Roe & Co Blended Irish Whiskey

I don't always get on well with Irish blends. Even as a guy who's accustomed to mild-mannered Canadian whiskies, sometimes the Irish ones just seem a little too austere for my tastes. This one gets generally good reviews but there is scant information about it out there, other than aging in bourbon casks (first-fill if I'm not mistaken).

On the nose it is very light with tingling alcohol and a bit of vanilla. Some oak notes lurk deeper in the glass, along with slight apricot. Somewhat hot on the palate, with oak, toasty grains, overall quite dry. I've spent some time with this bottle, liking it a little more or a little less with each tasting. Right now there is a sharpness, verging on bitterness, at the back of the tongue which is not helping the balance. Overall, just not my kind of blend and perhaps better suited to mixing than sipping neat.

Speaking of which, I struck on a delightful blend using roughly two parts Roe & Co. to one part Stranahan's Colorado Whiskey. The overbearing sweetness of Stranahan's is tempered by the dry graininess of Roe & Co., resulting in a dram which I find greater than the sum of its parts--and that is no knock against Stranahan's, which is a fine whisky in its own right.