Introducing our new Club Whiskey: Boann x Stories & Sips Chocolate Bitters Single Pot Still Single Cask
The Whiskey
Mashbill: 55% unmalted barley, 40% malted barley, 3% oats and 2% rye
Cask Number: 242813
“The wildest pot still whiskey we’ve ever made.”
Peter Cooney, Boann Distillery
Nutella in a glass. Ferrero Rocher chocolates in a bottle.
This five-year-old single pot still Irish whiskey from Boann Distillery is one of the most distinctive cask experiments we have encountered. It brings together a characterful mixed-grain pot still spirit, first-fill bourbon maturation and a Kentucky cask with an extraordinary history.
The whiskey spent its first four years maturing in a first-fill ex-bourbon barrel. It was then transferred into a cask that had originally held Woodford Reserve bourbon before being used in Kentucky to mature chocolate bitters.
Those bitters drew bourbon, charred oak, and spice from the Woodford Reserve cask while bringing chocolate and gentian root into contact with the wood. Once the bitters had been emptied, the cask was sent across the Atlantic to Boann Distillery, where it was filled with Irish single pot still whiskey.
The whiskey remained there for just over a year.
That final stage of maturation has transformed it.
Hazelnut chocolate immediately comes to mind. There is the creamy cocoa-and-hazelnut character of Nutella, the praline richness of Ferrero Rocher and a malty, crumbly biscuit note reminiscent of graham crackers and digestives.
Underneath it all is unmistakably Irish pot still whiskey: textured, cereal-driven and gently spiced.
A distinctly Boann spirit
Boann has quickly become one of Ireland’s most highly regarded new distilleries, with single pot still whiskey at the heart of its work.
The recipe used for this whiskey contains 55% unmalted barley and 40% malted barley, joined by 3% oats and 2% rye. That final 5% may appear small on paper, yet it helps give the spirit its individuality.
The oats contribute to its creamy texture. The rye brings a gentle thread of spice. Malted and unmalted barley provide the rich cereal foundation and weight expected from Irish pot still whiskey.
A cask with two lives before Ireland
The journey of the finishing cask is central to the flavour of this whiskey.
Its first life was as a Woodford Reserve bourbon barrel. Its second was as a maturation vessel for chocolate bitters. Its next journey took it from Kentucky to the Boyne Valley and Boann Distillery.
By the time the Irish whiskey entered the wood, the cask carried the imprint of bourbon, toasted American oak, chocolate, and aromatic bitters.
Over the following 1.1 years, those flavours became woven into the whiskey. Chocolate is present throughout, accompanied by roasted hazelnut, creamy praline, sweet malt and biscuit.
This is a genuine single cask release, drawn from one extraordinary barrel and bottled in a strictly limited quantity.
Tasting Notes
Nose An immediate wave of milk chocolate and roasted hazelnuts, followed by creamy praline and sweet malt. The resemblance to Nutella is unmistakable, with a deeper cocoa note emerging as the whiskey rests in the glass.
Palate Rich, creamy and coating. Ferrero Rocher, hazelnut spread and chocolate biscuit lead into graham crackers and crumbly digestives. The mixed-grain pot still spirit supplies weight and texture, with a gentle rye spice running beneath the sweeter cask influence.
Finish Lingering hazelnut chocolate, cocoa and toasted biscuit crumbs, carried by a warming pot still spice that slowly fades from the palate.
How this whiskey came to be
For our club releases, we look for whiskeys that give our members an experience they are unlikely to find anywhere else.
Boann had already created a fascinating single pot still spirit using a mash bill containing unmalted barley, malted barley, oats and rye. Its journey through the chocolate bitters cask took that spirit somewhere wholly unexpected.
We discovered this cask while walking through the maturation warehouses at Boann, the chocolate aroma greeting us before we ever knew what was inside the wood. The whiskey’s flavour was so immediate and distinctive on the first taste that it needed little explanation. Nutella. Ferrero Rocher. Malt biscuits. Chocolate, hazelnut and pot still spice, all appearing naturally through the interaction between spirit and cask.
In the words of Boann Distillery owner Peter Cooney, it is “the wildest pot still whiskey we’ve ever made.”
It is a whiskey that pushes the boundaries of what Irish whiskey can taste like, while retaining the texture and cereal character that make single pot still whiskey so compelling.
We cannot wait to share it with you and hear what you discover in the glass.