Glendalough 7 Year Old Mizunara Irish Whiskey Review & Upcoming Finished Releases

Today on the Bourbon Bites Podcast, I'm reviewing Glendalough Distillery's new Misanara-finished Irish Whiskey

and talking about several other finished whiskeys coming soon that I can't wait for

Hello everyone and welcome to the Bourbon Bites Podcast. I'm your host Clifton and today I'm so excited to delve back into the world of Irish Whiskey

I feel like we really haven't done it much on the podcast since, you know, St. Patrick's Day

And that's why I'm so grateful for the chance to review this new product from the Glendalock Distillery

Now, I've only really featured their whiskey once on my YouTube channel

And that was their Poichine, which is basically their version of Moonshine. So it was an unaged spirit

So this is actually my first time trying their aged whiskey. Now, this one is a seven-year age statement, Irish whiskey

46% ABV. This actually came out at the very end of February of this year and was available for about $99.99 per 750ml bottle

Now this is a Mizunara cask finish, a keyword finish. It wasn't aged entirely in the Mizunara oak, which is understandable because apparently Mizunara oak is extremely rare and extremely difficult to work with

Actually, it's one of the most sought after oaks for finishing in the whiskey world right now

According to the info from the distillery, it says this wood typically grows a bit twisted

and it takes twice as long to age the actual oak, not the whiskey, but the oak

to be able to make the barrels for this because it's just so difficult to work with

Not only that, but they have to air dry it for three years, and once it's actually made into a barrel, it's super porous

So it's interacting with the whiskey in such a different way than I imagine most Irish whiskey does

because a lot of times in Irish whiskey, they use used American whiskey barrels or used bourbon barrels

They're really careful, I imagine, with how long they actually finish this. They don't want it to become over-oaked in a type of way

So I'm really excited to, like I said, not only try this Misanara cask

but try Glendaloc's Irish Whiskey for the first time after it's been aged, which is exciting

So big shout out to the folks over at Glendaloc for sending over this sample to review

Really, really excited to try it and give my thoughts for you guys. So let's go and give it a nose

Oh, whoa. So different than I expected. There's like some like meaty kind of notes there

Wow. I'm not super familiar with the Misenara finish. I'm pretty sure I've probably had something that has used those casts before

But I wasn't expecting this to have such an intensely different nose than I'm used to

Now, it could just be their whiskey. Like I said, I've never tried anything from them. It's seven years old, which is relatively old for an Irish whiskey

Now, at the $100 price point, of course, it's probably, you know, a little bit, you know

younger than a lot of other whiskeys at that price point. but I gotta say this is unlike anything I've ever smelled before in the world of Irish whiskey

I think I gotta give this a taste I don't really know what to say about it until I've tasted it so let's go in again and try cheers guys oh wow I guess I was just caught off guard by how incredibly

different that is it's like the opposite of a lot of whiskeys I've had and let me explain this one

up front is those really oaky like really woody notes right up front then kind of mid palette it

goes into the typical Irish whiskey kind of shortbread, kind of bait good kind of note

But then it finishes with like a honey sweetness. So when I said backwards, I mean, a lot of times

the whiskey will start with the honey, mid-palate go to that shortbread, and then finish with the

oak. This one's done a full 180. It's that same kind of savory quality. It's got a little bit of

like a bit of a brininess there too. A little bit of like a sour kind of like, you know, not sour

in terms of like a lemon or like a lime, but more of like, I mean, the closest I can relate it to

is like an apple that's kind of been over ripened. I used to go to apple orchards a lot when I lived

in South Carolina and North Carolina. So sometimes the apples, you know, fell on the ground, you know

at the end of the season started to, you know, um, get a little, I don't want to say rot, but I used

to, um, you know, you know, start turning a little brown on the ground. There's definitely some of

those notes. It's like a unique tartness that I've, I've never really gotten on a whiskey

the oak is not necessarily like a you know like a darker richer older oak it's definitely bright

it's still in that bright kind of apple territory now i do want to note one of their tasty notes

they gave on the description was exotic and i didn't really know what to take that as i mean

exotic is such a broad term i don't really know what that means but this is so different than what

i'm used to that i think exotic is very very fitting for this this this nose and the taste

I mean, all in all, it's like a dried, like, apple peel, kind of, like, overripened apple nose

Honestly, on the nose, I probably wouldn't even be able to tell you that this is whiskey

let alone an Irish whiskey, believe it or not. I would probably immediately go to, like, a brandy or something

because it so appley and so like fruit forward And it not like green apple you know like we get with some American whiskeys It more of like a red apple maybe a little bit more you know tropical Maybe apple not the right fruit but it the first thing that comes to mind I mean I seeing some other

tasting notes from other people saying lychee, which, you know, I've had some experience with, not recently. So I can't personally say I'm getting that on it, but, you know, it's something

I don't have recent experience with, so I could totally see that being what this is because it's

so different. But what's most interesting on the palate isn't just that, you know, strange

savoriness up front. It's that sweetness, that honey sweetness on the end of the palate

One of my favorite notes on whiskeys, you guys know, is honey. So the fact that this is showing

up on the end, but they're at the beginning, the only whiskey that's ever done that for me, honestly, has been E.H. Taylor's small batch, you know, bourbon. Now, this tastes nothing like that

but it has a similar kind of like honey floral kind of note on the finish that I would have

never expected. Now, in terms of, you know, recommending it, like I said, it's $100

seven years old 46% ABV I think this one is so out of the box that I would have a hard time just

you know blanket statement recommending it this is definitely something you got to try before you

buy because it's so different from anything I've ever had before it just take any preconceived

notion you have of Irish whiskey and just put it aside with this one because it's it's it's almost

like the equivalent of like a craft whiskey but with Irish whiskey now I haven't had much craft

Irish. I think the closest thing to that is like Waterford. But even this is even stranger than

Waterford, believe it or not. I know my friend Stephen, who is a listener of the podcast

a patron of the show, he actually bought a bottle of this. And his impression was kind of just like

it's pretty good. I'd love to get more of his thoughts on it. Hopefully he listens to this

And here's my reaction to it. I'd love to hear more about what he really thought of it. But I'm

really glad to have tried it. It's not necessarily something that I would gravitate towards flavor

profile wise but you gotta admit that's something really interesting and different and unique and

I recommend it on that alone but definitely try before you buy it because I would hate for you

to put down $100 expecting this to be like other Irish whiskeys which y'all know I love Irish

whiskey as a category and then just be so surprised and kind of confused by this definitely

give it a try first but otherwise I think it's it's super unique and I'm definitely curious about

other spirits from the distillery. But speaking of interesting finishes, I thought this would be a

good time to talk about some upcoming whiskeys that I see on the radar that have some either

unique finishes or whiskeys that we typically don't see finished but are being finished. So these

are some TTB labels that have been filed over the past couple of weeks with the most interesting

finishes or mash bills that I feel like you guys need to know about. One of these is a brand that

I've been hearing so much about and have very little experience with and that is Starlight

distillery so they have a single barrel hubers release that is a rye whiskey finished in triple

sec barrels now the only thing that i can think of that's remotely similar to this is the parker's

heritage that was finished in orange curacao barrels i think that orange finish is super

intense and i think rye whiskey holds on to brighter finishes like that really well

so i think rye whiskey actually would work even better than parker's dare i say with a triple

set kind of orange finish to it. I would be very, very interested to try this. Now this one is four

years old. It's 109 proof. So it's definitely higher proof. I'm really, really curious to try

that one. I've heard some great stuff coming out of Starlight. I have had, like I said

no personal experience with the distillery, but I just have some friends that love all of their

special releases. So that's the first interesting one we have to look at. Next up are three different

whiskeys from Laws Whiskey House. Now this is of course out of Colorado. I've been hearing a lot

about them. Again another brand that I have not had a chance to try. However these are from their

Experiential Barrel series. So there are three different labels that were filed with the TTB

that I'm looking at here. One is a straight bourbon whiskey, one is an American whiskey

and the other is a rye whiskey. But these all have really different finishes or mash fills

So the bourbon whiskey is a mash bill unlike any that I have ever heard of

So this one is 52% corn, 37% malt, and 11% wheat. So the secondary grain on this whiskey is a malt

So I assume that's like a malted barley. It doesn't necessarily say, it does just say malt

But this is going to be super, super interesting. Because usually with bourbon, the secondary grain is either the rye or the wheat

We hardly ever, I mean, the malted barley element of bourbon is usually very, very little

So the fact that that's the secondary grain at 37% is super interesting

Now this release is going to be 5 years, 7 months old. It's going to be bottled at 62.6% ABV

So they give you all the barrel proof entry and all that non filtered all this great info on the back of the label This is super super exciting and i can wait to try this no idea when this is coming i know it was bottled on may 2nd

um so keep an eye out for sure with that one but laws has some other things in the works the next

up is an american straight whiskey that is bottled at 47.5 abv this one is a 44 wheat whiskey 32

22% rye whiskey and 24% malt. So again, it's not enough to be considered a wheat whiskey. It's

definitely not enough to be considered a rye whiskey or a bourbon. So this is just labeled as an American straight whiskey. Now the majority grain is the wheat, but there's almost equal parts

wheat and rye in this one. Again, great example of a distillery really going experimental with

their release. Now I know this says experiential, so it's not just an experiment, it's an experience

Maybe that's their tagline, I don't know. But this is super interesting. Again, this is bottled at

95 proof but yeah a wheat forward american whiskey that has some rye mixed in as well

and no corn i honestly have no idea what to expect with this one but i can't wait to hear what people

think of it and lastly from laws is a rye whiskey finished in sauternes cast now i've had a lot of

whiskeys lately finished in sauternes cast and i really love how it impacts the flavor especially

of bourbons i don't think i've had too many rye whiskeys that have used this cask as a finish

but i'm definitely interested to see how it does i've actually been enjoying quite a few sauternes

wines just after having that previous live stream where I tried a bunch of different

dessert wines. That was absolutely one of my favorites. Big shout out to my friend Swan again for sending me a bottle of that recently

I've been really, really enjoying as a nice after dinner wine. Now this one is 47.5% ABV

So of course, bottled at 95 proof. Mashpill is 100% San Luis Valley rye

So it says 50% of that is raw and 50% is malted rye

So that's definitely going to be a really interesting flavor profile there. Now this one is actually six years old, and it is distilled, aged, and bottled by Laws in Colorado

So this isn't your typical, you know, Indiana rye that's been finished in a certain type of cask

This is actually, you know, their own distillate. I'm really, really excited to see how this expresses itself

I love sauternes finish. I mean, I'm going to have to reach out to Laws because I think this sounds like a really great live stream

What do you guys think? If so, I'll definitely reach out to them. I'd love to have them on the show. Next up are a couple new releases from Sagamore Spirits

These are distillery-only releases, which is very unfortunate because I'm a huge, huge Sagamore rye fan

There's two TTB labels. One is a Rum Agricol cask aged rye

and the other is a Monk Mead cask aged rye. So the Rum one is aged four years in charred new oak barrels

and then aged one year and 11 months in the Rum Agricol barrels

We see a lot of kind of Rum finished ryes. So that's not, you know, the most unique thing I've ever seen before

Now, that's not to say it's not going to be great. I love Sagamore rye. But the one that's got me the most interested is the Monk Mead Cask Rye

So again, this is four years old and then aged one year and 10 months in a Monk Mead

barrel, which if you didn't know, mead is a type of fermented alcoholic beverage made

from honey. Y'all know I'm a sucker for honey. We talked about those honey notes on that Glendalock we just had

So that finish is super, super exciting. Now, I'm really curious to see how a mead finish impacts a whiskey compared to a honey barrel finish

Speaking of which, we have a label for one of those too. Surprisingly, I definitely wouldn't have expected this, but this is actually coming from Woodford Reserve

So they have a new release called Woodford Reserve Honey Barrel Finish

Of course, this is still their bourbon whiskey that's been finished in honey barrels

Now, based on the label, I assume this is also a distillery-only release. It looks like it's in the 375ml bottles

Now, this is also only 90.4 proof. What is it with these low proof releases, guys

If you're going to go big, go big. I want to try these whiskeys with these, you know, intense flavors in a big, bold expression of themselves

I don't want the watered down, you know, 90, 93 proof. Especially when you're dealing with some intense finishing like mead and honey and things like that

You got to let us try the cast strength for us to really be sold on the idea. Now, that's just my opinion

Don't get me wrong. there are some fantastic whiskeys that are below cast strength

I'm a bit of a high proof hound. However, uh, I do appreciate some lower proof whiskeys

It's just when you're dealing with American whiskey, limited releases, um, especially some of these high priced items

I kind of feel a sense of entitlement, like almost like, this sounds wrong

I don't want to say we, we deserve, you know, these high proof releases, but I mean

you know, when the master distiller, the master blender are trying these whiskeys, I'm sure they are trying them at cast strength first

And you know, if they fall in love with something at cast strength, I don't want to try the watered down or filtered version of what they experienced and what they chose

I want to try it exactly as they had it Now I know a lot of times they do a lot of experimenting finding the perfect proof which is great I great I know a lot of them you know do that They try the cast strength like hey you know it was good at cast strength but man add a little bit of water and it a fantastic

whiskey. I appreciate that, and you know, that might be the case with these too, but man, I had

the opportunity to try a Garrison Brothers Honey, I think they call it Honeydew, and they have the

standard release, of course, that is lower proof, but we actually had a tasting at a place in Los

Angeles with the brand and they let us try a cask strength version of the honeydew and man was it

fantastic it completely blew me away I think you know giving me a big bold whiskey with a big

intense finish like honey is just you know right up my alley so I would encourage brands that are

doing some crazy finishes you know feel free to put out you know a lower proof standard release

but maybe to kind of pull an art bag and you do a committee release or something like that with the

high proof cast strength version i think i know i would pay it i don't know about you guys but

i definitely would and lastly is a series of new whiskeys i've never heard of before

they're under the name red line now these are all indiana distilled whiskeys so

um i assume they're an independent bottler of you know indiana rye and indiana bourbon

but there's a whole set of these coming out soon now these are all um you know i want to say cast

they all look like to be at 120 proof so I don't know if that's a placeholder or they're actually

you know proof to 120 but I know a lot of Indiana whiskey is typically around that range maybe a

little bit higher so I'm not exactly sure but I want to read off a couple of these labels while

I'm looking at them because there's a lot of ones coming out soon now these are all single barrels

but the first one is a straight bourbon whiskey finished in maple syrup x bourbon barrels now

these are part of their experimental cask series now not to be confused with the experiential barrels

from Laws, although very similar idea there with the experimenting. But that's just one of a few

Let me read off a couple others of these, just so you guys are in the loop with these red lines

Again, I've never heard of them before. The next is a bourbon whiskey finished in French oak apple

brandy casks, also at 120 proof. Then there is another bourbon finished in XO cognac casks

and yet another bourbon finished in Barbados rum casks. And finally, there is a straight bourbon whiskey

finished in vanilla brandy casks. Now, this is, you know, the further I read, the little more hesitant I got

You know, some of these labels sound kind of similar to another brand that's doing a bit of finishing

where they add some flavors like caramel, cocoa, vanilla to their single barrels and their, you know, finishes

They've got a lot of controversy lately. I'm not going to name them my name. Again, I don't know them personally

I have not had the chance to try any whiskeys from that bottler, so I can't, you know

criticize it without, you know, having bias based on what I've heard from other people

But some of these do sound a little bit suspicious. However, we do know it's Indiana Whiskey, which I think that brand is as well that I was speaking of

I would like to know a little bit more details. Again, we're just going off of the label here

I'm sure when this actually comes out, they're going to be a lot more transparent with what the whiskey is, you know, the age, how long it was finished, you know, how it was finished

you know, were these barrels, especially like the one that I read last, the vanilla brandy casks

I've never heard of vanilla brandy. Now, maybe that's just my ignorance. I just don't know what

vanilla brandy is. Either way, I love to see brands experimenting. Now, these seem to be from

a distillery called Silent Brigade Distillery out of Paducah, Kentucky, I think it is. So I'm not

sure if that's, you know, a pseudonym for another, another brand. Haven't heard of them before. Um

I wish them well. I do love experimenting with finishes. Y'all know, I love a really unique

finish. I just hope they're doing it transparently and they're not just, you know, adding some

flavorings and like, you know, other brands do, but that's about it today. Um, it's been a pretty

crazy week in my personal life. Those of you on Patreon kind of know what's going on. I don't

want to get into it here on the podcast. Not that, you know, I do plan to hide it, but I just

I did a whole rant over on Patreon. So if you guys are not yet supporters of this show

and you want to get an insight into not just the future of the show and the podcast, but also a little bit of my personal life

because I am going through some stuff right now, you can join patreon.com slash bourbon bites for as little as $2 a month

It really does help support the show and the channel. And the higher tiers get access to some fun things like hangouts

and a private subscription box that goes out every single month. So definitely check that out

But thank you all so much for listening. This has been the Bourbon Bites podcast, a whiskey podcast with a gaming twist

I'm Clifton. Cheers. And I'll talk to you next episode