The Teeling Whiskey Company

Edit: for an updated overview, please check out my Teeling Distillery Visit post.

The Teeling Whiskey Company is a new independent Irish whiskey company. Ever since Cooley Distillery was acquired by American spirits compant Beam Inc. there has been a big hole in the Irish Whiskey landscape for a good independent Whiskey brand. Irish whiskey is fastest growing spirits category in the world but a lot of Irish whiskies don’t offer much choice in terms of styles or flavours. The Teeling Whiskey Company intend to change this by producing small batch whiskeys with great personality and character compared to the mass-market brands.

The Teeling Whiskey Company was founded in 2012 by Jack Teeling whose father, John, had founded the Cooley Distillery in 1987 (the first Irish whiskey distillery lauched in Ireland in over 100 years). Jack Teeling, whose family can trace their Irish whiskey heritage back to 1782, has just released Teeling Irish Whiskey which is a small batch bottling of hand selected casks of grain and malt whiskey matured in old rum barrels. The Teeling Whiskey Company’s whiskey is currently distilled by Cooley Distillery but Teeling apparently in the advanced stages of a feasablilty study to create their own distillery in Dublin where Walter Teeling opened a distillery in Marrowbone Lane in the Liberties over 230 years ago. This would mean that they would be able to make the break from being whiskey bottlers to becoming whiskey producers. Jack Teeling is ably assisted by former Cooley whiskey maker Alex Chasko, who was also Innovation Manager, who brings new ideas such as finishing the whiskey in rum casks.

There are currently three products produced – Teeling Whiskey, a Scotch and Irish Hybrid Malt Whiskey and Poitin (or Poteen). For more information on Teeling Poitin please read my blog post here.

Teeling Small Batch Blended Irish Whiskey

Teeling Small Batch Blended Irish Whiskey is a small batch blend of Malt and Grain whiskey with a higher than normal composition of first fill bourbon barrels and higher than usual ratio of malt to grain. The whiskey is finished in ex-Rum barrels that are sourced directly from the Nicaraguan Flor de Cana rum distillery. The blend is aged for 4 months in the rum barrels which bring an extra sweet and smooth flavour to the blend whilst retaining the unique taste of Irish Whiskey. It is bottled at 46% ABV without colouring or chill filtration to preserve mouthfeel and flavour.