The more time I spend with casks of whisky, the more I find myself equating them to boxes of crayons. It doesn’t matter how many colours you possess – if you mix them all together you’ll end up with a muddy brown mess. Travelling back in time to the early 80s – like many, I put my apparent lack of artistic ability wholly down to not possessing every single Crayola. More colours = better art. Right? Another birthday – and another pile of increasingly ambiguous shades would arrive. Year after year this resulted in no improvement in either my aptitude or my technique, but it did see a growing number of indelible marks appearing across my parents (apparently “prized” – I’m still very unsure of this fact) wooden coffee table. Untalented and unpopular.
Peated Irish whiskey has been far from a common sight outside of a smattering of Connemara bottlings. But growing demand and consumer interest in different styles seems to be pushing the needle in a variety of new-ish directions for the category – one such being the utilisation of smoke. Both Teeling Blackpitts and prior to it, W.D. O’Connell’s Bill Phil releases (particularly the cask strength – which we’ll review for you at a later date) have generated a palpable buzz with their announcements. A buzz which to my mind is warranted.