August 2009 Connemara tasting

[varizoltan]

The August 2009 meeting is taking place upstairs in Bowes Bar on august 27th 7.30pm

The meeting is hosted by Noel Sweeney who will explain to us about the making of Connemara's Superb Whiskey range.
John Cashman will talk about the new bottle and packaging of this brilliant brand.

and of course we will get to taste a few samples of this great nectar too

see yous there

[John]

Looking foward to it already.
J.

[IrishWhiskeyChaser]

Yes, and can't wait to see the new Connemara packaging ... the excitement is building.

And nobody spoil it by posting a pic until after the event or there'll be trouble

[varizoltan]

fingers crossed

Yes, and can't wait to see the new Connemara packaging ... the excitement is building.

And nobody spoil it by posting a pic until after the event or there'll be trouble

[varizoltan]

Just a bit of extra detail for the tasting

We will have Connemara single malt, Connemara Cask strength, Connemara 12, and the new Connemara Sherry finish

Noel Sweeney will give us a bit of sample of the elements of Connemara too

I can not wait

[IrishWhiskeyChaser]

Excellent Zoli ... can't wait either ...

[IrishWhiskeyChaser]

Meeting went well, I think the guys have now sorted out the lay out and it is much more manageable. 24/25 people were in attendance and all were comfortably positioned. The room was actually laid out for 40 and eventhough would of made it much more crowded all would still of had a good view.

Noel Sweeney (Master Distiller) and John Cashman (Business Development) were in attendance for Cooley.

John Started proceedings by showing the group the new packaging. Basically same bottle type but a more modern streamlined label. The Connemara brand name will be standardised on all Connemara bottlings with it being placed near the shoulder of the bottle. The expression label will be an outline type label placed close to the base of the bottle. There will be a gap between both parts to lighten appearance.

John also gave us a bit of history on the original labels. John Teeling as a lecturer set the task of designing a new bottle & label to his graduate class. With direction from him his class came up with the basic idea. Imagery of the wild hills of Connemara were drawn upon as well as Celtic scroll work (which has now been dropped from the main label and is now only seen on the foil top). The bottle was originally based on the drambuie bottle just the colour was changed to green. This has been tweaked over the years and the bottle is now a unique Bottle to Connemara with the pinched base and the Connemara relief on the shoulder.

Noel Sweeney then took over for the tasting.

We had 6 samples for the night. Noel described the progression of Connemara. Initially in the early days it was a 3.5-4 year old whiskey. This made it a strong peaty little number but it did not have much of a finish. Eventually the stocks were built up and they were able to add 6yo whiskey which rounded the whiskey off more and as time went on again the 8yo whiskey was added. Noel explained that a whiskey goes through cycles and comes in and out of balance over the years. And through testing they found that the 4, 6 & 8 year old whiskies made up the best balance for Connemara Nas ... 4yo for the peat and smoke 6yo for rounding it out and 8yo for an extra complexity and balance. Each component is required and has a job to do or else the whiskey would not work to the maximum. Moral of the story age is not every thing but getting the balance right.

We tasted the 4yo at cask strength & the 6yo at cask strength and then the 4+6+8yo at cask strength. We also had the honour of being the first people to try an 8yo Connemara 46% being released exclusively in the Swedish market. As well as 12yo and the new Sherry cask which has just been launched and is available in Ally's for 59.99 (10Euro off till the end of the month)

Unfortunately I did not really take tasting notes so someone else may be able to do that but for me the constituents of the Connemara regular at cask strength(4+6+8yo) was the winner on the night.

A really enjoyable night but may have not suited some because of it's concentration on Connemara.

A big thanks to Jonh Cashman and Noel Sweeney for a very entertaining event

[Willie JJ]

That sounds like great fun Adrian. I attended a similar event that Noel hosted at Whisky Live Glasgow last year and the drams were truly excellent. Like yourself I thought the cask strength was the winner, although the sherry cask sounds great. Its great to see the Cooley products being showcased like this, especially to the IWS folks.

[John]

Thanks for the update Adrian. Can you tell me what sherry barrells are used for the maturation of the Sherry Cask Connemara?
All the best,
John.

[IrishWhiskeyChaser]

Thanks for the update Adrian. Can you tell me what sherry barrells are used for the maturation of the Sherry Cask Connemara?
All the best,
John.

Forgot to mention that John

They use Oloroso Sherry casks but I did not catch where they came from.

[IrishWhiskeyChaser]

That sounds like great fun Adrian. I attended a similar event that Noel hosted at Whisky Live Glasgow last year and the drams were truly excellent. Like yourself I thought the cask strength was the winner, although the sherry cask sounds great. Its great to see the Cooley products being showcased like this, especially to the IWS folks.

It was a very educational night as it really makes you understand the malt and the way it's used to create the Connemara. You'd think & hope that they'd use the oldest malt possible in the Connemara but that would not necessarily make the best Single Malt. The 4yo has the smoke and peat but it really seems to diminish after 6years and the finish is accentuated by the 8yo. So the sum of the parts are actually better than the individual components.

[Willie JJ]

Its a practice that seems to be developing across the industry as many companies are providing NAS bottlings that are vattings of different ages. It offends the sensibilities of some to be drinking young whiskies, but its really much more important to know what the final product is like before making a judgement. My only reservation abou t many of these vattings is that they seem to come with a high price. The Connemara is thankfully not too bad in that regard.

[IrishWhiskeyChaser]

It offends the sensibilities of some to be drinking young whiskies, but its really much more important to know what the final product is like before making a judgement. My only reservation about many of these vattings is that they seem to come with a high price. The Connemara is thankfully not too bad in that regard.

Know where you are coming from there Willie ... all these young whiskies seem to be attracting premium prices and as you say it is a worrying trend. Connemara nas is not too bad from an Irish perspective as we pay through the nose for whiskey anyway but the Connemara 12yo is a scary price for not a whole pile more in my opinion, if it was cask strength then I might think about it but as it is not really worth it. But that seems to be down to the scarcity of the malt rather than anything else as they are still finding their way as a fledgling company and have very little aging stock.