Teeling Single Malt (2014)

Irish whiskey is all the rage right now, although that mainly applies to the very popular 20+ year old indie bottlings of Cooley or Bushmills. Today I review the Teeling Single Malt, a NAS whisky, but a percentage is made from whiskey distilled in 1991. Probably a small percentage, but still.

The whiskey for this single malt is a mix of five (!) different cask types: Sherry, Port, Madeira, White Burgundy and Cabernet Sauvignon. Ugh, I don’t know. Doesn’t sound like a selling point to me. I tasted this blind. These are my notes.

Teeling Single Malt (46%, OB, bottled 10/2014)

Nose: Fresh and sweet (maybe even too sweet) with some marzipan and marshmallows, combined with a thin layer of tropical fruit (banana, peach and oranges) and some light floral notes (geraniums). Becomes greener with time.
Taste: Flowery, but also some green veggies and vanilla. Not so sweet anymore. A slight bitterness, cactus juice. Spices in the background, some white pepper (not much though) and maybe cumin.
Finish: Spicy at first, than fruity with apples and pears.

Rating: 79

I don’t know, there’s something I don’t like about this whisky. It tastes way too young and the nose is super sweet. Took me back to when I participated in Oliver Klimek’s Blind Tasting Project, in which participants compared No Age Statement and Age Statement-whiskies. Not a good sign, because out of then ten whiskies tasted, I only scored two over 80.

I have to say that most people hold this Teeling Single Malt (which is actually fairly inexpensive at 40/45 euro) in higher regard. Not me though. This won’t be making its way into my whisky cabinet.

Thijs Klaverstijn

Thijs is a spirits writer and accredited liquorist from The Netherlands. He runs the blog Words of Whisky and contributes to a number of Dutch and international publications.

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