a coffee’ link on the homepage menu bar. Thanks for reading!