Once again I recieved a sample from the nice people at
Cooley! The sample contained ”Connemara Turf Mor 58,2% Abv” which is the 2nd
whiskey from Connemara to be released in their ”Small batch collection” (circa
20.000 bottles) during November. The malt is peated to more than 50ppm
according to my sources but some unofficial sources say between 53-58ppm. The
Turf Mor will be available in the UK, Benelux, Germany and Ireland (but
probably not Sweden) so the rest of us will have to purchase it in online
stores. I compared this to the regular ”Connemara CS 57,9% Abv” which should be
about the same age, and the peatiness is A LOT bigger in the ”Turf Mor”.
Color: Light goldish
Nose: A beautiful nose spreads throughout the room! Some
really nice summery flower tones as always in Connemara. There’s a lot of
citrus fruit-like scents (satsumas) and some acrid orangepeel tones and also
some really nice touches of melon (honey, gailia) white chocolate and soft
vanilla. Quite some watermelon as well. Also som cherry (yes the berry), some
vanilla pod, light traces of cinnamon. The peat is kind of rubby-ish and also
makes me think of bluecheese such as saint agur. The peatiness is very big and
surrounds all of these beautiful smells but at the same time the peat is very
light and nice. There is also som discrete touches of brown sugar, dates and
figs which indicate finishing time in sherry casks.
Palate: Oh damn! Really nice. Starts of really creamy and
soft for like half a second but then, BOOM! Some really citric, fresh, herby
and flowery peatiness which really brings back the bluecheese and rubber from
the nose. The dryness calms down but there is still an intensive peatiness
clinging on that almost burns my tounge and brings heat to my mouth. After some
time has passed the creamy vanilla tones interact with the citric, and my mouth
is watering. The hints of sherry casks from the nose return also on the palate
(quite late) when brown sugar, figs and sultan raisins pop up and say hello.
To sum up and return to the comparison to the regular
Connemara CS, The ”Turf Mor” is not as bold and ”out there” concerning the
citric and flowery tones, but represents a more mature and creamy (and peatier)
version of Connemara (although it’s some three years). Both the CS and the Turf
Mor are really great Connemaras but also VERY different from each other
My favourite Connemara,
SvaraRaderaHard to get hold of now!