Talnua Distillery Heritage Selection Whiskey
Talnua takes pride in following the Irish Technical File (ITF) as far as they can - again, the only regulations they can’t follow are “made in Ireland using Irish water.” Their mashbill of 50% malted and 50% unmalted barley follows the 30/30/5 rule without the complication of the 5. That 30/30/5 rule and the ITF as a whole didn’t come from nowhere, and neither did the category of Single Pot Still Irish whiskey.
As does everything in whiskey, it came about because of a tax.
The first one, imposed by the British in 1798, taxed malted barley across the United Kingdom. There were taxes and laws that affected whiskey-making before then, but for this story the 1798 one is the key. By taxing malted barley, the Crown made it more expensive to make whiskey the way most distillers were making it, forcing those distillers into a catch-22:
They could - as many on the Emerald Isle did - start adding unmalted barley into the mashbills, thus lowering their taxable portion; the tradeoff is that unmalted barley, with its enzymes inactive and starches intact, is significantly less efficient at creating alcohol.
Today, with our concern for flavor occasionally taking precedence over yield, it makes sense to be honest to the tradition. Back then? It made equal sense to trade off - few distilleries were making whiskey at a scale where that scale didn’t justify the tradeoff for a differentiating factor, and the small, perhaps even home distillers probably didn’t care (or managed to avoid the tax collector altogether).
Within a half-century of that crucial tax, a combination of the Irish Famine, emigration, and industrialization began Irish whiskey’s long decline. Of the hundreds if not thousands of distilleries active in the 1840s, only four would survive a century later: Bushmills, in Northern Ireland, and three distilleries in the Republic of Ireland that consolidated into a single site at Midleton. Any brand that survived - Jameson, Power’s, Redbreast, the Spots - was made at Midleton and continues to be today. Peated Irish whiskey? That disappeared, too, but I’ll get more into that with the Talnua Peated Cask (or check out my review of the Midnight Silkie from Sliabh Liag via Cooley Distillery). John Teeling, the man behind both Cooley and Great Northern Distilleries, plays a huge role in this tale.
After that century-plus of consolidation, we’re finally seeing the revival of Irish whiskey. By the end of 2022, the number of distilleries either up-and-running or in-progress is above 50. Irish whiskey is the fastest growing brown spirit in the world, and it’s not just Jameson (though a lot of it is).
What does all of this have to do with Talnua? Everything. Interest and demand drive success. Talnua’s success, however well-intentioned and thought out, is conditional on interest in the category. They’re an American distillery, but for all intents and purposes they are also Irish. That heritage is the bridge between old and new.
Talnua’s Heritage Selection is a blend of their own distillate and grain whiskey from Cooley. Blended when both are about 18 months old, the blend is then put into used (second-fill) Colorado whiskey barrels to finish its maturation. The youth does show a little more in this product than in the others I got to try, perhaps because while all of them are around 2-3 years old this one’s second half is in used barrels rather than new, meaning less wood interaction. That said, the house green apple note is more prevalent alongside fresh vanilla beans.
I’m a big fan of Cooley’s distillate (and most things John Teeling is a part of), I think this just needed more time in more active casks to achieve its full potential. Another year or so to compensate for the used cooperage and this probably scores a bit higher.
Thank you to Talnua Distillery for providing this sample free of editorial constraint.
Talnua Distillery Heritage Selection Whiskey: Specs
Classification: Blend of Single Pot Still Whiskey and Irish Grain Whiskey
Origin: Talnua Distillery and Cooley Distillery
Mashbill: Undisclosed Ratio of Talnua and Cooley Distillery Mashbills
Proof: 86 (43% ABV)
Age: 2+ Years Old
Location: Colorado, United States and Ireland
Talnua Distillery Heritage Selection Whiskey Price: $50
Talnua Distillery Heritage Selection Whiskey: Tasting Notes
Eye: Pale gold, honeyed white tea. Thin cascading rims and legs, tiny droplets.
Nose: More grain-forward and a tad younger right off the nose. Still some grain funk on the first sniff. The grain whiskey brings vanilla beans freshly scraped and puff pastry while the Talnua portion keeps the house flavors present.
Palate: Gingery, spicy in its decidedly younger profile. Astringency comes from out of nowhere to make my mouth water. Green apple Jolly Ranchers and other hard candies coat my tongue, the vanilla from the nose all but gone. Mouthfeel is thin and silky, peppery hit on the tip of my tongue, mildly coating with green apple.
Finish: Fresh Granny Smith apples becoming clearer on the finish. Some vanilla returns, like a baked apple minus the overt spices. Medium length and coating on the whole tongue.
Overall: I’m not sure if this is as successful as the Virgin American Oak. I genuinely think it just needs more time to compensate for a less active cask. I get the idea of what they’re trying to accomplish, and the Talnua character comes through clearly. Grain whiskies tend to need more age, too, so maybe that year becomes two if it’s a 50/50 proportion.
Final Rating: 6.2
10 | Insurpassable | Nothing Else Comes Close
9 | Incredible | Extraordinary
8 | Excellent | Exceptional
7 | Great | Well above average
6 | Very Good | Better than average
5 | Good | Good, solid, ordinary
4 | Has promise but needs work
1-3 | Let’s have a conversation
More Irish (and Irish-Style) Whiskey Reviews
