BEFORE whiskey there was poitin. It’s still around (pun intended).
Indeed, just as Irish whiskey is enjoying a revival, so is the original spirit.
One of the driving forces behind the upsurge of interest in poitin is Brendan Carty of the Killowen Distillery in county Down’s Mourne mountains.
Tonight (May the Fourth be with you) this star of the Irish whiskey scene will officially launch his Pangur poitin range at Trademarket on Belfast’s Dublin Road, although it’s been known and admired by aficionados for some time.
Named after the Irish poem ‘Pangur Ban’ (The White Cat), its variants include one rested in stout casks, another in PX (Pedro Ximenes) sherry casks, and another with a bourbon finish/ rest.
Just days ago the last of those won double gold in the highly prestigious San Francisco Spirits awards. Killowen’s five-year-old Rum & Raisin single malt whiskey also won silver, after receiving double gold in another competition last year.
Transparent spirit is an apt phrase to describe Carty himself. He’s relentlessly innovative, but there are no secrets – you know what you’re getting in each bottle of whiskey/ spirit/ poitin he makes.
His recent experimentation included a ‘Triail’ involving members of the Killowen Kult with three poitins from a high wheat content mash-bill, differentiated by the strains of yeast involved in their fermentation.
Last year, which he termed ‘The Year of Poitin’, he produced ‘Stone Soup’, then there was the ‘a Do’ cross-border collaboration with the Blackwater Distillery in the south, and also ‘Bulcan’, a still strength poitin.
Clearly (pun also intended), Killowen’s various poitins can be enjoyed on their own, in the old way, but the Pangur range will also be ideal for cocktails.
