Hibernia: Hyde: 10 Year Rum Finish (Irish Single Malt Whiskey:10 Year: 46% ABV)
Visual: Gold.
Viscosity: Very slow thin puckering.
Nose: Raisins, or rum and raisin ice cream. Alcohol air but creamy and floral.
Body: Smooth and creamy. Rum and raisin ice cream. Alcohol warmth. Vanilla and almonds. Toffee. Water smoothes and makes even creamier. orange crème and chocolate.
Finish: Raisins. Ice cream. Light oak. Currants. Creamy. Water adds strawberry crème and Belgian chocolate. Oatmeal in milk.
Conclusion: What I have always like about Irish whiskey is the smoothness, however sometimes it can become too light for me, but I have found a big oak aging can result in the best of both worlds. For example Teeling small batch matches lovely with the rum aging. This takes that idea but puts in a more viscous character that a single malt can bring to really fill out both the creaminess and the raisins characters, adding to that smooth base.
The result is basically a rum and raisin ice cream whisky and it is delicious – so very easy to drink, but it doesn’t need any time to build up the flavor – you can grasp it almost immediately with the big but smooth flavours coming through.
Water doesn’t really alter the character, just lets you shift the intensity until you find a point where you are happy. I didn’t go overboard, but I did add a reasonable chunk of water and this still had a good grip and texture. The only real change was this kind of milky oatmeal mouthfeel that came out.
For flaws? Well, while this has a wonderful theme and keeps to it well, it does not change much – playing the same sweet toffee and vanilla base, with rum and raisin ice cream as the main deal the entire way through. You don’t really need to examine it too deeply.
Still, it is very easy drinking, and with the consistent character it would do well for a sharing session with friends. Well worth taking some time to kick back with and very enjoyable.
Background: Bias warning – This sample was provided to me free for tasting noting as part of a promotion the distillers were running on twitter. As always I will attempt to be unbiased. Based on Teeling Small Batch, Irish Whiskey seems to work well with rum finish, so I was looking forwards to trying this. Drunk while listing to some Fear Factory- I had seen them live recently so they were still in my head.
