Hallowed be thy grain

... Taking a closer look at anything BUT single malt whisky

Happy New year one and all! May the best of 2022 prove to become the worst of 2023! As you probably well know, a new month means a new series on this blog, as I try to find a different theme for every month of the year, allowing me to take a look at certain whiskies from a specific angle. Basically it means I can keep things interesting for myself (rather than just reviewing whatever crosses my path) and hopefully you as well. It also means I’m occasionally forcing myself to step out of my comfort zone, exploring whisky I might otherwise overlook. And kicking off 2023, I am indeed stepping out of what is my comfort zone, as I lay down the cosy and comfortable blanket of scotch single malt, and will be dipping my toe in several grain whiskies. Broadening the horizon even further, I’ll be sipping stuff from Ireland, the US, Scotland and Scandinavia.

As the saying goes, the rising tide lifts all the ships, and I feel that with the frankly ginormous wave that’s carrying anything whisky at the moment, the ship carrying grain whisky is included as welll. As a category they have always been ‘the odd one out’ in the family of whisky. As everyone keeps yapping on about what a terrific old chum single malt is, the wee grain brother is very often left standing in the corner, picking its nose and very much minding its own business as no one was paying much attention at the best of times. And although this has indeed started to change a bit in recent years as we see more and more single grains on the shelves, mostly thanks to the efforts of indie bottlers, many will argue that the flavour and character from a pot distilled single malt whisky will 9 times out of 10 outclass a column distilled grain whisky. Yours truly included, for the record.

Having said that, or maybe even because of this claim about the superior quality of malt over grain whisky, I thought it might be a nice way to ring in the new year and try out a bunch of grain whiskies and see what’s what.

Teeling Single Grain 13 yo, 2021 release. 50% ABV, UCF, bourbon cask matured, finished in Bordeaux red wine casks, app. €70 - €75 and still widely available.

The first whisky to feature in this series comes from Ireland. Teeling distillery is the undisputed flag bearer of the 21st Century Irish whiskey Renaissance in my opinion, as they pretty much paved the way for the +40 Irish distilleries that have seen the light of day in the past 10 or so years. When John Teeling sold Cooley and Kilbeggan in 2011 to Beam, they were very much the last of the Mohicans as there were very few remaining Irish distilleries at the time, the 3d and last one being the juggernaut Midleton distillery owned by Pernod Ricard. Selling Cooley and Kilbeggan generated the necessary funds to kick start Teeling Whisky, as John’s sons Jack and Stephen Teeling had a clear plan to bring back distilling to Dublin. At first there was only the name Teeling whisky, which was in fact made from Cooley and Kilbeggan stock (as a clever part of the deal with Beam was that the Teeling family could keep most, if not all, of the stock), but in 2015 Teeling distillery came into being, with its quite spot on logo of a phoenix rising from its ashes. So a quick math subtraction teaches me that this 2021 release is also from either Cooley or Kilbeggan, yet flying under the Teeling banner.

As is the case with many single grain whiskies, they need time, often an awful lot of it even, to develop into something decent. 13 years for a single grain seems like it might be borderline under matured, so time to find out whether that finish in a Bordeaux wine cask is either a brilliant twist / quick win to lift things up, or just a sign of the times to throw many a younger whisky in a wine cask of some sorts.

Nose

Closed at first. Let it breath and a funky sweetness emerges after about 5 minutes. Give it more time and notes of red fruit and red wine notes become increasingly clear. Give it even more time and things become even more distinct with blackcurrant, vanilla, wood and grain notes with a serious amount of corn dust in there as well. All the while that funky touch keeps shining through in the form of a yeasty-fungi, overripe grape note. Luckily it works a treat and it sits well with the other notes. A drop of water and the funk diminishes, making room for more berry sweetness, rosewater and caramelized apples.

Taste

Woody and leathery arrival, which quite surprised me truth be told, as I wasn’t picking any of it up on the nose and wouldn’t immediately associate these with a relatively young grain whisky. A lot of fruit again, mostly dried oranges now, with a gentle wood note rounding things off. This again changes noticeably after a few drops of water as drier, darker notes show up. Chocolate and hints of coffee adding a pleasant soft bitter touch to it all.

Finish

Quite long and fairly sweet on caramel and fruit notes.

Final thoughts

A bit of a weird, peculiar whisky this, but in the best possible way. That hard to pinpoint funky note works well somehow, woven around gentle fruit and sweet grain notes. In fact, it lifts things up in my opinion, preventing it from becoming what would otherwise likely have been a decent, yet perhaps also a bit of a standard (not to say generic) grain whisky. Cards on the table: I’m not exactly a Teeling fanboy. Far from it, even. There’s very few Teelings I’ve tried that made me pause and sit back, as I found most of what I’ve tried a bit too middle of the road. This is not one of those whiskies, I’m happy to report. It’s interesting, full of flavour and while being perfectly approachable, also comes with a bit of a twist. Not one to be taken to the gallows, then, as this is well deserving of a firm nod of approval in my book. 85/100