An Irish Whiskey nerd named Matt and an American whiskey noob named Rose, sharing some reviews, cocktails and thoughts on the wonderful world of whiskeys, bourbons, cocktails and everything in between.
I hope you like what you see, and maybe even learn a little.
This is going to be a winner in our household. Glad to see you're enjoying your bottle of Method and Madness. Thank you for providing a use for that bottle of Allspice Liqueur sitting in the back of the drinks cabinet. And anything served in a Nick and Nora glass is a winner. Good descriptors - perhaps swapping out orange bitters for the Angostura bitters (since I have that bottle of orange bitters from the last recipe you provided which made use of orange bitters. Just a thought. Thank you for this recipe and all that you do for the community.
Thanks so much for the kind words! And yeah, I always find it fun to play around with ingredients like bitters to see how much of an impact they have, so I definitely will try it. (I might even do a video with 3-4 old fashioneds, where the only difference is the bitters, to show how much of an impact they have!)
@@TheWhiskeyNerd That is such a brilliant idea! Just to advise, I told everyone at my favorite watering hole this evening about your channel, as we were sampling the bottle of Powers Three Swallows I brought back from my recent trip to Ireland. A very tasty whiskey indeed. Slainte!
Have always loved an Allspice Dram, though have always used it in cooking/baking (superlative in a roasted butternut squash soup) during the autumn and winter.
I like the odd cocktail with Allspice Dram but sparingly - a little goes a long way! This cocktail sounds delicious!! Cheers Matt!! Have a great weekend!! 🙂
I have the same ranking as Matt. Blue spot is just out of this world. I was lucky enough to get 2 bottles when it dropped at the LCBO last month. 59.1% but it’s as smooth as a Guinness.
@@TheWhiskeyNerd definitely. I like that but I like buffalo trace a bit more and when I’m in a hard mood after a long day of work I drink knob creek neat 😂. But definitely when I’m feeling fancy and want something light it’s basil all day 🥃🤙🏼
Love MM but will be skipping this one.amburana is so overdone in bourbon and pretty much no middle ground you either really like amburana or hate it. I am , unfortunately, not a fan. Sounds like MM did a nit more than a kiss but not overwhelming
It's definitely only a kiss of amburana at 4-7 months, but it still does have a large influence, so if you don't like Amburana, you're not going to like this
I’ve never been a huge cream liqueur fan, had the odd Baileys but could take or leave it. However a friend bought me a bottle of Two Stacks at Christmas there and I fell in love with it. Absolutely delicious, and a really unique and memorable flavour. I’ve just finished the bottle and came across this video as I’m googling where to buy another one!
It's such a good liqueur, and they do it in cans too! (but maybe not where you are) At Whiskey Live Dublin, they had a slushie machine with this liqueur and the Gloria coffee liqueur from Killowen and it was DELICIOUS!
Well done you on scoring the complimentary bottle of Method and Madness! And thank you for the transparency, which shows what a great channel this is - well, that and all the excellent reviews. I had no idea what Amburana casks are, and would probably not realize if one bit me on the arse in broad daylight. Nonetheless, thank you for the information - a day that one learns something is a day that's not wasted. Sounds delicious nonetheless. Cheers. Oh, and that color blue is really you as it complements your eyes.
Thanks for that! Always nice to get some compliments! 🤣 And yeah, there were about 50 people at that launch event, and we all got free bottles as a gift, with no ask for social media posts or reviews, but I always think transparency is the way to go!
Hey I have had this Method and Madness with an Amburana cask finish! Loved it! Whisky Pig Rye aged in Amburana casks was also really delicious! Fabulous review Matt! I’m thrilled you got a bottle! I have to be in the mood but I enjoy it sometimes!! Nope you and Rose are super well!! Cheers!!
Cheers Christine! Amburana is definitely an interesting cask. We'll be off to Japan soon so we're looking forward to that! (and getting some Japanese whiskeys!)
Yeah, for example, I tried a sample of a Killowen Peated Whiskey which had been aged in a port cask and I really liked it, so I bought a full bottle. Only 500ml for €120, but I thought it was something really special, so I justified the price, even though it was very expensive!
For me it was Canadian Club with coke then with ginger ale that started me on my journey. After that it was Seagrams VO, Crown Royal with coke or ginger. Then Rye whiskey such as Jack Daniels, Bulleit and James E. Pepper 1776 Rye. Glenlivet Founders Reserve on the rocks with some water. Then Johnnie Walker Red and Black on the rocks with water and with coke and neat, Jack Daniels with coke, ginger or neat. Then Macallan 12 yr neat and the Standard Tullamore Dew ,Bushmills and Jameson neat. Next the Black Bush and the Black Barrel. Finally the 12 year RED Breast. Its fair to say the Irish are my favorites. I've also tried bourbons and Japanese. Still trying other whiskeys. Keep up the good work Matt. Slainte!
It was a Japanese whiskey that changed everything for sure for me, either the first time i had Hibiki 17 year or when i first tried Nobushi (probably my personal favorite)
I started out with a Jameson my father gave to me (1997). I stayed with Jameson, Bushmills and Glenmorangie for a long time. Two years ago I took part in a tasting of Ireland vs Scotland (it was fun😃). After tasting a Arran heavily peated pinot noir and a Teeling single malt I wanted to know more. The Powers is one I want to try and currently I have a sample of Bunnahabhin 12 wich is very nice. At the moment Teeling and Arran are one of my favourite distilleries. I still like to drink a Jameson or a Bushmills 10 as casual drinkers though. As for cask strenght whiskey's, i am currently saving for a Teeling 16 year old
That sounds like a fun tasting, I was at a "six nations" tasting earlier this year during the rugby tournament (Irish, Scottish, Welsh, French, Italian and English whiskeys) and it was a really fun tasting! And yeah, I agree that Teeling are putting out some great stuff
Great video. Always good to reflect in one’s whiskey journey. My first whiskey decades ago was Jameson. It was a boilermaker so the shot was dropped in my beer , a Harp. The drink after that was a neat Jameson. My aha moment was long ago with a bourbon. Eagle Rare 10 year. Before that I pretty much the only whiskey I drank was Jameson, Glenlivet 12 and Knob Creek. Now my friends and I get together weekly at each other’s homes and enjoy a meal and many different pours from our selections. We all have hundreds of bottles and each has their own special niche as well. Such as, one has an amazing amount of small craft distilleries as well as the large companies. One has mostly allocated bottles. One has over 600 Scotches. I have hundreds of bourbons, ryes and scotch but also about 150 Irish. Whiskey is so much more enjoyable when sharing it with friends. After decades of loving all whiskey (with Irish then Bourbon as my favorite). I don’t have a favorite as it always changes. I love George T Stag bourbon but the Glendalough 25 is fantastic and in the winter I love my Octomores. But at the end of most days Writers Tears Copper Pot and any Redbreast are just magnificent
Wow! now that sounds like a great group of friends to have, and always a great time trying something new, exciting or different! And you're right, while there are times which call for a "special occasion" whiskey, sometimes you can't beat a classic
The first whiskey I really enjoyed tasting was Powers Three Swallow. I'm currently trying Eagle Rare 10 year old which is 45% ABV, and to date that is the highest proof I have tasted. I'm at a relatively early stage in my journey though. I haven't yet come across a really worthwhile scotch and I disliked Teachers. Still, maybe that will all change.
@@Stephen_Curtin I'd second that! I filmed a review of Teacher's a while back, and I thought it was just low quality. Haven't put it out yet as I've been having better whiskeys which I feel deserve the attention! (might save that video for when I go on holidays over the summer and take a break from filming)
Bushmills Black Bush neat for me. The story starts when one day I was offered a genuinely good bottle of 100% agave Tequila. The first shot I had of it was with salt and lemon like all bad tequila I had ever had before. But I realized that this was very different (I was sharing it with some friends who were also astonished). We just drank the rest of the bottle neat that night. That's when I figured out that spirits don't have to taste awful. I was more of a beer and mead drinker before that point and I just mostly avoided spirits except for a shot or two once in a while. Last january I went to visit the Jameson distillery and the Whiskey Museum in Dublin but the samples they gave in both places I thought tasted quite bad neat (Jameson and Ginger cocktail was fine though). But I thought to myself that there was probably some bad whiskey and some good whiskey that was more expensive like with Tequila. So I did a bit of research, read some reviews and went for Bushmills Black Bush which is said to be very smooth. When I got it, I tried it neat and it was indeed quite smooth and great tasting (love Vanilla). I had cheap Jack Daniels before but didn't like it. Since then I'm just exploring more expensive triple distilled irish whiskey. So far I enjoyed Connemara, Roe & Co. Blended, Jameson Black Barrel and Crested and Bushmills American Oak besides Black Bush.
There's definitely a lot of bad quality whiskey out there but you're 100% right that a little step up can really increase the quality. For example, Bushmills white label is (to me) a pretty poor whiskey, but Black Bush is a really easy sipper, for only a little bit more money!
@TheWhiskeyNerd of course we all had Jameson or Tullamore Dew but it was d old Kilbeggan bottle that started it for me...then i wanted to know whats the difference between their basic bottle and some more expensive ones...then i was wondering whats the difference between Kilbeggan and for example Powers pot still and it went on and on then it was how SpS tastes compare to grain or single malt and that was it...before i knew it i had more and more bottles😎😁
It was a bottle of Connemara that did it for me. By chance, one day I came across a video on the modern rogue channel, where Daniel from the whiskey vault described the hows and whys of whiskey drinking. After a couple of days of binge watching whiskey vault videos, I went out and bought a bottle of Connemara. Rather than work my way up through cocktails, and more easy drinking whiskies, I decided to jump into the deep end with something peaty. Straight away I loved it, which surprised given that I never really liked drinking spirits before this. Since then (around 2 years ago) I tried about 60 different whiskies; mostly Irish.
I can support drinking more Irish whiskey! But that's a pretty cool whiskey journey, starting with the heavy stuff. Do you still lean towards the peated drams, or has that changed a lot?
@@TheWhiskeyNerd I drink peated stuff when the mood strikes (like last night I had some Port Charlotte 10 which is absolutely delicious) but my favourite category would probably be Single Pot Still, especially the Cask Strength stuff.
I grew up like everyone else with jack Daniel's but I didn't care for the taste. I got into scotch first and it was Johnny walker black that got me started. Then bourbons came into play with Bulleit and found my groover when I started to discovered Elijah Craig. Down the rabbit hole is where I'm continuing to fall down.
@@dvsmike I think a lot of people start like that! I also (in my college days), looked first at the price, meaning Jack Daniels, Jameson and Johnnie Walker, but once you get something a little more fancy, and sometimes only a tiny bit more expensive, the quality really increases
Hi Matt. Disappointed with this review tbh. Love your stuff and have subscribed and regular viewer of your content. But how can you not mention the iodine element of this release? It's from Killowen's contribution I understand. It 100% ruins this whiskey for me. And it's such a shame. I love what Dingle and Echlinville produce in general. I've also liked some Killowen stuff (rum and raisin is fantastic). But to completely ignore the iodine hit on the palate from this is disingenuous I feel.
Hi there! Thanks for the kind words and glad you enjoy (most of) my reviews! I did note that I could taste the Killowen influence in the blend, but for me, it didn't taste like iodine. Maybe there's a note in there like coriander (cilantro), where for some people it tastes like soap, but not for others...
I was originally referring to it as a smoky note, but I now know it to be iodine. A friend of mine questioned Brendan (Carty) at Whiskey Live about this last week. Brendan replied by saying that that's now the "DNA of Killowen". A lot of whiskey lovers I spoke to felt a bit duped by this release. The iodine Killowen element hits the palate first. The sweetness and viscosity of the Dingle and Echlinville has no choice but to play second fiddle to the young Killowen. And I don't think it was good blending sense to give equal parity to 10, 8 & 4 year old whiskeys. The 4 year old should have had no more than a 20% contribution rather than a 33%. But what do I know?! 🤷🏼♂️
@@kuangmad in terms of ratios, I think you're spot on in the roughly 20-25% area, especially as the casks were of different sizes and the Killowen was a 2nd fill, meaning less bourbon influence and more of the spirit character shines through. I still don't think I got a distinctly iodine-ey note on this one though, but it will be interesting to see how the next batch comes out, as the Boann pot still will be about 5 years old (no word on the other components though)
@@TheWhiskeyNerd I like the first try tasting reaction review. I know you plan on keeping that bottle for a while but I wonder how your tasting notes would change while drinking it over an hour etc and then bottle versus can
ROSE!! MATT!!! I can def see the pillars of creation with my super strong telescope!!! This looks like a great bottle to have!! Can't wait to see the cocktail you come up with!!! SLAINTE!!!
Just came across your video, Top 5 Irish Whiskeys for under $50. I have been a bourbon collector for three years but have recently been introduced to Irish whiskey. I currently have Red Brest 12, Knappogue 12, Glendalough Single Barrel and Teeling Small Batch. I am a new subscriber from the Washington state USA. Cheers
Cheers and glad to have you onboard Paul! That's a good start to an Irish whiskey collection, and here's hoping for more great whiskeys in your future!
Hey Matt, this is a nice video for me especially as I like to see the similarities and the differences between our approaches. I'm with you on the scoring point but not because I don't like peated whisky but I just find it too abstract to do. How do you even decide when whisky is 87 but not 88??? I don't get it when I see the scores so I don't score it. Anyways good video to see the process of a creator, cheers!
Glad you enjoyed it! And yeah, I like your "glencairn" scoring system, not getting overly picky, just "do you like it, and would you recommend people try it"
My favourite whiskey so far is Black Bush even over the more expensive Irish whiskeys I've tried. I've also tried Bushmills American Oak cask finish. It's good, but I don't find it as good as Black Bush. I plan to try some more Bushmills for sure. Today Jameson Crested should be coming in which I chose based on your review :)
