Bart’s blended Irish whiskey

Hey people! Remember me? In April I said I’d start writing weekly again. Hahaha! That didn’t happen.

This year has been quite overwhelming, but good. However, I rarely found I could make time to sit down to write about whiskey. But now the time has come, after finishing studies and other projects. So let’s start digging into some whiskeys I’ve enjoyed during this time!

Different peated blends have been flooding the Irish whiskey market for a while, thanks to the brilliant work of the people at the Great Northern Distillery, but not only. Several new distilleries are making peated whiskey, which was common in certain parts of Ireland in the past, and it’s now making a comeback.

Bart’s received so much praise on Twitter that I decided to get a bottle without having tasted it first, and I was not disappointed.

Lough Ree Distillery is located in Lanesborough, County Longford, and owned by the Clancy family. You can read more about their story on the Lough Ree website. They’re currently producing gin and vodka in their micro distillery and will eventually have their own whiskey, and until that happens, they source good whiskey from other distilleries. Their limited single cask releases under the Lough Ree name, “The Bridge” series, has received quite a lot of publicity on social media this year. These are mostly single malts, but a few single grain whiskeys have also been released. I haven’t tried them myself so maybe I should get to a good whiskey bar to do that.

Bart’s is their first blend, and was made to add a more permanent whiskey to the Lough Ree portfolio. The components are made at the Great Northern Distillery, and is made up from grain whiskey, pot still whiskey, malt whiskeys finished in Oloroso sherry casks and rye casks respectively, and there’s also a peated whiskey included in the blend. The whiskey is described as equally good served as “served on the rocks, in a highball or in your favourite whiskey cocktail”, but while I agree it’d be nice in a cocktail, it’s also very nice to drink neat.

Nose

Medium, delightful nose with apples, pears, leather, vanilla sponge cake and some lemon. There’s some smoke that fades after a while, but stays in the background.

Palate

Pronounced. There’s a spice kick to begin with, then smoke, apples and pears, cinnamon, ginger, a pleasant sweet flavour, creamy vanilla and continued spice – makes me think of apple pie with extra cinnamon, and hints of smoke. Very tasty!

The finish is long with orchard fruit, spice and vanilla.

This is an excellent blend that I’d happily recommend to try if you haven’t already. And the price isn’t bad either, €40 at Celtic whiskey shop and €46 at Irish malts. It should also be available in many (most?) good Off-Licences.