The Whisky Agency 21 Years Old Irish Single Malt 51.3% 1998

Professionele reviews

Serge Valentin (89)

Colour: gold. Nose: typical hops, wisteria, gorse, then mangos, passion fruits, green bananas, and then wee whiffs of engine oil, garden bonfire and balsa wood. Impeccable this time. With water: metal polish and fruit peel, plus a smart assortment of oily and resinous aromas, around putty. Like. Mouth (neat): it’s utterly great that a 1998 would be as fantastic as the famous 1988-1992s (and thereabouts). Tangerines grapefruits, passion fruits, lemon, etcetera. Touch of lavender honey. With water: and it takes water extremely well. I’d swear it could swim to the Kildalton shore, which isn’t that far away after all. Remember what they say, ‘if you can’t see it, it's raining; if you can, it’s going to rain.’ Finish: medium, and this time again, a tad grassier and leafier. Comments: around ten further years will make it reach 90-91, piece of cake. But would that be worth it? I guess the answer would be ‘no’.

Whisky Notes (90)

Nose: some dusty grains at first, with hessian and old cloth. Also rapeseed oil, even engine oil, and dried herbal notes. Hints of hickory chips. Mint and heather. A whiff of women’s powder as well as greasy touches. Soft apricots in the background, as well as a hint of mango, but this is not the classic Irish profile. It’s highly unique though and very intruiging.

Mouth: much more classical now. You know, papaya, tangerines, hints of passion fruits, going to more floral verbena and pollen. Honeyed notes. Hints of potpourri. Yet alongside these fruits there’s always aoily, slightly sooty and slightly metallic undertone. Very old-school, a bit like some of these old Knappogue Castle bottles. More mundane vanilla, nuts and berries as well.

Finish: long, returning to these dusty grains, with some leafy touches, aniseed and a resinous edge.

A lovely Irish again, this time not just for the tropical fruity notes, but also for the slightly quirky, unique old-school touches. As if this were made fifty years ago. A great profile, recommended.

BOW (87)

Angus MacRaild, whiskyfun:

Colour: gold. Nose: a fascinating kind of halfway house between those two styles. All on runny honeys, glazed pastries, heather flowers, gentle notes of hessian, duster cloth and canvass. There’s also these quite rich characters of putty, rapeseed oil and pollen. A style unto its own and quite distinct from many of these other Irish doing the rounds these days. I find it impressively complex and compelling - almost old highlands style in some ways. With water: a tad more whacky, gloopy and oily. Some hints of cheese curd, farmyard, oily sheep wool, mineral oils and shoe polish. Really quite an industrial / mechanical style. Mouth: Here the Irish accent really sings! Much more towards light sootiness, old metal polish, oily rags, old toolboxes, copper coins, steel wood, sunflower oil, pot pourri and lighter notes of waxed canvass. You can really spot some shared DNA with these very old pure pot still bottlings of things like Redbreast and Green Spot from the 60s and 50s. In the background you also get wee glimmers of dried mango which nods to these more recent exotic stylings. With water: drier but still retaining this oiliness of texture and weight in the mouth, along with this rather mechanical profile. More metal polish, camphor, green herbs, light menthol tobacco notes and chamois leather. Finish: good length and featuring some impressively funky overripe exotic fruits, olive oil, aniseed and a little plain fresh white bread. Comments: Very unusual, really harks back to quite a specific old school Irish style I would say. Is this pure pot still? You certainly get that impression from all these mechanical, oily and weirdly flabby fruit qualities. Anyway, worth trying if it crosses your path, it’s quite the entertainer.