Kinahan's

Kinahan’s whiskey was founded by Daniel Kinahan in 1779, with generations of the Kinahan family ensuring it became renowned for taste and character. In 1807, Charles Lennox, the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, was so impressed with a particular bottling that he ordered all barrels at the Kinahan family cellars be kept exclusively for his private use, marking each cask with 'LL' - a mark that now adrons every bottle from the resurrected brand, which was relaunched in 2014. Looking to stand out in an increasingly crowded Irish whiskey market, the new team looked at cask maturation, and became the first Irish whiskey producer to mature in 'hybrid' casks, using casks that had been constructed using staves from a variety of different types.

Kinahan's currently source their spirit from other Irish distilleries, but so much focus is put on the maturation side that it's not really fair to say it isn't 'their' whiskey. And a purpose built distillery is imminent, meaning they can work from scratch with their own new make.

The KASC Project is an experiment in whiskey-making, using wood as the key factor of flavour design and construction. Each Project whiskey is finished in hand-made “hybrid” casks, individually constructed from 5 different types of trees from unique origins: Portuguese Oak, American Oak, French Oak, Hungarian Oak and Chestnut. The aim is to create multi-dimensional flavour and character to, in this case, a Single Malt whiskey initially matured in ex-Bourbon casks.

The wood is certainly upfront, providing a thwack of soft spice to plum, raisin and baked apple notes. But the balance is excellent - it's not a drying spice and instead allows the fruitcake tones to continue through to a lengthy finish.