Cinco de Mayo approaches, but fear not we’ll have a proper Irish Whiskey review in time as is usual for our policy. (Although we did miss a Tequila review on St Patrick’s). This was tried initially as part of a Whiskey Weekend at the incomparable Julio’s. We felt it necessary based on some of the wording and awards they had claimed and take them down a peg.
Because your St Kevin ‘stand apart’ mentality is crock. This is subpar middle of the road and despite the charcoal flavouring smoky and seductive whiskey, this is not. It ends up along the great pasture of failed Irish whiskies, which is a sad thing indeed.
What They Say: “St Kevin, the man on our bottle, stood apart. This whiskey does the same. It has sucked the marrow out of two casks. An American Bourbon barrel giving sweet, toasted vanilla notes. A Spanish Oloroso Sherry barrel adding hints of dark, dried fruit, and a slight nuttiness. Non-chill-filtered for truer character.”
Taste: 4.0 – It starts off like what you’d imagine chopping on a lit fireplace tastes like. Sure the smoke and bark are ‘right’ but too much.
Aftertaste: 4.5 – It begins to waver in power, but lingers for a while. Still not great.
Burn/Smooth: 5.5 – Pretty typical burn, not smooth, but also not stabbing your throat with a shard of glass.
Aroma: 4.0 – It does smell like a whiskey, but one that will burn the heart out of you, feels like it runs hot.
Honesty: 4.0 – This doesn’t really stand out, and the sherry cask doesn’t really add good things here. Especially the phrase adding dark dried fruit and nuttiness is horseshit.
Mixability: 5.5
W/ Rocks: 5.0 – Improves slightly, but still not great.
Whiskey and Ginger Ale: 6.0 – That’s good, so I guess this has some use.
Value: 3.0 – For a double barrel (that you can’t tell), and at that price? No sell. This is at best a basic Irish whiskey, and you would always go Jameson or anything else over this.
Google Shop Average: $34
Website: http://www.glendalough.ie/
Reviewer Scores:
BuffaloJern: 3.5
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Metric Score: 30.5/70 |+| Metric Average: 4.35 |+| Reviewer Average: 3.5
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Final Thoughts: It would be kind to say that we saved the better Irish whiskey for the Cinco De Mayo week proper, but nope. That will be Dr McGillycuddy so while this is terrible we’ll soon truly see how low we can go.
