Teeling Single Malt

As usual, I'm going to do a run of Irish whiskey reviews over the next couple of days, to celebrate St. Patrick's Day! Let's start with a distillery that opened on March 17 2015 - Teeling.

Teeling Single Malt is a vatting of Cooley malts finished in various casks - port, sherry, white burgundy, cabernet sauvignon and Madeira. It is NAS (though apparently there are some malts over 20 years old in here), non-coloured and non-chill-filtered. This particular one was bottled in September 2015, and I think it's been open for almost a year.

The colour is a light yellow, with a slight greenish tinge. On the nose it is crisp, clean, triple-distilled Irish malt, with lemon, cantaloupe and a hint of coconut. Grassy. Very light toffee. Unfortunately, water just mutes the nose. A nice balance between the fruit and the malt.

A little bit hot on the palate, the grassiness continues with more lemon, buttered croissant and spice (cloves and white pepper). Nutty. Mouth-watering. Green banana. Bitter. A bit too intense (though water smooths things out), given the gentleness of the nose.

The finish is a little rough, with toasted oak and lemon meringue. It's not bad (and I prefer it to their Small Batch) but it seems off-balance and unable to live up to the promise of the nose.