As long as they keep releasing these undisclosed Irish single malts, I will try to review each and every one of them. Whisky-Doris has two 1991’s in the Nose Art series: cask #8231 that is clearly peated and this cask #8533 that is… well.. I don’t know.
Irish single malt 1991
(48,5%, Whisky-Doris ‘Nose Art’ 2015, bourbon barrel #8533, 161 btl.)
Irish single malt 1991Nose: a fruit bomb. Bags of papayas, nectarines and tinned pineapples. Whitecurrant and white grapes. Butter pears. Nicely candied. After a while a fresher, mentholated fresh side turns up. It’s a narrow profile maybe, but I can smell this for hours.
Mouth: the fruity elements and the mineral / minty side is equally big now. Tropical fruits, apples and more grapefruit now. Sweetness, then a slight bitterness, and always this eucalyptus / mint note. Like a tropical Halls. There’s something earthy and robust to it as well, almost smoky.
Finish: not the longest, moving towards grapefruit, herbal notes and a bit of oaky bitterness.
Superb nose, with a growing oaky / herbal influence as we moved on. It holds the middle between the peated and the unpeated versions (you decide). Around € 270 at the time, now sold out.
Score: 91/100