Our Whisky of the Week is Gold Spot 9 Year Old and Adam was only too happy to taste this delightful Irish single pot still whiskey.
The Whisky of the Week series is made up of bottles you vote for. If you didn’t get to have your say in this week’s bottle then be sure to keep an eye on our Instagram Stories so that you can influence what we taste next. Your choices are Old Pulteney 18 Year Old, Talisker 18 Year Old, or Tomatin 18 Year Old Sherry Cask, so whatever wins we’ll be sampling something great.
Gold Spot 9 Year Old was the one that caught your eye this week, not because of all that gold, but because you all know full well that Spot whiskey is great whiskey. It’s a fine example of Irish single pot still whiskey and it’s no surprise to us that you wanted to see and hear more about it.
This is the gold standard.
The Gold Spot story
The always interesting series Spot whiskey range was added to last year with Gold Spot, a limited-edition Irish whiskey that marks the celebration of 135 years of whiskey bonding in the Mitchell family.
It was back in 1887 that the original creators of Spot, wine and spirits merchants Mitchell & Son, first sent empty wine and fortified wine casks to the local Jameson Distillery in Bow Street to be filled with new single pot still spirit for maturation in its underground cellars. Once filled, the fortified wine casks would be marked with a daub or ‘spot’ of coloured paint, to determine the age potential.
While the family didn’t have a gold spot themselves, this tribute whiskey from Midleton Distillery is a marriage of bourbon and sherry cask whisky that has been matured for a minimum of nine years, with a proportion aged in Bordeaux wine casks and Port pipes. The latter is a first for the Spot range, and a nice reflection of the style of barrels that would have been available to the Mitchell family.
Adam tastes Gold Spot 9 Year Old
Nose: Rich pot still spice is accompanied by nutty and oaky elements as well as a host of candied tropical fruits.
Palate: A silky, soft palate carries notes of buttery vanilla, aromatic spices like cinnamon, toasted almonds, and more of those juicy fruits.
Finish: Long and a little drying with pineapple, apple, pepper, and ginger.
Gold Spot 9 Year Old is available from Master of Malt.
