A while ago, The Teeling Distillery, Chris and Niamh gave us the chance to taste a little bit more of what Teeling has to offer. Including their first ever Peated Irish Single Malt Whiskey: Blackpitts, named after the area just behind the distillery. Matured in Bourbon and Sauternes casks and that’s all they had to say to convince us. We do love some good old peat and sauternes marriage.
The bottle itself looks how a peated whisky should be, very promising, dark and strong. Teeling did a very good job here. The design is recognizable and will be a welcome holiday gift.
Peated Irish whiskey did us good in the Connemara bottling, so we were full of hope for this spectacular release. Here’s how that turned out:
Turkish delight comes up, roses, some salmon, watercolour, brown ale and grapes in the nose.
A smooth palate with peat and a savoury taste. Characterised by fresh mints, onions and grape skins.
Medium length. Peaty, charred oak and butterscotch. Some nougat and clay. A moisty wine cellar comes close.
This is an interesting bottle, we encounter various scents and flavours everytime we pour a dram. And different each time. Maybe because it’s more of a fight between the maturations instead of a lovely marriage. Not in a bad way though, but sometimes the sauternes gets the upperhand, and sometimes the peat punches through. They’re fighting to get the most of your attention which results in this lovely release.
The only thing thing we were craving for was a somewhat higher ABV. But maybe that’s just us, wanting to go all-in once again.