A while ago, I stated publicly that “I need to slow down my whiskey purchases for a while”. But then the 5k travel rule was lifted, we took a road trip to Kinsale, and went to the 1601 Off License. The plan was to buy some gluten free beers we hadn’t found in the Off License back home, and the cask strength Redbreast that I had been talking about for a long time that we should have on the shelf.

But we also saw another interesting bottle – the W.D. O’Connell 12-year-old single malt that I thought was sold out everywhere a long time ago.

Knowing this whiskey had a very good reputation, of course we couldn’t resist and it went into our shopping bag despite a quite high price – which is nothing new in Irish whiskey especially for limited, cask strength bottlings. If you want to support the industry, new distilleries and other whiskey companies, you need to just to accept it. Having tasted some previous bottlings from W.D. O’Connell – the Bill Phil, Bill Phil cask strength and the 18-year-old PX sherry cask, I was quite sure I wouldn’t regret buying this one. And, after tasting it, we immediately decided to get a second bottle.

Some whiskeys are just special, beyond what I’d just describe as “good”. Some whiskeys make your palate sing, they touch your soul and give you a warm feeling of joy. This is a whiskey like that.

This lovely single malt is distilled at Bushmills distillery and has been matured all 12 years in a second-fill ex-Oloroso sherry butt, before being bottled at 59,2% ABV.

Nose
My first impression is an aroma of charred wood. It’s like when I was young and grilled sausages in the forest with friends, and then put out the fire with water from a nearby lake. It’s an aroma I haven’t found in a whiskey before, very intriguing! Other than that, there’s caramelised sugar, liquorice, toffee of sorts (specifically the old Swedish sweets kolabönor), nutmeg, and peach.

Palate
Nice mouthfeel that is on the creamy side, with toffee and spice, pepper and lighter spice such as cloves, nutmeg, cinnamon, and a layer of liquorice or menthol with dried fruit. With some water, softer flavours with vanilla fudge, a slightly bitter kind of note, ginger, and fresh sweet fruit behind it. This is absolutely beautiful… it warms my entire being to drink it. Chewy, long finish with toffee, nutmeg, cloves and that menthol type of flavour. This is absolutely my cup of tea. Let there be more whiskey of this type, please! Honestly, if I had only this whiskey to drink for the rest of my life, I wouldn’t mind.