5 Whiskies to Try in 2021
Whiskey Guide - 5 to Try
Part of the joy of whiskey is the ever increasing number of options on the market these days! It can be tricky picking and we are here to help! We set ourselves a representative limit of 1 scotch whisky, 1 Irish whiskey, 1 Japanese whiskey and 1 ‘rest of the world’ whiskey. So without further ado, some drams to try in 2021!
Whiskey Glass Used For Sampling
Peg Whiskey Limited Release II
The second official single cask Limited Edition release from Peg Whisky is a magnificent 11 year old Single Grain Whisky, distilled at the Port Dundas distillery from the Lowland region, which closed back in 2010.
After a decade away Peg Whiskey has returned Port Dundas albeit only a limited release of 274 bottles available worldwide.
This is a cask strength whiskey, non-chill filtered and the slightly pale colour is a very welcome rejoinder to the increasingly caramel coloured output of some ‘leading’ distillers and bottlers.
This is a glorious exercise in sweet notes, heat and smoke.
Glendalough Single Pot Still Batch 2
Glendalough (The Valley of two lakes) is a deep, glacial valley nestled in the Wicklow Mountains, just south of Dublin. Renowned for its natural, scenic beauty, the area is known as “The Garden of Ireland”.
Glendalough Distillery was founded by a group of friends who had long bemoaned the decline in number of operating whiskey distilleries left in Ireland.
The Glendalough Pot Still Batch 2 hits the same high notes as the highly acclaimed Batch 1 release. This is exactly how an Irish Pot Still should be and we look forward to tasting further aged expressions!
Suntory Toki
The Suntory name is synonymous with Japanese whisky, after all what else would you chose for relaxing times!
Their latest entry level offering is the Suntory Toki. We’re talking blended whisky from Suntory's three distilleries: Yamazaki, Hakushu and Chita. Toki has a different composition to another Suntory blend, Hibiki, as its main components are Hakashu single malt and Chita grain whisky.
Cardrona Just Hatched
If you are not familiar with the name you might not be familiar with New Zealand distillery steadily making waves in the whiskey world. The Just Hatched is their inaugural single malt. The name notes it’s youth, because it's been bottled at three years old. It has been casked in a duo of bourbon and sherry casks before bottling at cask strength, a burly 64.4% ABV. Though it's young, this weighty whiskey does have a developed range of flavour and this augurs well for future releases.
Dingle Pot Still Batch 5
Dingle Distillery erupted from seemingly nowhere to producing one of the best Irish single malts on the market a few years back. On top of their global award winning efforts with gin it has become clear that the folks in Dingle know damn well sure what they are doing. Whiskey a fine old whiskey drinking town can be proud of!
The fifth small batch single malt release to come from the Dingle Distillery which has been matured in ex-Bourbon, Pedro Ximenez and Madeira casks. Distilled, matured and bottled at the Dingle Distillery.