Egans Vintage / Single Grain Whiskey - a bargain !

[Philip O Hanlon]

Egans Vintage Grain - Single Grain. 92 proof.

Here is a wonderful Irish whiskey unfamiliar to many; this sourced single grain whiskey is aged for 8 years in ex-bourbon barrels. Distilled in 2009 and bottled in 2017. While a Single Malt uses malted barley, the Pot Still whiskeys are a mixture of malted & unmalted barley. A Single Grain could be a blend of barley, corn & wheat. Aromatically it is a wonderful blend of apples, pears, and vanilla. As is typical of ex-bourbon oak cask maturation, there is a lot of honey and a little vanilla. In comparison to Red Breast 12 YO (our daily drinker), it's a lot sweeter, the RB12 is also allowed to mature in sherry casks which impart more of a variety of fruit flavours. Egans is smooth to the taste and sits nicely on the tongue, with very little alcohol burn. The initial honey & grapes initial taste gives way to honey & cereal as the whiskey is oxidized in the glass. I prefer to sip this in a Riedel single malt glass rather than a Glencairn whisky glass; the former allows one to appreciate more of the subtle flavours, while the latter delivers more of an explosion on the palate.
Clearly, Egans have a winner on their hands here. Retail is $45 but Total Wine sells it on the West Coast at $30. Don’t buy one but two bottles as unfortunately we have no idea as to when we will taste this again. (I bought five bottles, so far - wonderful Christmas gift). Slainté. (Good health in Gaelic).

 

[Philip O Hanlon]

BTW, we recently compared the Egans Single Vintage (Single Grain) $30 to the Method & Madness Single Grain $60. Pandora preferred the Egans to the M&M, though I did not concur with her conclusion. Clearly, fine whiskey is no different from fine audio gear; you pay your $$ and make your choice. Egans is an absolute bargain.

 

[beaur]

BTW, we recently compared the Egans Single Vintage (Single Grain) $30 to the Method & Madness Single Grain $60. Pandora preferred the Egans to the M&M, though I did not concur with her conclusion. Clearly, fine whiskey is no different from fine audio gear; you pay your $$ and make your choice. Egans is an absolute bargain.

Philip,

Thanks for the recommendation. Will have to find a bottle or more. Whiskey is a lot like audio equipment. Down your chosen path equipment usually gets better with the cost. There are definitely outliers that are the exceptions that prove the rule you discover along the way, then when vintage examples catch the imagination they become price inflated.

 

[Philip O Hanlon]

How right you are. We prefer the Egans Single Grain over the Method & Madness Single Grain @ $60 in California.
Dan Meinwald (distributor for E.A.R. Townshend, Helius etc) told me that after I gave him a gift of the Egans Single Grain, he went out and bought a bottle of the Egans Single Malt - he found it undrinkable & poured it down the drain !
To be clear, I am recommending the SIngle Grain & NOT the Single Malt.