In all our years of consuming this excellent golden liquid we call whisky, never once have we come across anything quite like this brand we’re about to brief you on. Wednesday nights are normally boring ones, trapped behind the desk churning out more words than your local newspaper. However, this Wednesday just passed the wife and I (she is slowly becoming my whisky apprentice), stepped out of the shadows of the intel I7 processor and out onto the streets of London, for an interesting evening of Whitty married banter and good old whisky. On this occasion the whisky was more on the Irish side of things, so now we will switch our terminology over to ‘whiskey’.
On a summery Wednesday night, we discovered a new brand on the streets known as Method and Madness. Interesting name you say? And we thought the exact same, but the curiosity of why they were named as such, grew more and more as their master of maturation; Kevin O’Gorman spoke that unsung gospel. The Irish whiskey brand Method and Madness came by last year with the aim to push boundaries within the realms of Irish whiskey, by producing some new innovative releases that will quite frankly make you go WTF upon initially hearing of it. As of Wednesday, they announced to us and the many keen dram sippers in the room, their two new expressions through a 28 year old and their single pot still Irish whiskey.
The Method and Madness single pot still Irish whiskey has been finished in Virgin Hungarian oak, coming from the Carpathian mountain range in the north east of Hungary. Their method behind this is driven from the volcanic soils of the mountain, which are best suited for the wood. The madness is the wood giving such complex compounds and subtle flavours during the finishing process of whiskey making. Flavours overall on the nose reminds me a little bit like pencil shavings, which is driven by the super fresh oakiness of the barrel.
Second new expression is their 28 year old ruby port pipe whiskey, a single pot still Irish whiskey matured initially for six years in American oak barrels, before it’s then casked into a Ruby port pipe for a further 22 years. The result is notes of ripe stone fruit and vanilla on the nose. On the palate its again got hints of vanilla, followed by some strong notes of cinnamon.
The Bottle
Even the bottles themselves are an emphasis to the method and madness within this brand. On one side of the bottles label you’ll see the straight lines, which represent the more traditional side of the whiskey making. But then you turn to the other, very much contrasted side of this label, only to find abstract lines that clearly show a more chaotic side to this brand.
Such an unusual but magnificent collection of amazing whiskeys and we can’t wait to give the full et a proper go (sometimes a couple drams just don’t cut it). For more insights into the wonders going on in the Midllton distillery, head on over to the Method & Madness website.
