“I remember looking at it initially with Billy and it stands out as a moment we said ‘Wow, the flavour profile is incredible.’”
Kevin O’Gorman is recalling an early experiment with French sweet chestnut casks at Midleton Distillery, when he and colleague, master blender emeritus Billy Leighton were exploring what an unfamiliar wood might bring to Irish whiskey. More than a decade later, that work has led to Midleton Very Rare Irish Chestnut Edition, the first whiskey finished in casks crafted entirely from Irish sweet chestnut sourced from a single estate. Its provenance, rarity and unique flavour profile combine to make it a collector’s item.
The project began with trials in 2011, eventually producing a French chestnut-finished Method and Madness single pot still whiskey in 2017. Sweet chestnut had been used for centuries for wines and fortified wines in Spain and Portugal, O’Gorman explains, but its use for whiskey was unusual. Encouraged by the results, the team began looking for Irish-grown trees.
“There are a few pockets of sweet chestnut available,” says O’Gorman, who has spent 36 years in the spirits industry, 28 of those at Midleton.
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Forestry consultant Paddy Purser, who had worked with the distillery on its Irish oak project, knew of sweet chestnut at Cappoquin Estate in Co Waterford. Built on the site of an old FitzGerald castle, Cappoquin House is an 18th century Georgian mansion within the estate featuring hills, woodlands and gardens on the banks of the Blackwater river. It has been home to the Keane family since 1735. Purser introduced the Midleton team to the estate’s owner, Sir Charles Keane, who welcomed the idea. O’Gorman remembers the date the trees were felled: November 28th, 2017.
Six trees were carefully selected and they were sent to Maderbar sawmills located in Galicia in north-west Spain where they were sawn into staves. The staves then travelled to a cooperage in Jerez de la Frontera, where they underwent air drying before being made into 240-litre hogshead casks with a light to medium toast inside.
Midleton had worked with the cooperage for around 35 years, and O’Gorman stresses the importance of relying on specialists whose work they knew. He also mentions the involvement of Midleton’s master cooper Gerard Buckley, alongside Purser and Keane, in the careful selection and preparation of the timber. Ensuring that the wood was sawn, dried and coopered correctly mattered at every stage.
The casks returned to Midleton, where O’Gorman and master blender Dave McCabe had to choose the whiskey to fill them. They selected light, medium and heavy styles of single pot still whiskey that had already matured in bourbon barrels for between 12 and 19 years.
“We knew chestnut is quite a giving cask. It matures relatively quickly, it is quite giving, and it has a lot of colour, flavour, and tannins. So we wanted a whiskey to stand up to it.” He compares it to the sport of boxing: “You put a lightweight against a lightweight and you put a heavyweight against a heavyweight.”
Sweet chestnut is more porous and less dense than oak, so the interaction between wood and whiskey can be rapid. O’Gorman and his colleagues sampled the casks every few months, watching particularly closely during the early stages. Their previous experience with French chestnut meant they were confident in the flavour potential, although the initial pace of maturation prompted some reconsideration. Chestnut gave the whiskey colour and flavour quickly in the first weeks and months. After a year or two, however, that pace began to ease, and the additional time brought further development rather than an overwhelming influence from the wood. O’Gorman explains that they kept tasting until they judged the whiskey to be in peak condition.
“We were thinking, this is probably going to be a shorter finish than we had planned. But what we found is after year one, year two, it started easing up, slowing down and developing a wonderful complexity with an aroma and taste profile like nothing else.”
They allowed the whiskey to remain in the chestnut casks for five years; O’Gorman says such a lengthy finish could almost be described as a secondary maturation. The resulting whiskey, bottled at natural cask strength of 56.1 per cent ABV, contains whiskeys aged between 17 and 24 years.
Talking through the aroma, he identifies milk chocolate, vanilla and caramel, followed by cinnamon, nutmeg and sandalwood. There are toasted almonds and pecan nuts, honey and honeycomb, red apples and caramelised orange peel. He also explains the chemistry behind those impressions: toasting wood produces compounds associated with roasted, nutty and chocolate flavours, while others contribute spice and vanilla notes.
Science has become an increasingly important part of distilling during his career, although O’Gorman is clear that it complements rather than replaces the senses of the people making the whiskey. “The nose and taste are the primary senses we rely on, but these are supported by a significant amount of analysis, including gas chromatography and other specialised techniques carried out in Midleton.”
He describes the technological changes that have taken place over the 200 years of distilling at Midleton Distillery. “The Old Midleton Distillery which ran from 1825 - 1975, now a visitor centre, would have used coal for heating up the stills and worm-tub condensers for condensing the vapours. These days we have a significant amount of technology and modern equipment to help us run our processes very effectively with the same level of attention to detail and focus on quality.”
Yet tasting and experience remain fundamental, and he continues to learn from younger colleagues. He describes the daily work of assessing whiskeys and learning from the distillers, engineers and scientists around him. “I nose samples every single day, multiple samples, and I’m learning every day,” he says.
Irish Chestnut Edition, limited to approximately 800 case equivalents globally and priced at €440, is the first release in Midleton Very Rare’s Rare Wood Collection. O’Gorman says the distillery is investigating other woods, although he adds that not every experimental wood would suit a Midleton Very Rare whiskey. The selection process, he explains, is deliberately careful, and the team continues to look at the possibilities.
Asked what has pleased him most about the project, he mentions the finished whiskey, which he had followed closely throughout its five years in chestnut, but also the relationships behind it. He recalls Sir Charles Keane’s enthusiasm from their first discussion and the prospect, ahead of the launch at Cappoquin House, of Keane tasting a whiskey finished in wood grown on his estate. Today Midleton Very Rare Chestnut Edition represents a world-first whiskey that is the result of this special collaboration.
O’Gorman is equally as keen to credit the wider team at Irish Distillers and Midleton, and the specialists involved in selecting the trees and making the casks.
“It’s not just me. We’ve got an amazing team in Midleton and everybody contributed to this project, so I see it as a real collaborative effort.”
The result, borne of patience, provenance and innovation, possesses a very rare character indeed.
Midleton Very Rare Irish Chestnut Edition is now available in limited quantities at selected off licences and online at Midleton Distillery Collection, priced €440
