I was quite surprised when last week the postman delivered a package from Dublin. Inside the package was a sample bottle of whiskey alongside a letter from the Teeling Whiskey Company who invited me to review their latest release. That whiskey is the Revival Vol. II which is a commemorative bottling to mark the first anniversary of the Dublin based Distillery.
Teeling is the first distillery in Dublin for over 125 years and was founded by Jack Teeling who was previously at the helm at the Cooley Distillery but left the company after it was purchased by Jim Beam. The spirit that is currently bottled by Teeling was produced by Cooley.
The Revival II consists of whiskey that was distilled in 2002 and that was matured for 12 years in ex-Bourbon casks. It then got a finish in 250 litre ex-Calvados casks for another year. It is bottled at 46% ABV with no chill filtration. It is limited to 10'000 bottles and a bottle will cost around 100€.
Calvados is a French apple brandy that I am not too familiar with but I really liked what I have tasted so far. At a French wine tasting I was able to sample some really stunning Calvados called Pays d'Auge Coeur de Lion that was produced by Christian Drouin. I tasted some very old expressions including vintage bottlings from 1958 and 1967 that were absolutely fantastic.
I've never had a Calvados matured whisky before but as I just mentioned I quite like the apple brandy on its own and I am also a sucker for apple desserts so I'm quite interested how this whiskey is going to be.
