The Irishman Single Cask 12 Yr Old Single Malt Review

Walsh Whiskey was founded in 1999 by husband and wife team, Bernard and Rosemary Walsh who went on to build the Writer's Tears and The Irishman brands which can now be found in over 50 countries world wide. They definitely, from a brand stand point, are very much a success story in the Irish whiskey landscape.

So successful in fact that they even realised their dream of building their own distillery at the 40 acre Royal Oak site in Bagenalstown, Co Carlow which began production in 2016 and was co-funded by the Illva Saronno company. Unfortunately by 2019 Illva Saronno took full ownership of the distillery and it was renamed as the Royal Oak Distillery. 

This change of ownership though has brought us the Busker brand of whiskies and the distillery produces grain, malt and pot still whiskey.

Today Walsh Whiskey source their whiskey from Midleton distillery but have plans for a new distillery in Dunleckney, Co Carlow with a potential output of 4 million litres of alcohol per annum.

The Irishman is an interesting range as it focus's on single malt whiskey although it does currently contain two blends that are comprised of single malt and single pot still whiskies eschewing the grain component more normally associated with blends.

In this review we are looking at a single cask version of the 12 year old single malt. Outside of that I have no further information.

Let's taste.

The Irishman Single Cask 12 Yr Old 43% abv

BWW Irish v Scottish 12 year plus

Fully bourbon cask matured

Nose: Butterscotch, vanilla, banoffee pie, cream. Fresh fruit salad, cinnamon, clove rock and toasted oak. Pear drops too.

Palate: Plenty of syrupy sweetness with stewed apples and pears covered in caramel, danish pastries and malt which gives way to ginger and peppery spice. Orange zest and oak shavings.

Finish:  Medium length with lingering fruit, caramel and fresh oak

Score: 6 out of 10

Overall: A simple but well presented dram that I felt just needed a little extra abv to really deliver on the palate. I imagine this at 46% would have been delightful and possibly even better at cask strength.

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