This is another whiskey that was sent to me while I was in Ireland in March. A very nice limited edition Dingle single malt, matured in bourbon casks and finished in port casks. (or was there even more than one cask?)

While the Batch 1 single malt was quite light in flavour, this special single malt was an unexpected surprise. If I had known about it in time so that I could have bought a few bottles, I would definitely have included this in the tasting. Now I saw it had been sold at auction for 270 GBP.

However. Dingle is an interesting distillery that I admire a bit. I guess you can discuss whether or not it is a good thing to release a whiskey after only three years, but I like the concept. I completely understand why other new distilleries buy sourced whiskey to release good whiskey under their own brand while waiting for their own produced whiskey to mature, but at the same time – when they release their own produce, will it follow the same profile as the sourced whiskey? Or be totally different?

When a distillery ONLY uses their own produce, you can follow the development of the whiskey exactly. But that being said, I’m a novice in the more exact details of how distilleries work with these things – I would love to have the opportunity to stay a couple of days in a distillery to learn more about how they work and find out this kind of details. I hope I can do something like that in the future.

Nose
It has an interesting woody character to the nose. I also get chocolate, mint, herbs, grass, something that reminds of apple.

Palate
It gives a dry feel to the mouth. Red wine, a light bitter flavour, undefined spices, a feel of old damp basement/warehouse. Peppery, woody finish, it’s a lot more intense than the other Dingle single malt whiskeys I’ve tasted (Batch 1 & 2).

With a few drops of water, the aromas disappear quite a lot and the alcohol comes through a bit more. However, it also seems more balanced in the flavours after adding a drop or two of water, more oily texture and more sweetness. This with the dry feel to the palate makes me think of Redbreast Lustau.
Interesting whiskey and more intense in flavour than the other Dingle whiskeys (not counting the single pot still here). I hope they will continue to do this sort of special releases so we can taste more of what Dingle has to offer. 

Thanks again to Whiskey Nut for sample and photo