Irish Distillers creates Midleton whiskey finished in bluebell forest oak casks

Irish Distillers-owned whiskey brand Midleton has released harnessing the flavours of Ireland’s bluebell forests.

The whiskey has been finished in barrels made from Irish oak grown in the bluebell forest of Castle Blunden, a nearly 400-year-old estate in County Kilkenny.

Dair Ghaelach, which is Gaelic for ‘Irish oak’, is the result of an eight-year exploration by the expert production team at the Midleton Distillery, County Cork, into using native oak to mature Irish whiskey and follows the release of Midleton Dair Ghaelach Grinsell’s Wood in February 2015.

Kevin O’Gorman, Head of Maturation at Midleton Distillery, said the new spirit will have notes of “milk chocolate and honeycomb on the nose,” as well as a smooth mouthfeel and “long, pot still finish.

“The nuances in flavour in the two editions of Midleton Dair Ghaelach come from our native wood,” O’Gorman added.

“The range has provenance unlike any Irish whiskey before it and we look forward to exploring more of Ireland’s woodlands further in the years to come.”

To craft the oak into barrels, fellow artisans at the Maderbar sawmills in Baralla, north-west Spain, used the quarter-sawing process to cut the trees into staves, which were then transferred to the Antonio Páez Lobato cooperage in Jerez, Andalusia.

After drying for 15 months, the staves were worked into 29 Irish oak Hogshead casks and given a light toast.

The whiskey, made up of a selection of Midleton’s classic rich and spicy pot still distillates matured for between 12 and 23 years in American oak barrels, was then filled into the Irish oak Hogshead casks and diligently nosed and tasted each month by Leighton and O’Gorman.