Knappogue Castle 12 Year Marchesi di Barolo Cask Finish

Entry 3/3 of Knappogue Castle's Cask Finish Series. The first two were absolutely fantastic, so I've got high hopes for this one. Let's get into it. Nose: Mixture of green and red apple (more green) and pear. White and red grape. Banana, coconut, pineapple, and some raisin. Shortbread cookie, toffee, vanilla, malt, and custard. Stella D’oro Italian Biscuit. Very floral with powerful oak. Super clean, no hint of ABV. Just clean and delicious fruity, floral, and sweet notes. Palate: Plenty more of the apple notes (both colors). There's also plum, apricot, and pear. Raisin and cranberry. Banana and orange citrus. White and red grape. Key lime pie. More shortbread, malt, and toffee, and vanilla, now with some caramel. Once again, powerful oak. Reflects a lot of what I liked about the nose, but trades some floral notes for citrus. Superb. Finish: Moderate-long. Oak hits heavy here. Some spice from the ABV finally presents itself. Cinnamon, nutmeg, and clove. Red fruit notes carry over, tucked away in the background. More key lime pie. Red apple, cranberry, plum, and raisin. It's drier but still a bit sweet. Fantastic series. All 5/5 in my book. These three whiskies are the pinnacle of the Irish whiskey category. Take this one for example. Solid base distillate (rumored to be sourced from Bushmills or Cooley?) Carefully aged in some of the finest casks. I'm not a big wine guy, but I'd love to try Marchesi di Barolo just to get a better understanding of the cask influence exerted here. Genius idea by KC. The Jefferson's of Irish whiskey, except the execution is significantly better. My favorite Irish whiskey brand. Would love to see what they can do with their own distillate. Either way, absolute winner right here. 1200 bottles produced. Buy on sight.

A hectic summer prevented me from sitting down and doing tastings, but not from imbibing. I finally found a moment to pull a sample and just chill. I randomly grabbed this sample and thought to give it a go. N: Light and fruity sweetness greets the nose. Ripened pineapples, pears, white grape juice create a fruit basket of aromas. Marshmallows, vanilla wafers and vanilla custard, malty chocolates (Whoppers), Rice Krispy treats provide the sweetness. Sprinkle in a bit of trail dust which adds some earthiness. P: Orchard fruits of pears, peaches and apples, apricots and cranberries touch the palate first. With a light cinnamon and oaky tinge, much of the nose is embodied: Vanilla custard, milk chocolate, marshmallows. F: A wonderful lengthy finish of oak and the three baking spices of cinnamon, nutmeg and cloves. The tinge encompasses the palate keeping it alive. O: This is a solid Irish Whiskey with much about to take in (and I am sure there are more aromas and flavors that I can sense but can’t pinpoint). The quality casks add depth, variety and a delicate and balanced influence. A solid and seemingly very mature 12 year Irish Whiskey. Thank you @soonershrink for the great sample. [90/100][Tasted: 8/30/24]

This ups the complexity and fruit flavors from the 14 year Twin Wood. On the nose, I get some tropical fruit, dusty wood, citrus. As tends to be a trend with my tastings of Irish whiskey, the nose stands out above the palate. But the palate is still enjoyable, bringing red fruit, strawberry taffy, light maltiness, tropical fruit, toffee. Some bitter and tannins show up on the finish, but give a nice balance to the fruit. Overall, it’s definitely an upgrade over the 14 year for me. It’s nice that it’s bottled at 46%, like the 14 year also. It’s a moot point about whether I would buy this again, as it was a limited release of 1200 bottles. I’m not sure it’s quite enough better to justify the $30 price difference since I can find the 14 year locally for 45, but I will enjoy this bottle.

Lots to mull over as the Knappogue Castle Marchesi di Barolo Cask opens and rolls out. Each sip and sniff I find something new to enjoy and it had me scrambling to find a bottle locally. It’s going to be tough for anything to ever compete with that Knappogue Castle 1951, when it comes to being unique and interesting, but this makes a valiant delicious effort.

Lighter than most, sweet, clean finish no burn

Maybe the best Irish I’ve had.