Spot Whiskies: Paint Me Irish
Photo from spotwhiskey.com - I could try to buy all the bottles and take pictures but none would come out as well as their production team’s work. All photos on this page are from spotwhiskey.com.
Spot whiskies are the ultimate Irish Whiskey survival story: unlike the big name brands - Jameson, Bushmills, and Powers, to name a few - Green Spot and its brethren were well-known to Dubliners but not well known outside the country. Despite their relatively low-lying profile, Spot Whiskies and the Mitchell family behind them have been continuously bonding and producing whiskey since 1805.
Robert Mitchell is the name to know: the first Robert Mitchell was close friends with revolutionary Robert Emmet, and after Emmet’s death in 1803, Robert reportedly declared that every first male in the family would also be named Robert - seven generations later, that tradition continues.
Unlike the bigger Irish whiskey brands, the Spots are not a distiller but rather a bonder and producer, first taking new make spirit from the Jameson distillery down Bow Street to mature and age in different casks below their shop. This continued for over a century and a half, until the post-World War II whiskey crash shortened all supplies of the single pot still whiskey the Mitchells needed to produce their barrels. Contracts were attempted, but the Mitchells ended up with around 10 years of stock remaining and no new source of distillate.
Let’s stop for a second and note the 10 year mark. Barrels aging below the Mitchells’ shop were daubed with a spot of paint to signify how long they were to age: blue was 7 years, green meant 10, yellow meant 12 and red meant 15. As whiskey stocks dropped, Yellow Spot was removed from the lineup, with red shortly predeceasing it. At 10 years old, the Green Spot was the most popular of the brand’s products, and so the Mitchells decided to keep that lone label while they figured out how to survive.
During this time, Jameson, Powers, Midleton, and others had consolidated the remaining Irish distilleries still remaining after Prohibition in the Republic of Ireland to become Irish Distillers, producing nearly all Irish whiskey at the Midleton and Cooley plants while Bushmills kept producing in Northern Ireland.
Flash-forward to the mid-2010s: Spot Whiskies is now reintroducing its products one by one. Building off of Green Spot, Yellow Spot 12 Year Old was re-introduced to the world market, followed by Red Spot 15 Year Old and a cask-strength Blue Spot 7 Year Old. Judging by action on the secondary markets and demand for them in the shops, the Spots are at a tipping point: on one hand, they are just unknown enough to be affordable, high-quality Irish whiskey, and most people are still focused on the still-booming bourbon market. On the other hand, reintroduction of their full lineup required appropriately-aged stock, and it’s not hard to see how that could run out again. Even as Irish whiskey grows as fast (if not faster) as any other country’s whiskey scene, one need only remember a few decades ago when times were not so good.
Then again, the Spots have survived for over 215 years - do we really think another crash will be enough to stop them? Whiskey is flowing at previously-unheard-of volumes from Midleton and Single Pot Still Irish Whiskey is in high demand around the world. The future of Spot whiskey is bright (see what I did there?)
Thank you to Spot Whiskey for use of the pictures - as noted above, the marketing and design team has done such an incredible job with the branding that no simple photo would do. A backsplash of paint? Simple, elegant, beautiful.
Green Spot
NAS (7-10 Years Old), aged in new bourbon casks, refill bourbon casks, and sherry casks
80 Proof (40% ABV)
Eye: Hay and golden honey. Thin dissolving rims and quick syrupy legs.
Nose: Sweet - floral, just a bit oaky. Definite honey and malted notes. Apples half eaten on the ground of an orchard. More fruits open up with air.
Palate: Light at first, more grain than malt flavor. There’s oak and pot still spices, too, but on the back palate. Applesauce and cider opens from the back palate and rolls forward. Chew opens sweet malt, a touch more spice, with mulling spice and light milk chocolate. Silky mouthfeel that’s coating and mouthwatering while being fairly full-bodied.
Finish: Medium-length, roasted apples dusted with cocoa and cinnamon sugar without being too sweet.
Overall: A great starting point for this line. Fruity, malty, grainy, with a solid body and flavor that’s well above its proof. Usually an “entry-level” product might rank around a 5-6 - this blows most entry products away.
Rating: 7.5
Green Spot Chateau Leoville Barton
NAS (7-10 Years Old), further aged in Chateau Leoville Barton Bordeaux casks
92 Proof (46% ABV)
Eye: Fresh honey. Thin unstable rims and syrupy legs.
Nose: The red wine comes out immediately, tons of red berries and tiny hints of oak cask. I love this nose - so much jammy berry deliciousness like fresh raspberry jam being made on the stove.
Palate: Again, red berry and plum-led. So delicious. Dark and pot still spices that tingle my tongue and dance through my palate. Mouthfeel is creamy, opening semisweet chocolate and creamy oak with malt sweetness rounding up the posse.
Finish: More chocolatey than the nose and palate, with the best of the red wine influence coming through in dark red fruits and berry tartness.
Overall: Wow - taking an already great base (the Green Spot) and finishing it in the perfect cask pairing. The Bordeaux amps up all the red fruits, taking the Green Spot away from apples and more towards berries and plums, remaining tart without being too sweet. This is a must-buy for me.
Rating: 8.5
Green Spot Chateau Montelena
NAS (7-10 Years Old), further aged in French Oak Zinfandel casks from Chateau Montelena in Napa Valley
92 Proof (46% ABV)
Eye: Pale honey, slightly hazy. Thin rims hang onto droplets.
Nose: Green Spot base comes out right away, but the finish, while there, is more muted. Lemon and grapefruit zest opens up, along with a slightly bitter pith note like the rind was zested too deeply. Not a bad note, just a different one.
Palate: Zesty and citrusy - there’s the Zinfandel shining through. Tons of maltiness that sits on the tongue and really my entire palate. Milk chocolate verging on cocoa butter, or cocoa butter verging on milk chocolate - right at that border. Palate becomes darker as I drink it. Mouthfeel is creamy with a spicy oak edge, all overlaid on a full bodied malt and grain base.
Finish: Long, chocolatey (milk), tingle hands onto the tip of my tongue.
Overall: I did prefer the Bordeaux finish between the two, but this is by no means a bad pour. If you like Zinfandel, you’ll like this a lot, and I would happily drink it again if I wanted Irish whiskey with a bit more of a citrusy/zesty edge rather than a berry-forward one.
Rating: 7.6
Yellow Spot 12 Year Old
12 YO, finished in ex-Malaga casks (Spanish fortified wine made from PX and Moscatel grapes)
92 Proof (46% ABV)
Eye: 14K gold. Medium rims with large droplets.
Nose: Lemony malt and Irish grain sweetness. You can tell this is older, with a little more oak body. The oak isn’t woody at all, it’s just more prominent. Ruby red grapefruit pith, candied with a little bitterness. Some rancio comes out, too.
Palate: Chocolate is more up-front here. Tip of the tongue burn indicates the oak’s influence, with the rest of the palate gently warming. Creamy oak brings out fresh, unsweetened blackberry preserves, orchard fruits that are fully ripened and just about to turn. Mouthfeel is light-to-medium, slightly astringent, spicy, and floral with more creamy and coating sensations developing as I sip.
Finish: Long, incredibly creamy and full-bodied, drinks smoothly and deliciously.
Overall: Wow what a mouthfeel. More chocolate-forward than the younger Green Spots, with a heavier/silkier mouthfeel that is just fantastic.
Rating: 8.1
Red Spot 15 Year Old
15 YO, finished in Bourbon, Sherry, and Marsala casks
92 Proof (46% ABV)
Eye: Orange blossom honey. Medium rims bleed thick droplets.
Nose: Oaky right away with the Marsala taking the lead. Super chocolatey with hazelnuts toasting underneath, like dark chocolate gianduja (basically the original Nutella with more cocoa - just insanely good).
Palate: Oak spice and slight dryness, with incredibly dark fruit stewed town to a syrupy texture studded with cloves and cinnamon sticks. Nowhere as oaky as I’d expected. Mouthfeel is creamy, cinnamon- and vanilla-forward with sliced grapes and more gianduja goodness. Rounds out to full-on hazelnut/chocolate spread.
Finish: Gianduja with a really high cocoa percentage. Mouthwateringly long and delicious.
Overall: Damn this was good. Each part was better than the last, and if you give me high-quality gianduja in a glass I’m going to drink plenty more than my share.
Rating: 8.6
Blue Spot 7 Year Old Cask Strength
7 YO, aged in Bourbon casks, Sherry butts, and Portuguese Madeira casks
117.4 Proof (58.7% ABV)
Eye: Bronzed honey. Thin rims and droplet legs.
Nose: Proof heat rounds out to lightly malted sweetness, but not nearly as much as you get from the lower-proofed bottles in this line. Honeyed malt and a more measured proof roll out after I start sipping.
Palate: Not as hot as expected - tip of my tongue is burning a bit but the rest of the tongue is just warmed. Spiced apple cider and lots of apple pie - correction, tons of apple pie. Mouthfeel is creamy, filling, spicy, semisweet chocolate draped over spiced and roasted-down apples.
Finish: Medium-bodied, creamy spice continues for several minutes with a hint of apple cider.
Overall: I’m not sure what the extra proof adds to this, but there is something. The mouthfeel in particular is fantastic, incredibly creamy and cocoa-buttery. If the price was no issue, I’d want this bottle, but if I’m making a choice I’ll go for the Yellow Spot or the Green Spot Chateau Leoville Barton first.
Rating: 8.1
Final thoughts:
When I taste a full vertical, there’s usually an entry-level bottle with each other bottle either vertically building on it (more age, more proof) or horizontally building on it (same/similar age and proof, but maybe a finishing or a different element added). This lineup truly has no entry level. From Green Spot to Red Spot, there isn’t a bad or even just-ok bottle here. I would be happy to have any of these on my shelf. Excuse my while I make a bee-line to the Chateau Leoville Barton and the Red Spot, though.
