Connemara Original Peated Single Malt Irish Whiskey

Connemara Original Peated Single Malt Irish Whiskey is the no-age-statement peated malt from the same Cooley stills, bottled at 80 proof. John Teeling’s distillery launched it in the late 1990s as Ireland’s modern peated single malt: barley dried over peat fires, double-distilled, then rested in ex-bourbon barrels. Without the 12-year wait, the peat is cleaner and more forward than on the age-stated bottle, and the barley sweetness is still there to keep the smoke from turning sooty.

Sweet barley, peat smoke, and baked apple crumble lead, with honey and vanilla oak behind them. The palate is lightly honeyed, vegetal peat and barley water rather than tar, then a thread of spice. The finish is smoke, a little sea salt, and heather honey, shorter and brighter than the 12 year.