Advice needed

[macdeffe]

The other day I stopped by a local wine and whisky store and saw a single cask bottling of :

James MacArthur Old Masters 1992 Peated Irish Single Malt

It's Cooley and I have a very limited but mixed experience with Cooley's Connemara type whiskeys

3 years ago I bought a Connemara Cask Strength bottling which I found absolutely horrible with a terrible floral-soapy (not FWP Bowmore'ish) offnote, but I have read great reviews from others about Connemara and I suspect it to be just this batch. I also had a bottle of Murray McDavid peated Cooley which I found nothing wrong with

Anyone had any experience with this IB of Cooley ?. A fast google search revealed there are different casks of this bottled by James MacArthur, but unfortunately I can't remember the exact details of the bottling I saw

MAcdeffe

[TheWhiskeyBro]

Hi there MacDeffe,

There are at least four casks of James MacArthur Old Masters 1992 Peated Irish Single Malt, an 11yo, 12yo,13yo, 14yo bottled between 2003 & 2006 respectively.

These are all cask strength whiskies similar to the Cadenhead Cooleys which I know are rated highly by both Jim Murray & those who've tasted them this side of the pond. Remember the James MacArthur are all single casks so each one is unique, however I can tell you the following:

Cadenhead Cooley 12YO Jim Murray Rating 93
Cadenhead Cooley 13YO Jim Murray Rating 93
Cadenhead Cooley 14YO Jim Murray Rating 80
Cadenhead Cooley 15YO Jim Murray Rating 94
James MacArthur Old Masters 1992 Peated Irish Single Malt 11yo 2003 bottling Jim Murray Rating 85

As regards Connemara CS, most people here would rate it quite highly. But the Cooley malt style is light and fruity and the peating is medium, often with a hint of smoked kippers.

Definitely worth a try is these are mainly only available in the US.

Let us know which Cask # it is cheers...

Hope this helps... cheers

[IrishWhiskeyChaser]

Hi MacDeffe,

I think that it waa a strange experience that you had with the Connemara Cask Strength as it would be my preferred choice of all the Connemara's and it is usually fairly consistent. As thewhiskeybro says and you know this yourself if it is a single cask you cannot compare to the next but I would reckon that this is part of the same batch of casks as the first one you tasted but probably just an older version. If it is anything like the Cadenheads cask series you probably can't go wrong with them improving with age. However the Cadenhead series seems to be an excellent batch of highly peated connemara and probably the best peated cooled I've tasted. Good luck with it if you decide to buy and let us know how you get on.

[macdeffe]

Thanks

Steffen