A couple of bits of news in the uisce beatha biz the past few weeks:

Bible Thumping
Already a major favorite among many whiskey drinkers, Mitchell & Son's Green Spot moved up in Jim Murray's 2011 Whisky Bible to 94.5 and into his "Liquid Gold" category. Liquid Gold includes whiskeys ranking 94-97.5. It came in at 93 for the past three years, ranking it merely “Brilliant.”

The stuff's just wonderful no matter where you score it. It's hard to find in the U.S. but when you do you should snag a bottle or more to find out for yourself what the excitement's all about.

Mitchell's been working closely with IDL/Jameson at the Midleton distillery on its Green Spot releases which currently also include the 10- and 12-year-olds. We speculated during our trip to Midleton that a 15-year-old might be in the works. The older Green Spots are rare and very dear (aka, pricey); wonderful whiskeys but out of reach of most drinkers. The "standard" Green Spot though is very much worth seeking out.

My copy of the 2011 Whiskey Bible is ordered and on its way. Jameson RVR 2007, Tyrconnell Single Cask, Red Breast 12 (also in the pure pot still category), regular ol’ Jameson and others have captured “LG” honors in the past. Once my 2011 Bible arrives I’ll give you a rundown of which Irish whiskeys made it on the list. The Whisky Bible rankings are quite good and sensible, but don't take them as gospel, per se. Use them instead as a handy way to point you toward some very good whiskeys.

Cooley Captures Kudos
Cooley Distillery scored a three-peat (meaning a 3x repeat, not a lot of turf) in mid-November by being named the European Distiller of the Year for the third year running at the 2010 International Wine and Spirit Competition (IWSC) awards banquet in London in November.  Cooley also won 10 gold medals in July, bringing its IWSC gold haul to over 100 in the past 10 years. Malt Advocate magazine also named Cooley the 2010 Distillery of the Year.

The company's 2010 IWSC gold-winning list reads like a Cooley stocklist:

Gold Medal & Best in Class, Kilbeggan 15 Year Old Blended Irish Whiskey
Gold Medal & Best in Class, Tyrconnell 10 Year Old Madeira Finish Single Malt
Gold Medal & Best in Class, Connemara Peated Single Malt
Gold Medal & Best in Class, Connemara Cask Strength Peated Single Malt
Gold Medal & Best in Class, Connemara Sherry Finish Peated Single Malt
Gold Medal & Best in Class, Greenore 8 Year Old Single Grain
Gold Medal & Best in Class, Greenore 15 Year Old Single Grain
Gold Medal & Best in Class, Dún Léire 8 Year Old Single Malt
Gold Medal, Tyrconnell 10 Year Old Sherry Finish Single Malt
Gold Medal, Tyrconnell 10 Year Old Port Finish Single Malt

IWSC and other awards are generally more important to the trade than us imbibers, but they do recognize good work. Cooley especially has been fabulously innovative and nimble in creating and marketing new whiskeys. The Tyrconnell finishes and the Connemara bottlings are favorites of mine in particular.

And speaking of three-peats (meaning a lot of turf, not a 3x repeat) Cooley is releasing the heavily peated Connemara Turf Mór shortly. It might give some of you smokeheads out there a real case of phenols envy (yes, I know, that's a groaner). I'll be writing up my recent sampling of that shortly along with some other examples of how the company is driving innovation in the whiskey market.