Nose: Fresh mown lawn, green apples, fresh grapes, star-fruit, and just a hint of cloves and uncut Kiwi-fruit.
Mouthfeel: Mid-weight, with a touch of zing. A little oily, with no creaminess. Perhaps just a touch too sharp.
Palate: The palate pretty much is exactly what you’d expect from the nose – taking the fruits and spices, and replacing the grass with some pot still spice, and raw cocoa. Hints of toffee and vanilla as it heads to the back of the tongue.
Finish: The finish on this is huge. It lasts for an eternity. Cycling between pot still spice, oak spice, vanilla, and toffee.
The Irishman Founder’s Reserve is a triple distilled blend of 70% single malt and 30% single pot still – only barley, no other grain. It is a No Age Statement whisky that has been aged in ex-Bourbon casks, and released at 40% ABV.
The Founder’s Reserve is the recipe of the original vatting/blend created by the Walsh Distillery’s founder, Bernard Walsh; and despite being a blend, is a blend of single malt and single pot still whiskies – it is not a blend in the traditional sense in that it contains no grain, and no column still whiskey.
The Walsh Distillery is currently distilled under contract. Construction of a distillery was started in 2014 at Royal Oak in Country Carlow, however the partnership between the Walsh’s and their partners Illva Saronno was dissolved in 2019; with the Walsh’s keeping their whiskey, but losing the distillery.
Walsh whiskey started back in 1999, when Rosemary Walsh ran a ski chalet in France, and made Irish Coffees for the guests every night – and decided there had to be a better way to do this than making it by hand every day.
Along the way there was also The Irishman Irish Cream, and in 2007, the launch of The Irishman 70 (now the Founder’s Reserve) and The Irishman Single Malt were launched. In 2009 Walsh’s second whiskey brand, Writer’s Tears, was launched.
Would I Drink It Again?
Total Score
Probably. Although I'm not sure it is worth buying over some of the other Irishman and Writer's Tears releases - which are just amazing.
Always found the Founders Reserve a characterful little blend.
On a vertical tasting of other Irishman releases I kept going back to it.
The combination of the simplicity, style, accessibility & a touch of spice drew me in.
There’s talk Royal Oak Distillery will be releasing their own distillate this year – 2020 – under ‘The Busker’ label.
https://www.ttbonline.gov/colasonline/viewColaDetails.do?action=publicFormDisplay&ttbid=20121001000856
I quite like the Founder’s Reserve, but for me some of the other Irishman releases are just that tad bit more refined. Most of the Writers Tears releases are some of my favourite whiskies – the original Copper Pot is just simply stunning in my opinion.
I’m not surprised that Royal Oak is going to release some whiskey – there’s not much point in building a distillery if you don’t (perhaps other than to sell it at a profit).