Teeling

Teeling Irish Whiskey is from Dublin’s first new distillery in over a century — blending traditional Irish craftsmanship with innovative maturation in wine and specialty casks. Range: Single Malt (five wine casks: Sherry, Port, Madeira, White Burgundy, Cabernet Sauvignon), Single Grain (California Cabernet Sauvignon barrels, 46% ABV no chill-filtration), Single Pot Still (50% malted/50% unmalted barley, triple distilled), Blackpitts Peated (gentle smokiness, ex-Bourbon and ex-Sauternes), and the limited “Wonders of Wood” series.

Browse all Irish whiskey and rare and allocated bottles at Wooden Cork.

Frequently Asked Questions

What does five-wine-cask maturation do to Teeling Single Malt that single-cask-type aging doesn’t?

Most single malt Irish whiskey — and most Scotch single malt — is matured in one or two cask types, typically ex-bourbon and ex-Sherry. Each cask type contributes a predictable flavor contribution: ex-bourbon adds vanilla and caramel from American white oak; ex-Sherry adds dried fruit, chocolate, and nuttiness from the wine’s compounds in the wood. Teeling Single Malt uses five different wine cask types — Sherry, Port, Madeira, White Burgundy, and Cabernet Sauvignon — and the matured spirit from all five is blended before bottling. The five cask types each contribute different aromatic compounds that the blender then combines: Madeira casks add a distinctive oxidative dried fruit character (raisin, walnut, orange peel) that Sherry doesn’t produce; White Burgundy (Chardonnay) casks add a lighter stone fruit and cream character; Port adds dark berry sweetness; Cabernet Sauvignon adds tannin structure and dark fruit. The resulting blend has more aromatic complexity and layering than any single-cask-type maturation can produce — different flavor dimensions are active simultaneously rather than one dominant cask influence directing the palate.

Why is Teeling Blackpitts less intensely peated than Islay Scotch despite using the same peated malt technique?

Teeling Blackpitts (named for the historic Dublin neighborhood near the Liberties area where peat fires were once common) uses peated malt as its base grain — the same principle as Islay single malts like Laphroaig or Ardbeg, where barley is dried over burning peat, absorbing phenolic smoke compounds before fermentation. The significant difference is distillation: Teeling uses triple distillation (as is traditional for Irish whiskey), while Islay distilleries typically double-distil. Each distillation pass refines and concentrates the spirit but also removes some of the heavier phenolic compounds responsible for the most intense smoke and medicinal character. By triple-distilling, Teeling inherently produces a lighter, cleaner, more delicate spirit from the same peated malt — the smoke character of Blackpitts is present and distinctive but softer, gentler, and less phenol-forward than a comparable peated Scotch from the same peat specification. For drinkers who want peat character without the intensity of heavily peated Islay malts, Blackpitts occupies a distinctive middle ground.