I just spent three days in Ireland, courtesy of Midleton distillers and Pernod Ricard, to taste two new single post still Irish whiskeys,
Powers John's Lane and
Midleton Barry Crockett Legacy. I had my
Malt Advocate Managing Editor hat firmly on my head, so accordingly, my notes on the whiskey are on our magazine blog,
here. I'll probably have the rest of the trip up here soon. In the meantime, for those of you who are jealous of the whiskey (and beer) samples I get...I did stop at Travel Retail in the new T2 terminal at Dublin Airport to buy a bottle of Green Spot. Because I've been waiting too damned long to have my own bottle, and I thought 28 Euro was a pretty good price.
Slainte!
6 comments:
Love Green Spot.
Hope you managed a pint of Porterhouse beer in T2.
Don't get me started on T2. I arrived at 8:30 for an 11:15 flight and almost missed it. 55 minutes in line for bag check, 50 minutes in line for customs 'pre-clearance,' and half-mile walks between the RyanAir drop and the main center and T2...I don't MIND walking, but those lines were ridiculous. I made a 3 minute detour to get the Green Spot and was really hoping it hadn't led to me missing the flight. Didn't even have time for a bottled water. Grrrrr... Scoring the Green Spot did make me feel somewhat better. Until you brought this up!
What exactly does single pot mean ? I read your guest blog spot but I'm still a little in the dark.
Bart,
"single pot still" used to be "pure pot still"; they're the same thing, just different terminology. But there are two components to this. First, and most obvious, it has to be pot stilled, triple-distilled whiskey, not made in a column still. Please note also that "triple-distilled" means more in Irish distilling than simply running the spirit through a third distillation; it's a complex dance of re-introduction of feints and low wines at various stages along the way.
Second, and not at all obvious, single pot still whiskeys have a proportion of unmalted, "raw" barley in the grist. This adds a distinct flavor component that comes through more in some single pot still whiskeys than in others, but is something I usually tag as "green," or "grassy," or "cereal." It was quite a revelation to smell it in the brewhouse; very distinctive, and eye-opening to smell it at its origins, then recognize it again in the whiskey.
Did that help, or just make it worse?
Just waiting for the day "single pot still" -- a term that's less than a year old as far as I know -- gets described as "traditional" in Irish whiskey.
And US immigration plus Ryanair: a deadly cocktail.
Hey, no complaints about Ryanair, actually. Got me to Dublin on time, and my checked bag actually beat me to the baggage claim. It was the visa issues of the folks in front of me at USAir that hosed me. Well, and US customs. Honestly...
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