Well, long time no see!

(If you prefer to read about the whiskey straight away, feel free skip my ramblings and scroll further down)

In May last year I was about to stop renewing this domain name, but decided to give it another year and try to get some inspiration to write again. Looking at the stats, it seems like people still find interest in what I’ve been writing here, and there are plenty of new whiskeys to talk about. So here I am, back to writing in this place when most other whisk(e)y people quit blogging and/or moved to video and/or social media platforms.

Why do I do this? We’re seeing big, well-established whiskey distilleries cut or even pause production, others have gone bust or are in trouble (or so the media says), and the trend nowadays is that people especially in younger age groups drink less, so is there any future in the whiskey industry? Do people even drink whiskey anymore other than a small group enthusiasts? Will the distillery I write about even be around in 6 months? Is there even a point with writing anything when most people go on video platforms for info instead of reading?

That is material for another day, but to make it short, I love writing and I honestly despise most types of short-form video. I’ve enjoyed writing about whiskey, even in the simple form I’ve been doing it, and the internet of today needs more writing. If I’ll continue sharing ideas, opinions, experiences or anything else, it’ll be in written (or photographic) form.

And the whiskey part? The world today is depressing, and continuing learning about and sharing about something we enjoy is good for the soul. And those enthusiasts I mentioned might still enjoy it!

That people drink less is a good thing. I’m one of those people myself. If you know me or have at least seen me online, you may also know that after the pandemic I’ve moved towards a fitness-focused lifestyle, and this means healthier choices with everything, including alcohol.

But I still have an interest in whiskey, and I still enjoy a good drop. During the last few years, several new distilleries have released something of their own, and I’m all for having a taste of the result of their work. In addition, it doesn’t hurt anyone to give whiskey brands some attention.

In recent years our whiskey purchases have mostly been Swedish whiskies from our own bottled casks (Mackmyra & Smögen) but lately we’ve been exploring some newer Irish whiskeys like the latest Dingle, the Clonakilty pot still (blog post coming soon) and more, and last week we came across a bottle of Drumshanbo that was released a few (?) years back. It was very much talked about back then but I never got to taste it when it was new.

I was a big fan of the inaugural single pot still release from the Shed distillery, so even if the price of this one was higher than what I prefer to pay for a relatively young whiskey that I haven’t yet tasted, we bought a bottle.

Drumshanbo single pot still, Pinot Noir cask, 43%

This whiskey is made at the Shed distillery in county Leitrim. It was first sold at the distillery only, but later 7200 bottles were made available to the public.

The mashbill consists of malted barley, unmalted barley and Barra oats, but there isn’t much information about the maturation so I assume this is a full maturation in the French Pinot Noir cask.

Let’s taste it.

In my opinion €90 is a bit too much for a younger whiskey, but this is a company that has released some good stuff from the start and I like the distillery vibes, just a good product without unnecessary marketing BS lingo (to my standards, at least). I’ll be happy to taste more of their whiskeys. This one is sold out from what I can see, but there’s a Marsala cask expression and a Tawny port cask edition, both very interesting and you can buy them here, at the moment for €67.99.