Ding-a-ling-a-ling

Fresh off the back of their Whiskey of The Year win for their Fourth Single Pot Still release at the London Spirits Competition, Dingle Distillery has announced a new bottle to add to their now bulging spirit cabinet. Their Core Single Malt is Dingle Distillery’s first core whiskey expression, making it one of the few distilleries in Ireland to produce a core single malt product made entirely with its own spirit.

The Core Single Malt has been created with water pulled from a well on the distillery’s site, over 240 metres below ground. The production of Dingle Single Malt has been completely manual, with a human hand and eye at each critical point.

Years in the making, it’s been matured in PX Sherry (61%) and Bourbon (39%) first fill casks and comprising predominantly six to seven-year-old spirit. The team at Dingle Distillery use a no-chill filtration during its whiskey production adding no colouring to the spirit.

Bottled at 46.3% ABV, the team are starting off producing 50,000 bottles this year, the aim is to produce 100,000 bottles per year by 2023.

“Quality has always been at the heart of our DNA at Dingle Distillery, and that remains the case with our Single Malt launch. We are one of few distilleries in Ireland solely producing our own spirit – we don’t buy from or sell to other distilleries. When a customer buys from Dingle, they do so with the reassurance that the spirit is 100% Dingle,” says Elliot Hughes, Managing Director at Dingle Distillery, “this new core expression will provide the opportunity for the distillery to grow. By adding significant volume to our business, we can open up new markets and broaden our appeal to attract a new type of customer,” he added.

Cask quality was hugely important to Dingle Distillery and for Master Distiller Graham Coull, casks proved to be a key point of differentiation, he said: “we use first fill only casks to produce a richer flavour, while the sherry casks with their sweetness help to get the flavour in quickly, providing good body to the liquid.”

Coull says the Dingle Single Malt can be enjoyed neat, with ice, or as a mixing spirit for high-end cocktails. The team at Dingle Distillery have flagged up some tasting notes of lime zest, chopped mint and fresh sweet pear in the nose, apples, caramel, raisins and vanilla in the taste and lingers of honey and mixed spice for the finish.

Priced at €55.00 you can find the whiskey on Dingle Distillery’s website and in most independent off-licenses.

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