The Rebirth of Teeling Whiskey
The Teeling story begins in 1782, when Walter Teeling opened a distillery in Marrowbone Lane in Dublin. Dublin was home to a thriving whiskey industry at that time, with some 37 different plants in operation. Teeling was in production until the early part of the 20th century when an industry-wide slump brought production to a halt. The premises were sold to local rivals Wm. Jameson & Co before eventually closing for good in 1923.
More than 60 years later, John Teeling, a descendent of Walter, set out to open a new distillery, lighting the blue touch paper for a new chapter in the Teeling whiskey story. John acquired an industrial alcohol plant in Cooley and converted it into a distillery. Production began in 1989 and the distillery was soon creating whiskey for brands like Kilbeggan, Connemara and The Tyrconnell. Such was Cooley’s success, it began to attract interest from the giants of the whiskey world and in 2012, it was sold to Jim Beam.
John’s sons Jack and Stephen worked at Cooley prior to the sale. As part of the deal, they negotiated the purchase of 16,000 casks of aged whiskey which they used to create a new brand of Teeling whiskey. They releasing a varied range of single grain, blended and single malt expressions, experimenting with unusual cask finishes that were bottled at the commendable strength of 46%.
The Whiskey
Smell: Vanilla, Cream, Sweet Pastry, Lemon Meringue
Taste: Pastry, Cinnamon, Pecan, Vanilla, Cream, Berry.
Thoughts: No age statement on this one but given its higher strength and the depth of flavour on offer, I’d say an asking price of £35 – £40 is pretty reasonable. Grain whisk(e)y is becoming a more common sight on the current market but I can’t think of another that’s been finished in wine casks. It really, really works. In value for money terms, this might be the best grain dram on the market.
___________
Leave a Reply