- Kilbeggan 15 Year Old Blended Irish Whiskey
- Connemara Peated Single Malt
- Connemara 12 Year Old Peated Single Malt
- Tyrconnell 10 Year Old Sherry Finish Single Malt
- Tyrconnell 10 Year Old Madeira Finish Single Malt
- Tyrconnell 15 Year Old Single Cask Single Malt
- Greenore 8 Year Old Single Grain
- Lockes 8 Year Old Single Malt
- Lockes Blended Irish Whiskey
Friday, 23 January 2009
Cooley tasting, Dublin
The Celtic Whiskey Shop is holding a "Gold Medal Tasting" of Cooley whiskeys on Thursday, February 12 at 18:30, in the Fitzwilliam Hotel. Noel Sweeney, Cooley's Master Blender, will host the evening. The whiskeys will be those that garnered gold medals at the International Wine & Spirit Competition last year:
Thursday, 22 January 2009
Whiskey tasting at Harvey Nicks
Martin Duffy, Master of Whiskey and a Spirit Ambassador at Diageo, will present a series of whiskey tastings at the First Floor Bar in Harvey Nichols, Dundrum. The two hour tastings will run on Tuesday nights and include welcome drinks, canapés and whiskey tasting.
The cost is €25.00 per person per class or €80.00 for all four classes. To book, contact First Floor Restaurant on (01) 291 0488.
Jan 27 - Classic Malts (Glenkinchie 12yr, Cragganmore 12yr, Caol Ila 12yr, Talisker 10yr, Dalwhinnie 15yr, Lagavulin 16yr)
Feb 10 - Johnnie Walker (Red, Black, Green, Gold & Blue Labels)
Feb 24 - Celtic Whiskies (Black Bush, Bushmills 16yr, Glenkinchie 12yr, Caol Ila 12yr, Johnnie Walker Green Label & Johnnie Walker Blue Label)
Mar 10 - Bushmills (Black Bush, Bushmills 10yr, Bushmills 16yr, Bushmills 21yr & Bushmills 1608)
The cost is €25.00 per person per class or €80.00 for all four classes. To book, contact First Floor Restaurant on (01) 291 0488.
Jan 27 - Classic Malts (Glenkinchie 12yr, Cragganmore 12yr, Caol Ila 12yr, Talisker 10yr, Dalwhinnie 15yr, Lagavulin 16yr)
Feb 10 - Johnnie Walker (Red, Black, Green, Gold & Blue Labels)
Feb 24 - Celtic Whiskies (Black Bush, Bushmills 16yr, Glenkinchie 12yr, Caol Ila 12yr, Johnnie Walker Green Label & Johnnie Walker Blue Label)
Mar 10 - Bushmills (Black Bush, Bushmills 10yr, Bushmills 16yr, Bushmills 21yr & Bushmills 1608)
Tuesday, 20 January 2009
Congratulations, USA!
I have just watched President Obama's inaugural address. It is America's day but this country needed to hear those words just as much. We do not have a leader in Ireland who can articulate the values we believe in, let alone steer the country according to them. We are all celebrating a new era.
Cooley Distillery has made sure that the Democratic Party's festivities tonight are well supplied with Tyrconnell Irish whiskey. They have also filled a special ex-bourbon cask with peated spirit that will mature in Ireland until President Obama steps down. It will then be presented to him and he should get anything up to 300 bottles from it.
He had better hope he wins another term in office though, because a whiskey bottled after four years won't be worth drinking!
Cooley Distillery has made sure that the Democratic Party's festivities tonight are well supplied with Tyrconnell Irish whiskey. They have also filled a special ex-bourbon cask with peated spirit that will mature in Ireland until President Obama steps down. It will then be presented to him and he should get anything up to 300 bottles from it.
He had better hope he wins another term in office though, because a whiskey bottled after four years won't be worth drinking!
Sunday, 18 January 2009
Film Review: Poitín
This is the first film review on this website, and probably the last until another screenwriter manages to spin a story around Irish whiskey.
Released in 1977, Poitín tells the story of a West of Ireland distiller of illicit poteen (as it's usually spelled in English), his local "distributors" and the two policemen charged with stopping him.
The rocky landscape of Connemara doesn't support much in the way of agriculture, and there is no industry to occupy the local populace. We get the impression that the main character, Michil, runs his still as a way to kill time in this desolate place. Likewise, the police seem content to play their part of pursuing Michil, without ever quite catching him in the act. Besides, where would they get their hooch if they closed him down?
It sounds like a tale of loveable rogues in a picturesque setting but it's far from that. The director, Bob Quinn, instructed his cameraman not to shoot any "pretty pictures" and even denied his actors makeup.
Quinn had come from a documentary background and was very concerned with authenticity. Most of the parts are played by locals without previous acting experience. The language throughout is Irish, and Quinn felt that few professionals could manage the colloquial speech without sounding "actorly" or employing English rhythms. The three professional actors in the film - Cyril Cusack, Niall Tóibín and Dónal McCann - are some of the finest this country has ever produced, as well as being accomplished Irish speakers.
Language is just one component of the soundtrack to this film. Quinn did not have the budget for expensive post-production so the ambient sound on location was carefully captured and augmented only slightly afterwards. Quinn's philosophy is that silence provides context for sound, in the same way that architecture is defined by empty space as much as by walls. So there are long silences that serve to accentuate the dialogue and sounds of nature.
Quinn's musical collaborator, Roger Doyle, declined the offer to compose a score for Poitín saying that the soundtrack was beautiful enough without it. The film was therefore released without music in 1977. For the 30th anniversary re-release of Poitín, Bill Whelan (the composer of Riverdance), was invited to revisit this decision. He left much of the film's natural silence untouched but did underline some scenes with great subtlety. The new score is devoid of melody and contributes an unsettling effect that complements the story and its locale. The one melodic exception is a haunting song called Amhrán na Phoitín (The Poteen Song) sung by Cáitríona Ní Ceannabháin that we hear far off during the film and in full only at the end.
If you buy the recent, digitally restored DVD release you will get both versions, with and without music, so you can decide for yourself which you prefer.
So, what about the whiskey? While bottles of poteen get plenty of screen time, we only see Michil making the stuff right at the very start. His raw material is barley, perhaps all malt, perhaps a mix of malted and unmalted grain. He helps along the fermentation by tipping in a few bags of sugar (not legally allowed in whiskey production in Ireland). We finally watch as he samples the product of distillation with satisfaction.
There is no maturation stage. The colourless spirit is filled into bottles and sold for immediate consumption. Besides the sugar, this is another reason why we would not technically call poteen "whiskey". But it's undeniably the same base spirit, albeit less refined, and more likely to result in a sore head after drinking (or blindness, or death, if you believe the stories).
Released in 1977, Poitín tells the story of a West of Ireland distiller of illicit poteen (as it's usually spelled in English), his local "distributors" and the two policemen charged with stopping him.
The rocky landscape of Connemara doesn't support much in the way of agriculture, and there is no industry to occupy the local populace. We get the impression that the main character, Michil, runs his still as a way to kill time in this desolate place. Likewise, the police seem content to play their part of pursuing Michil, without ever quite catching him in the act. Besides, where would they get their hooch if they closed him down?
It sounds like a tale of loveable rogues in a picturesque setting but it's far from that. The director, Bob Quinn, instructed his cameraman not to shoot any "pretty pictures" and even denied his actors makeup.
Quinn had come from a documentary background and was very concerned with authenticity. Most of the parts are played by locals without previous acting experience. The language throughout is Irish, and Quinn felt that few professionals could manage the colloquial speech without sounding "actorly" or employing English rhythms. The three professional actors in the film - Cyril Cusack, Niall Tóibín and Dónal McCann - are some of the finest this country has ever produced, as well as being accomplished Irish speakers.
Language is just one component of the soundtrack to this film. Quinn did not have the budget for expensive post-production so the ambient sound on location was carefully captured and augmented only slightly afterwards. Quinn's philosophy is that silence provides context for sound, in the same way that architecture is defined by empty space as much as by walls. So there are long silences that serve to accentuate the dialogue and sounds of nature.
Quinn's musical collaborator, Roger Doyle, declined the offer to compose a score for Poitín saying that the soundtrack was beautiful enough without it. The film was therefore released without music in 1977. For the 30th anniversary re-release of Poitín, Bill Whelan (the composer of Riverdance), was invited to revisit this decision. He left much of the film's natural silence untouched but did underline some scenes with great subtlety. The new score is devoid of melody and contributes an unsettling effect that complements the story and its locale. The one melodic exception is a haunting song called Amhrán na Phoitín (The Poteen Song) sung by Cáitríona Ní Ceannabháin that we hear far off during the film and in full only at the end.
If you buy the recent, digitally restored DVD release you will get both versions, with and without music, so you can decide for yourself which you prefer.
So, what about the whiskey? While bottles of poteen get plenty of screen time, we only see Michil making the stuff right at the very start. His raw material is barley, perhaps all malt, perhaps a mix of malted and unmalted grain. He helps along the fermentation by tipping in a few bags of sugar (not legally allowed in whiskey production in Ireland). We finally watch as he samples the product of distillation with satisfaction.
There is no maturation stage. The colourless spirit is filled into bottles and sold for immediate consumption. Besides the sugar, this is another reason why we would not technically call poteen "whiskey". But it's undeniably the same base spirit, albeit less refined, and more likely to result in a sore head after drinking (or blindness, or death, if you believe the stories).
Thursday, 8 January 2009
Irish Whiskey Society meeting
The inaugural meeting of the Irish Whiskey Society will take place upstairs in Bowes pub, Fleet Street, on Thursday, Jan 29th at 7pm. Michael says he'll be hanging about downstairs from about 6pm, if there are any particularly thirsty attendees.
I'll be there and you can expect a report on proceedings in this space.
I'll be there and you can expect a report on proceedings in this space.
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