Teeling Single Casks 993, 10820 & 16638
So we did the Teeling ‘Trinity’ a little while back and this time we are back with my notes on another ‘Trinity’ of Teeling samples that were generously shared with me via the lovely people of the Irish whiskey community.
No long intro to this review today as there are three sets of tasting notes. Suffice to say that all the bottles that these samples came from are now long sold out but you may well be lucky enough to come across them at auction. All single casks and with different finishes to showcase their cask management ability.
The liquid inside the bottles was also all sourced and very likely all double distilled Cooley spirit inherited from John Teeling himself, a nice little perk for sons Jack & Stephen Teeling to have while waiting for their own spirit to mature.
Let’s Taste!
14 years 11 months old, Sherry cask, €90
Nose: Dark chocolate with stem ginger and candied citrus peels. Salted caramel, figs, dates and cola cubes. Some cask char, clove and black licorice. Underneath the sherry notes are baked apples and ripe orchard fruit.
Water brings out sticky toffee pudding, clove rock and toasted nuts.
Palate: A lovely texture to this – caramelising brown sugar, maple pecan danish pastries, toffee apples and crushed pistachios. Orange peel, clove and anise. Slightly leathery along with dates and sweet raisins alongside ginger syrup plus cask char.
Water brings out clove rock, dark chocolate orange segments and a lovely spice grip.
Finish: Medium in length with toffee sauce and ginger cake, clove heat and orchard fruit.
Score: 8 out of 10
Teeling Single Cask 933 55.5% abv
13 years old, Madeira cask, €90
Nose: A dry nuttiness straight away – chocolate covered macadamias plus Brazil nuts. Sultanas, fig rolls, ripe banana and butterscotch. Some spearmint, nutmeg and fresh coffee. Fresh oak and new leather.
Water brings out some stewed apples and peach.
Palate: Again a great mouthfeel – orange segments, milk chocolate, mint cheesecake, digestive biscuit, dates, mocha and vanilla custard with baked apples sprinkled with cinnamon laced sugar. Toasted oak.
Water brings some nutmeg, fresh peach and ups the chocolate.
Finish: Medium length again staying nutty, sweet and slightly minty.
Score: 8 out of 10
Teeling Single Cask 16638 54.9% abv
15 year old, Calvados cask, €95
Nose: Pears poached in white wine, tarte tartin, white chocolate. Cinnamon, white pepper & almonds. Caramel sauce. Some glacé cherry, lychee and citrus peels. Fresh ginger too.
Water brings out a custard note as well as white stone fruit and malt.
Palate: Baled apples with cinnamon & clove, vanilla cream, all butter pastry & icing sugar. More poached pear, marzipan and white pepper.
Water highlights barley sugar, biscuit and some fresh ginger.
Finish: Medium in length with apples, grapefruit, peppery spice and oak.
Score: 7 out of 10
Overall: A great showing from Teeling helped by the fantastic Cooley base spirit they had to work from.
Cask 10820 was a great sherry cask expression with the sherry working in tandem with the Cooley spirit to give a good balance between orchard fruit and sherry notes. Well balanced, very moreish and very good value for money.
Cask 933 was also excellent, well balanced between nose and palate and offering super value for money at the time. It’s a shame that finding cask strength Irish whiskey of this age and quality is now often quite prohibitively priced.
Finally cask 16638 was another very good single cask. I don’t always love Calvados finishes but this was very well executed. The nose shaded the palate but again it was well balanced and what could have been overly sweet was well tempered with good cask management.
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