My week of Writers’ Tears reviews comes to an end with what is, I think, the third in their trio of core releases: the Cask Strength. (See here for my review of the Copper Pot and here for my review of the Double Oak.) Like the other Writers’ Tears releases, the Cask Strength is a blend of Single Pot Still and Single Malt Irish whiskey. There’s no grain whiskey component: only barley. Of course the presence of the pot still component, not to mention the triple distillation, makes it different from your average Scottish single malt whisky. Like the Copper Pot, this is matured in bourbon barrels, but I’m not sure if there is any other relationship between them. By which I mean that I do not know if the Cask Strength is the cask strength version of the Copper Pot or even if the whiskeys that go into the two comes from the same sources. I do know that the Cask Strength costs far more than the Copper Pot. The current release was at 150 euros at Celtic Whiskey Shop in Dublin. This review is not of the current release, however. That one is at 54.8% abv. This one is at 53%. A number of prior releases have been at 53%, most recently in 2019. All three of the miniatures I reviewed this week came out of the attractive book packaging—I don’t know if that helps narrow things down. At any rate, here are my notes.
Writers’ Tears, Cask Strength (53%; from a miniature)
Nose: A sweet arrival with quite a lot of apple and toasted cereals; some polished oak in there as well. After a minute or so there’s some red fruit (cherry) and the oak picks up some sourness. As it sits the apple comes to the fore again; the sour oak turns to lemon peel. With more time bitterness emerges (well, why should whiskey be any different?). A couple of drops of water push the bitter notes back, pull out a touch of cream, and make the oak dustier.
Palate: More oak here than on the nose and it tastes quite out of balance at first. Hotter than expected at 53% (that probably has to do with the added bite from the oak); decent texture. Thankfully, there’s more fruit on the second sip–a mix of the apple and lemon from the nose. More citrus with time (orange peel mixed in with the lemon) and some more oak. Okay, let’s see what water does for it. Here it emphasizes the oak alongside the fruit.
Finish: Long. The oak is the top note here as well, getting more bitter as it goes. Develops as on the palate with sweet notes of malt and caramel emerging at the end. Damp oak with time. The citrus hangs out longer with water.
Comments: I liked the nose from the get-go but it was a bit rough on the palate to start. Things improved there with time and water but it didn’t finally amount to anything very out of the ordinary. Not bad but 150 euros (or close) is really taking the piss.
Rating: 84 points.