The last in last week’s series of madeira cask whiskies was a Teeling. It wasn’t the best of the week but I liked it. And so, even though my first week of Irish whiskeys this summer didn’t go so well (three other Teelings: here, here and here), I’ll take a chance with another week. This time it’s all whiskeys and producers I knew nothing about till I purchased these miniatures from the Celtic Whiskey Shop in Dublin. First up, is something called Bill Phil from W.D. O’Connell. W.D. O’Connell are independent bottlers who release a wide range of sourced whiskeys under their own labels. Bill Phil—the name refers to someone in the owners’ family history—is a batched release of heavily peated, triple-distilled single malt whiskey. People who know more than me say the source is probably the Great Northern Distillery. Full bottles have the batch numbers printed on the labels. This miniature does not. The current batch is Batch 5. Seems likely, I guess, that this would be from that batch but it’s hard to say for sure. (Batch 4 was released in the US apparently.)  All the batches are matured in first-fill bourbon barrels. The peating level is all the way up to 55 ppm, by the way. Okay, let’s see what it’s like.

Bill Phil, Peated Series (47.5%; W.D. O’Connell; from a miniature)

Nose: Mildly phenolic peat off the top with notes of antiseptic (Dettol). Below it are sweet cereals, vanilla and light floral notes. As it sits the phenolic notes mostly dissipate and are replaced by almond oil and engine grease (slightly reminiscent of Kilkerran). With time there’s some biscuity malt. With a few drops of water the biscuity malt expands, picking up some lime and some char.

Palate: Leads with the peat here as well and it’s more aggressive with a fair bit of char in the mix. A good bite at full strength and decent texture. More bitter with each sip (a vegetal and rooty bitterness) and the sweeter and lighter notes from the nose seem to be covered up. Let’s see what water does for it. It pushes the bitter notes back a fair bit and pulls out the malt and the cereals and then the lime.

Finish: Long. The char and then the bitter notes hang out here for a while. A bit of indistinct sweetness emerges as they fade. With time there’s some lime zest. As on the palate with water.

Comments: An interesting whiskey that punches above its age (I’m assuming it’s young). I liked the nose neat and with water, but thought it needed a few drops to show to best advantage on the palate. If future batches come to the US, I might give it another go.

Rating: 85 points.