Aroma: On first waft, this whiskey is sherberty sweet and full of tropical fruits. Think tinned pineapples or peaches. As you nose further, there is a mustiness that is accompanied by dried stone fruit aromas.
Taste: On the palate, this is a delicate florally sweet whisky at first. The sherbet aroma from the nose runs right through this whisky, like the words through a stick of rock.
The middle flavours are a gentle mix of warming spices, which are best described as being a combination of notes similar to cinnamon, white pepper heat and ginger. These spices tingle the inner lips, then drop backwards warming as they descend.
The final notes of this whiskey are leathery and sweet with dried stone fruit flavours.
Appearance: Golden Yellow
Real Dram Factor: Irish whiskey is an interesting and complex corner of the whisk(e)y world. For a period of time the stocks of Irish Whiskey were mainly being created by four leading distilleries, but over the last few years this has changed dramatically. There are now over fifteen currently laying down spirit, with twice that number in the planning stages, hoping to open over the next few years. With this change, it feels only right that other new businesses are blossoming. Step forward Irish Independent bottler WD O’Connell.
This whiskey is the first in their PX Series. It has been aged for seventeen years and was distilled in Cooley. It has been bottled at 46%, is non-chill filtered and is a limited release of 370 bottles.
In our opinion, this is a really lovely whisky. I adore the tropical fruit and sherbet notes of the aroma, which come through on the palate. These sweet notes are accompanied by a lovely delicate blend of spice and they all wind their way together with some leathery notes to create a light, yet dynamic whisky. The only caveat is the price – £139.95. As ever, we will let you make a judgement on wether your budget will stretch that far, sadly I don’t think ours would at the moment.
You Will Like This If… you like light spicy whiskies with lots going on.
ABV: 46%
Price: £139.95
Source: We get very lucky here at The Real Dram with the whiskies that we get chance to sample. This lovely dram came from a Tweet Tasting organised by Steve Rush and the folks at O’Connell Whiskey. We would encourage anyone that is keen to try more whiskies to get involved in Twitter. There are so many kind and interesting folks up for swapping whisk(e)y, running great events and sharing their thoughts that it is an essential for all budding and seasoned whisky fans a like.
More Information and to buy online: https://shop.wdoconnell.com/home/8-wd-o-connell-px-series-17-year-old.html