Dark Silkie Irish Whiskey

SILKIE DARK PEATED IRISH WHISKY (92PROOF/NCF) NOSE: About what you would guess a Peated Irish to smell like. Peat leads off with Rubber & Last Night's Campfire. Followed by Crisp Green Apple, Leather, Mint, Salted Butter, Glazed Lemon Filled Donut, Allspice, and light Florals. I feel like some time spent with this could suss out all manner of notes. The Empty Glass noses like a Cupcake topped with a dollop of Vick's Vaporub. NEAT: Oh, this is good. Silky Smooth Oily Mouthfeel yields Powdered Sugar Dusted Lemon Squares, Vanilla, and Bubblegum accompanied by Sweet Smoke on the front of the Tongue. Leather, Cereal Grains, and Light Oak Tannins show up Mid-Palate. They mesh very well with the sweeter notes up front for a delicious melding of flavors. The Back of the Tongue gets Black Pepper and Rubbery Peat before a Medium Length Finish. Gets Dinged a tad by an Artificial Sweetener type Bitter/Sour Note that hangs around the perimeter*. Not a deal breaker, but something I get from several Irish offerings. The mouth is coated in a lovely aftertaste of Ash, New Rubber Tire, and those Neon Yellow Hunt's Lemon Pudding Cups. There's also a nice layering Black Pepper Tingle on the tongue and cheeks. I know this is one I'll taste long after the dram is done and I love that. *After some time, either the sourness dissipates, or my palate just becomes accustomed to it and it becomes a non-issue. SPLASH: A little water and Lemon Pith becomes prominent on the Nose. The Palate loses some of the rough edges and also becomes more Lemony. Good either way, but preferable Neat. VERDICT: A Peated Irish had been on my bucket list for a while and I happened to stumble on this on at my local, fittingly at the end of March. I found this VERY Good, especially given its $44 price tag. Bonus points for the higher than the normal Irish proof and NCF which allow the Oily/Silky nature of the whisky to shine. Completely different (thank you @DjangoJohnson for helping me lock down that new tire note), but equally enjoyable to the best Irish that I've had. I am definitely going to try the standard lightly peated version as well.

Holy Rubber, Batman. I'm going to begin here with a disclaimer: only buy this if you already know you love peated whiskies. Don't dabble with this one. And I don't say that lightly. Personally, I think the world would be a better place if everyone enjoyed peated whisky, but I know not everyone does. So it's important to say that ahead of time. Don't buy this if you don't already know you like peat, and even if you do, this is a doozie, like that first step Phil Connors takes off the curb into a puddle of ice cold water in Groundhog Day. I just opened this a week ago and only had two pours, and the reason I say holy rubber, Batman is that rubber is prominent in the aroma. My first thought upon raising the glass to my nose was one of nostalgia. Walking through Pep Boys as a boy when my dad took me there to pick up a part for his car. There's also notes of bacon, sea salt, and, this may sound crazy, hard-boiled egg. Yeah, do you see why I made that disclaimer above? Reach for this if you already like peated whisky AND ONLY IF YOU'RE ALSO LOOKING FOR SOMETHING WEIRD....REALLY REALLY WEIRD. I'm so stuck on the nose, in fact, that it's going to take me a moment to get to the palate. So hang on... Given all of that, the palate is a little more standard with the peat hitting first, followed by bitter dark chocolate, think 90% cacao, and dried berries. It's closer to Kilchoman than it is to Teeling, say. So it's not necessarily immediately recognizable as Irish, though the underpinning of cereal is there if you go looking for it. The finish is moderate in length, at least for a peated whiskey. Don't think you're getting the kind of finishes you get with Ardbeg or Laphroaig or even Blackpitts. But at $43.99, this isn't a bad option if you want something unusual and relatively complex that isn't going to break the bank. Still, prepare yourself, this whiskey is the definition of divisive. There's not really a lot of room for middle ground here. It's a really like or hate type of thing.

N: Dry, smoky, and mulchy. This is vaguely reminiscent of grandmas musty hosiery draw laden in dust and aged mothballs. To be honest, I find this horribly unpleasant. P: OK, how we transition from a gnarly nose to a really fun palate is beyond me, but I’m not going to say no to that! Salty (as in baked goods rather than brines), bitter cocoa, tobacco and drying oakiness. Vanilla cream blends it all together. Good stuff. F: Medium. Nutty and drying with a rounding smoke. I’ve never really been a fan of Irish Whisky. I always find them underwhelming. Not bad, but just, well; meh. Once I got past the nose on this, which I found gnarly and unpleasant, the whisky was quite tasty. Enjoyable flavours, interesting peat smoke and a good balance. Novel and enjoyable. But damn, that nose is nasty. Distiller whisky taste #81

An elegant, Irish Whiskey by Sliabh Liag Distillers in Donegal, Ireland crafted with a couple double-distilled & lightly peated triple-distilled Single Malts, peated to about 22ppm & matured in sherry casks. It's then blended with a bourbon-matured single malt as well as a grain whiskey having been rested in virgin oak before being bottled at 46% ABV. It has an aromatic birth with notes of grain, wood, peat smoke, orchard fruit, toasted nuts, herbs & spices; while a rich & delicate life adds notes of sweet malt, apple, pear, caramel, peanut butter & anise; that led to a quick & balanced death with notes of spicy oak, salted dark chocolate, cigar box, leather, pipe tobacco, smoke & sea foam. December 2023

NOSE Ashy peat smoke, caramel, roasted malt, herbal spice, and a bit of rubber Has a nice bit of depth to it and delivers a soft boldly peated aroma. PALATE Ashy peat smoke, burnt caramel, roasted fruit, baking spice, and some rubber and cocoa. Digging the palate more than the aroma, it has a unique delivery for Irish. FINISH Med-Long -> Ashy/smoky, cocoa, orange peels, and burnt caramel.

This was better than i expected. I picked it because I saw the ‘Irish whiskey’ but upon pouring i noticed it was a oeated and smoked whiskey (rare for irish and not generally what I’d look for there). The smoke is strong enough to cover any peat, which I generally don’t favour. It still has some of the caramel I would expect from an Irish, so is not judt a Scotch made in Ireland.