I was slightly hasty in calling "a wrap" of Dublin at the end of the last entry. I left out a Sunday afternoon tasting graciously served up by my friend David Havelin of the Irish Whiskey Notes blog and the Irish Whiskey Society. David and I sampled 8 whiskeys from his personal collection, plus a few bonus beverages, at his place a few miles outside of Dublin City Centre. He has many more than 8, of course, but we focused on bottlings which I had had not tried, could not get in the U.S., or just felt like having.

We tasted:

Crested Ten
A pleasant Jameson blend common in Ireland and uncommon elsehwere. Decent pot still content. A good everyday whiskey.

 
Jameson Signature Reserve
Another blend for the Duty Free market.  It's good, as in OK.




Bushmills 12yo Distillery Reserve
A decent malt available only at the distillery. Don't have an image.


Greenore 15
Very nice for a grain-based whiskey, though it also has that signature grain "sweetness."


Tyrconnell 15yo
I really like this. I had it a few evenings earlier at Bowe's and wanted another go. Not fair to compare it to the regular Tyrconnell which I can take or leave.  Rich, malty and very, very likable. An excellent whiskey worth getting if you can find it.



Lockes Grand Crew (Cask 700)
This was a special issue from the Locke's distillery issued in commemoration of the 50th anniversary of the closing of Ireland's Grand Canal.  It's a great story that you should read on David's blog. And it's a wonderful whiskey. A real treat.



Dundalgan
Had to try this one as David had flagged it as a candidate for the worst Irish whiskey. It's a Cooley blend issued for the German discounting chain Lidl. Imagine Wal-Mart, Target, BJs or Costco. etc. in the States having a store brand whiskey. This is what it might be like.  It's nearly undrinkable.  But it is highly mixable with ginger ale, cola, etc., or so we believe. I'd buy this if I were in college, and/or broke.  Reminds me -- in the cheap booze way --  of $5 cases of Schmidt's or Hamm's or even Billy Beer that we'd get on sale back in the day. And not that the label is a knock-off of the Jameson label or anything but...


Kellan
Another Cooley blend.  Not bad, not great but generically pretty tolerable. Just not much to distinguish it though.



We then branched out from whiskeys to check out a couple of whiskey novelties.  First was the interesting Spirit of Kilbeggan three-vial set of 1-month, 1-year and 2-year distillates (probably not right to call them whiskeys). They are taken from among the first production runs of the old Kilbeggan pot stills which Cooley resurrected and rejuvenated in 2007 after a 50-year hiatus. It gives you a sense of what a raw whiskey product is like and what it may become.  Interesting stuff and available only at the distillery or at the Celtic Whiskey Shop in Dublin.



We decided then to compare the 1-month Kilbeggan to the Knockeen Hills poteen.  They are different animals, of course, and on balance I prefer the whiskey-to-be. Poteen just tastes musty to me. Hard to describe.

Finally, we sampled some lovely Hildalgo Olorso sherry recommended to me by the gents at the Celtic Whiskey shop. It's nice to drink and fun to see if you can relate the sherry flavors to the sherry cask influences in some whiskeys. I hope to try the same thing with some madeira and port soon also.

And counting those whiskeys above, that's a total of 13 new-to-me Irish whiskeys that I sampled while in Dublin. Plus there were some that I already knew.  And there were 7 Scotches.

To cap off an afternoon of Irish beverages, and this being Ireland, we went down the street for, what else? -- cheeseburgers and fries. We paid a visit to Eddie Rocket's. He apparently is Johnny Rocket's Irish cousin with similar tastes in cuisine and decor.  It was tasty.

 

Now that's a wrap.