This is a fun and delicious dram, but it’s pricey for what it delivers.Steve CoomesClick to explore our complete library of reviews to help you choose your next perfect bottle.
Glendalough 13-year Mizunara Finish Single Malt Irish Whiskey
- DISTILLER: Glendalough Distillery
- MASH BILL: Malted barley
- AGE: 13 Years
- YEAR: 2017
- PROOF: 92 (46% ABV)
- MSRP: $110 +/-
TASTE: A sensuous mouthfeel that’s luxuriously sweet, the texture of agave syrup, but not remotely cloying | light smoke, white pepper and peppermint |orange peel, clover honey, just a delight to roll around the mouth
FINISH: Short and sweet with a little spice; exhale through your nose to reveal nice wood character
SHARE WITH: Irish whiskey experts and novices to get many opinions.
WORTH THE PRICE: Mine was a press sample, but I’d not pay $110 for bottle. This is a fun and delicious dram, but it’s pricey for what it delivers. A hardcore and more knowledgeable Irish whiskey fan may think otherwise, hence my “Share With” suggestions above.
BOTTLE, BAR OR BUST: Bar all the way.
OVERALL: This whiskey spent 13 years in former bourbon casks before an unspecified finish in Mizunara oak barrels. Mizunara is a difficult-to-cooper Japanese wood that tends to leak due to its irregular wood grain, but purists revere it for ability to soften spirits and impart notes of vanilla and fresh fruit. Those attributes sound great and are largely on display here, but not potently enough. I appreciate it being a delicate spirit, but that left this drinker fighting too hard to discover its nuances. Perhaps after the liquid gets more air time, more details will emerge.
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Disclaimer: Glendalough Distillery provided Bourbon & Banter with a sample of their product for this review. We appreciate their willingness to allow us to review their products with no strings attached. Thank you.
Steve Coomes is editor of BourbonBanter.com. A Louisville restaurant industry veteran turned award-winning food writer, he has edited and written for dozens of national trade and consumer publications including Pizza Today, Nation's Restaurant News and Southern Living over his 31-year journalism career. As a spirits writer, Steve's work can be found in Bourbon Plus, Bourbon Review, Bourbon & Banter, WhiskeyWash.com and other publications. In 2014, he authored the book, "Country Ham: A Southern Tradition of Hogs, Salt & Smoke," and has authored other titles as a private ghostwriter.
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Nice review, looking forward to trying this one. I’m really curious about this one.