We recently announced the arrival of our much sought-after limited edition small batch release - a triple-casked malt Irish whiskey, highlighting a blend of three unique casks of six-year-old Oloroso, six-year-old Bourbon and 17-year old Madeira finishes.

Here, our Head Distiller Ollie Alcorn shares his insights into how Athrú whiskey’s first small batch release came into creation.

One of the best parts about being Head Distiller at Lough Gill and making Athrú Whiskey, is the opportunity to try new things and experiment, should the occasion arise. And, such an opportunity presented itself with this small batch release.

The decision around making it was to give us the chance to increase our product line, in doing so creating a slightly larger release than our single cask Irish whiskey, and smaller than our trilogy release.

Our previous releases have all been single malts, whereas this was an opportunity to showcase some of our younger whiskey and for us to demonstrate how it can be married with older stock to produce exceptional whiskey. I had a great time searching through the warehouse to find the perfect whiskeys to marry together - selecting a moreish combination of Bourbon, Oloroso and Madeira casks.

I knew this was going to be an opportunity for us to really demonstrate the effects of wood-finishing, so all of the best casks for this release were selected by me from each batch of casks available. As Bourbon is the prominent cask used for this release, I selected the nicest of various casks from different US distilleries to enhance the sherry and wine flavours of this blend.

Before making a whiskey, I always have a concept in mind, and this release was no different - for our first small batch release, I knew I wanted to create a whiskey reminiscent of Christmas flavours; using the Bourbon, Oloroso and Madeira casks they produce notes of dried fruits, butterscotch, praline, spiced vanilla with a subtle toffee finish.

Our first small batch is non-chill filtered, which means it has not undergone chill filtration, which consists of the whiskey being cooled and passed through a filter. It’s been bottled at 46% abv, which I believe is the right strength for this blend and differentiates the small batch from our other releases.

Only 3,000 bottles of the small-batch have been created - hence the name! It might be a limited edition, but I believe this will be the first batch of many when it comes to this type of release.

My plan is to get more experimental with our blending and use the concept of 'small batch' as a way of showcasing the range of casks we have and what can be done with them. This is a process I really enjoy as Head Distiller, so watch this space for future limited-edition releases, each bringing something different to our portfolio of Athrú whiskeys.

The Athrú Small Batch Release bottle is priced at €85, and with its Christmassy flavour profile, it makes the perfect festive gift.