I’m taking a trip down memory lane, to the early days of my whisky journey. It brings me back to Guy Boeyen at TastToe, the first Spirits in the Sky at the Liège airport, the festival in Ghent, the Mara cellar, etc. Somehow there is also a connection to Connemara in my mind.
In the early 2000s BenRiach came back to life and Arran released a new type of cask finish every other week. We also thought Brora 30 Years was getting expensive at € 175 a bottle. Connemara was still affordable and a well respected whiskey back then, with a farmy kind of peat that was similar yet nicely different from the ones on Islay. It was firmly on my watchlist back then, and I remember having to use my elbows to get hold of an outstanding 1992 single cask bottled for whisky club 100° Proof.
Today we’re having another Connemara 1992 bottled around the same period, a single cask bottled for Celtic Whiskey Shop in 2010.
Connemara 18 yo 1992 (46%, OB for Celtic Whiskey Shop 2010, bourbon cask #3767)
Nose: I love the farmy kind of peat that Connemara delivered these days. It is rather sooty, but also slightly buttery, with dark exhaust fumes as well as brighter mentholated hints. Sharper horseradish and mustard. Light waxy notes (paraffin) and a lot of walnuts too. Pleasantly austere.
Mouth: a sweet fruitiness appears first. Gooseberries, pears and peach, mixed with menthol, walnuts and herbal tea. Light seaweed and grassy / minty notes. I think the peat is brighter and more subdued than the nose suggested. Black peppercorns towards the end.
Finish: long, peaty and rather waxy, with hints of citrus fruits, ink and ashes.
Maybe not as classic as many Islay whiskies, but I’ve always had a thing for well-aged Connemara from this era. Back then they were getting a lot of attention and praise, and they were often selected as festival bottlings. Nowadays they have fallen a little into oblivion. This particular bottle is long gone, but I got a sample from Drams Delivered.