The Greenore 18 Single Irish Grain Whiskey

50 ml airline bottle

Tasting notes: 
On the nose, apricots fading slowly to Dale Evans’ saddle…on Eeyore of Winnie-the-Pooh fame.  Actually, therein lies the seed of the best comprehensive metaphor for this dram:  Greenore is Eeyore’s dark, handsome, older and much less depressive Irish cousin.  (And no, he doesn’t have a leprechaun hat, nor does he have a four-leaf clover tatooed on his shoulder–he’s just older, a darker shade of gray, and Irish.)  Leave it to open up for a few minutes, and it seems that perhaps Greenore spent some time maturing in a former sherry cask, perhaps at the direction of a cruel and impatient master (“Greenore!  I told you to stop sniffing around my workshop!  Into the barrel with you again!”).  The mouth gives hints of the peonies from his former master’s garden, peonies that Greenore gleefully ate just before running away.  As it moves toward the finish, one gets the clearest sense of Greenore’s dark side, doubtless formed during his travels as a poor, transient, underaged cartoon donkey:  there is something bitter and a bit forboding on the tongue, like the memory of a missed appointment or slightly misspent youth.  However, that bit of bitterness is porpoise-like, appearing and reappearing, and it gives Greenore an interesting, mysterious edge (think Colin Farrell, but as a Disney donkey–fortunately, when you’re soft and apparently hoof-less, it’s much more difficult to trash a hotel room).  

On the finish, there is also a hint of the distinct flavor of the brine and the anticipation characteristic of Sea World (did he stop there during his travels?  We may never know…).  But overall, the finish is tough to get a good read on, almost as if his tail keeps falling off.

Rating:
–On the scale of Winnie-the-Pooh characters who could use some psychotropic medication–
The Greenore 18 Single Irish Grain Whiskey is TiggerEeyore might benefit from antidepressants, but he may just be a glass half empty kind of guy.  But a tiger with a spring for a tail?  Ritalin, anyone? 
   
  

                                                                             –Stephen


Our thanks to Rachel Quinn and the good folks at Cooley for the sample. 

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