Beverage of the Week (B.O.W)

There is no greater evidence of the ascension of Irish Whiskey than the great brands being offered by the Cooley Distillery in County Louth. (This being said with all due respect to Midleton in the south and Bushmills in the north.) Among the tasty Whiskey’s produced here, two stand out for us at BevX: Connemara and Tyrconnell. Today we proudly feature a special selection from Tryconnell – their 10 year-old Madeira finished single malt.

The original Tryconnell Irish Whiskey was produced at the now extinct AA Watt Distillery. The Whiskey takes its name from a legendary racehorse, also owned by the Watt family that won the Queen Victoria Plate in 1876 whilst being a staggering 100 to 1 long shot. The label, as it does now, depicts Tryconnell crossing the finish line nosing out its competitors.

The brand was a huge success in the USA until Prohibition and the UK trade war forced the sale of the distillery in 1922. The Watt family later launched a blending company and revived the Tryconnell brand until that too closed in 1970.

The Tryconnell Whiskey made its return to the Irish and world market in 1992 as a single malt produced at Cooley, the youngest of the three Irish Whiskey distillers. We have found that the Tryconnell brand has shown a reasonable variation through the years with the best Whiskies being offered today.

Their latest offerings include a trio of 10 year-old Whiskies finished in Port, Sherry, and Madeira casks. The Madeira cask finish that we feature here as our Beverage of the Week is the finest Tryconnell to date and one of the greatest Whiskies being made on the Emerald Isle. This Whiskey is sure to please fans of both Irish Whiskey and Scotch Whisky and could even be a valuable tool in recruiting new Whiskey devotees. It is perfectly harmonious in every respect from the ideally matured Whiskey to the charming accent provided by the Madeira casks. This Whiskey is a masterpiece and worthy of any efforts required to procure a bottle.