St. Patrick’s Day has come and gone, and hopefully everyone is feeling spry and clearheaded today. Even if you had your fill of Jameson, Bushmills, and Redbreast yesterday, there’s another reason to drink Irish whiskey—and not just in March, but all throughout the year—an excellent new single pot still expression that was matured entirely in tawny port casks.
The distillery behind this new release is called the Shed, and while it is better known for its Drumshanbo Gunpowder Irish Gin, it has also been making whiskey for about a decade. P.J. Rigney founded The Shed in 2014, and together with head distiller Brian Taft he has been producing some solid single pot still Irish whiskeys over the years. That category is distinctly Irish, and follows a few rules: The whiskey must be made at one distillery in pot stills from a mashbill of malted and unmalted barley (a small amount of other cereal grains are allowed as well) and aged for at least three years. Americans are likely much more familiar with pot still whiskeys like Green Spot, Teeling’s, Powers John’s Lane, and (the best in my opinion) Redbreast, but Drumshanbo is a brand that should become more popular based on the high quality of the whiskey.
This new release is proof of what the Shed is doing right. The distillery is located in the village of Drumshanbo in County Leitrim, which is in the northwest of Ireland just south of the border of Northern Ireland. The core single pot still whiskey is made from a mashbill of malted and unmalted barley and Irish Barra oats, triple distilled, and aged in a mixture of sherry and bourbon casks. This new release is made from that same mashbill, but it’s aged for a full seven years in tawny port casks from Portugal. That has imbued the whiskey with prominent notes of toasted nuts, dried fruit, baking spice, toffee, fresh apple, and ripe berries. The port influence is, of course, unmistakable, but it’s also not overpowering and the core character of the whiskey still shines through. This new Drumshanbo release is one that fans of Redbreast should certainly consider trying, and will also appeal to bourbon aficionados who enjoy port cask-finished expressions like Angel’s Envy.
You can find the new Drumshanbo Tawny Port Cask Single Pot Still Whiskey (SRP $80) available now from select retailers around the country, as well as at websites like Cask Cartel (at more than double the price, however). You can also purchase the distillery’s Gunpowder Gin from websites like ReserveBar.
