Review by: DemiTastes
Thanks to my friend and Irish Whiskey lover, The Pawn, for this sample. (Bottle photo borrowed from The Pawn.)
Killowen is a pretty new Irish distillery located just across the Carlingford Lough from the County Louth, which is home of the Cooley Distillery. They value producing whiskey with an authenticity tied to old style traditional production, including poitin as well as whiskey, with contemporary knowledge and practices for the highest quality spirit.
From their website on their process in general:
Killowen have selected two handmade artisan stills named Christoir (1000 litre) and Broc (800 litre). Both pot stills are flame fed and our condensers are worm tub. We believe the ancient still shape, size, flame heat and worm tub condensation help create a traditional spirit with a contemporary twist. It is our understanding that Killowen are the only Distillery to focus on purely worm tub condensers in Ireland.
As a Scotch whisky fan myself, I know that for some of our cohort, direct-fired stills and worm tubs are a sought-after but fading rarity in the industry. It’s refreshing to see a new distillery coming about that incorporates these practices into their production of new spirits.
From Killowen’s website, here’s the basic details of this bottling:
- SIGNATURE RUM & RAISIN
- SINGLE MALT IRISH WHISKEY
- FINISHED IN DARK RUM CASKS & PX SHERRY BUTTS
Balancing PX Sherry & Dark Rum finishes for the perfect flavour of the Carribean. With coconut & vanilla, figs, prunes & raisins.
After aging for 5 years in Bourbon casks, this Single Malt has been divided and finished in Killowen’s own dark rum casks & PX sherry butts. The County Louth malt is the perfect compliment to the marriage of PX sherry flavours of prunes, figs & raisins combined with rum’s tropical Caribbean notes of coconut & vanilla.
Reading between the lines and checking against some other reviewers’ research, it seems like “the County Louth malt” for batch 1 was potentially sourced from Cooley, though potentially aged for the entire cask finishing interval at Killowen itself. Nevertheless it is presented according to the distillery’s authenticity and transparency standards: Cask Strength, non-chillfiltered, no color added. It is difficult to say whether the sourced malt was direct fired and worm-tub condensed. Even if not, based on this example, I’m looking forward to a time where the distillery’s own new make ultimately reaches maturity and makes its way into the whiskey bottlings.
Most of my experience with Irish whiskey has been Single Pot Still style (Redbreast 12, Yellow Spot) or a blend of malt, grain, and pot still Irish whiskey (as Tullamore DEW, Jameson Black Barrel). I have little to no experience with Irish Single Malt Whiskey. This should be interesting!
Distillery: Killowen
Bottler: Killowen
Region/Style: Irish Single Malt Whiskey
ABV: 55% | CS Cask Strength | NCF Non-chillfiltered
Age: 5 years
Cask type: Finished in Dark Rum Casks and PX Sherry Butts
Price: Theoretically the equivalent of 60 EUR for 500ml; but not available near me.
Color: 0.3 pale gold | NCA No Color Added
Nose: The nose is fruity and inviting, but doesn’t give much complexity. A little sharp if you get too close, expected for the proof. — Banana custard. Mild sweetness of demerara sugar. Faint golden raisins. Just a hint of funkiness of an oxidized sherry (which fits the PX cask influence). Hint of metallic like a well-used cast iron pan. / With water: the banana becomes more of a mild apple and candied kiwi. Garden greens and a touch of loamy soil. Dare I suggest a hint of wax?
Palate: Warming and a bit prickly. Cinnamon raisin compote. Syrupy dark fruits. Fig and wine reduction. A dash of chili powder. Cardamom. / With water: fresh cut sweet green apple with a hint of sherry and sweet pastry dough. Still leans spicy but the evolution of spice is delayed nicely and overall the palate is sweeter.
Finish: Medium-short. Cardamom and chili dominate the turn to the finish with a sharp prickle of heat. Bananas Foster – this is the first clear note of rum. Fresh vanilla bean. / With water: Banana pudding finally comes back for the finish.
Conclusion: While the nose was initially quite inviting, it didn’t want to give up much complexity on closer inspection. The rum influence was more obvious on the nose than the PX, and the PX was more obvious on the palate with the rum hiding a bit. The palate seems like it wanted to give some more complexity but was covered up by the chili spiciness and the heat of the alcohol. While the flavor notes may sound mostly sweet, it was surprisingly overall on the off-dry side for me. Overall I like it quite a bit, but mostly for the nose and the finish, especially with water, which opens it up a bit. There’s a few things about the profile of the nose that I really love, especially the fruity notes mixed with a bit of waxy garden greens, which the afternose (drying glass) confirmed. I felt the palate was a little unbalanced on the spicy side. I’m looking forward to a little bit more balance and meatiness from the distillery’s own direct fired stills and worm tub condensers in future editions. All in all, this certainly defied my expectations of Irish whiskey — which in my experience has tended to be rather light, sometimes hints of thin and metallic flavors, or a little bit of raw dough from single pot still — most of which is not bad per se; I look to Irish whiskey at times for that very lightness and some of those unique-to-single-pot-still flavors. This instead strikes me as a slightly different take on a full-bodied single malt compared to other world single malts, but definitely still in that ballbark.
Buy a bottle? 2/5 value – “Maybe…” 60 EUR feels like approximately the right price point for a 700ml, but this price is for a 500ml, so it’s a little pricey for what it is. But then, this is, so far, a small-scale craft distillery, which can’t quite hit the economies of scale of the big whiskey producers. The whiskey is solid for now and I’m happy to support the development of more original liquid from this distillery. I wouldn’t be upset with the purchase.
Final Score: 80/100 (6/10) – Very good. Based on this first example I’m really looking forward to more from this distillery.
(DemiTastes Review #81, Irish #6.)
Scoring Legend:
- 95-100: As good as it gets. Jaw-dropping, eye-widening, unforgettable whisky.
- 90-94: Sublime, a personal favorite in its category.
- 85-89: Excellent, a standout dram.
- 80-84: Quite good. Quality stuff.
- 75-79: Decent whisky worth tasting.
- 70-74: Meh. It’s definitely drinkable, but it can do better.
- 60-69: Not so good. I might not turn down a glass if I needed a drink.
- 50-59: Save it for mixing.
- 0-49: Blech.
Malt Runners 
