I was tipped off to a new Irish whiskey this week (thanks, John!): Danny Boy 15 Year Old Malt Whiskey. It's part of a larger range of Danny Boy giftware launched by Peter Lavery, former Belfast bus driver, now prominent businessman (there's a good story in there, worth a read).
You might think that a whiskey destined to be part of a range of "giftware" would be all brand and no substance, a cheap blend with no age statement. Not in this case. I'm guessing that Mr Lavery knows his whiskey because he has persuaded Cooley Distillery to bottle a 15 year old single malt. Cooley's own top-of-the-range malt, Tyrconnell, doesn't come any older than that. The plan, according to the website, is to release Danny Boy as a limited edition of 2,500 bottles.
So there is a very good chance that this will be a superb whiskey. The only catch is that it's not available yet. This is where I have to sound a more cautious note. The website has clearly not been updated since the end of last year and the company has not responded to an email I sent two days ago. While the whiskey was supposed to available "from January 2008", there is as yet no picture of the bottle on the site and no indication as to the revised date for its release.
If I hear more, I'll post it here.
