From Ireland, Gold Spot The Generations and The Quiet Man's New Cask Finish
March 18, 2024 –––––– Danny Brandon
While most of the new whisky releases have been dominated by bourbon and scotch, fans of Irish whiskey will be happy to hear that Ireland is also in the mix. Recent releases include two new bottlings from Ireland, both featuring an Italian wine cask finish. The legendary Spot whiskey label has introduced a new 13 year old single pot still into its Gold Spot lineup. The Quiet Man has a new aged single malt, which was finished using Sicilian marsala casks.
Gold Spot The Generations Edition
At the peak of the Victorian whiskey boom, Dublin bonded whiskey seller Mitchell & Son originated a system of labeling casks with a daub of paint, each painted “spot” identifying the whiskey’s age. The system evolved into a brand name—the Spot whiskeys— that’s famous in Irish whiskey today. While the entire Spot family has always scored well, its wine cask-finished expressions—like Quails’ Gate and Chateau Montelena, which both featured on our Top 20 lists over the years—have received top marks. The label’s newest has tapped that same vein, pairing aged whiskey with Italian wine casks.
Gold Spot The Generations Edition, is the second release in the relatively new Gold Spot series. The inaugural whiskey was a single pot still that was aged for at least 9 years; like the rest of the Spots, it had a foundation of bourbon and sherry cask-matured whiskey, but it was married with contributions from Bordeaux wine barrels and some older 17 year old liquid matured in port pipes. It landed in July 2022 coinciding with the 135th anniversary of the founding Mitchell family’s entrance into the whiskey game.
The Generations Edition is 13 years old; it was first matured in sherry casks and bourbon barrels before undergoing a 16-month finish in wine casks from Secondo Marco winery in Italy’s Valpolicella region. The new whiskey has a noticeably lower proof, bottled at 46% ABV compared to the original’s 51.4%, which puts it on the same level as Red Spot. Like the first Gold Spot, The Generations Edition also pays tribute to the Mitchell family—with the name referring to the seven generations of Mitchells that still have the brand in the family fold.
The whiskey is in limited release at U.S. retailers this month with a suggested retail price of $165. American drinkers who are planning a European holiday will also be able to find bottles in Ireland, France, and in Irish Travel Retail for €150. The 9 year old Gold Spot scored an impressive 92 points, one of the highest scores we’ve given a Spot whiskey; we’re looking forward to seeing how well this new one measures up.
The Quiet Man Marsala Cask Finish
MGP is best known for the contract distilling it does for other brands, but its own labels have also generated a lot of noise in recent times. While that spotlight has largely fallen on its more impressive American holdings—including Ezra Brooks, which earned a spot on Whisky Advocate's most recent Top 20 Whiskies list—its subsidiary Luxco also owns an oft-overlooked Irish whiskey label aptly named The Quiet Man, which has a new cask-finished expression.
The limited-edition whiskey is named Barman’s Code, in tribute to founder Ciaran Mulgrew’s father John, a career barman in Belfast—and the eponymous quiet man—who built a reputation for keeping the secrets of his patrons. It's an Irish single malt that was aged for 10 years before spending another 10 months in casks that previously held marsala, a fortified wine from Sicily that’s produced using a method that closely resembles a sherry solera system. The resulting whiskey was cut to 43% ABV before bottling, a slight uptick from the label’s usual 40%, which is carried by both of its core expressions. The age statement is also higher than usual for the brand, as The Quiet Man’s flagship single malt is 8 years old.
The Quiet Man has experimented with cask finishes in the past, but those efforts were limited: most never saw a U.S. release, save for Sherry Cask Finish which only landed in a few states. Barman’s Code represents the first cask-finished bottling from The Quiet Man to be available globally. Some 9,000 bottles were produced, which will be available this month with a suggested retail price of $55. The Quiet Man teased that this whiskey is the first in a new line of cask extra-aged finished expressions; though the details are scarce, a second expression is expected to come sometime in late 2024 or early 2025.
