Taste Test: Buffalo Trace’s New Irish Sister Distillery Released Its First Whiskey, and It’s Excellent

Welcome to Taste Test, where every week our critic Jonah Flicker explores the most buzzworthy and interesting whiskeys in the world. Check back each Sunday for his latest whiskey review.

Sazerac is clearly a dominant force in American whiskey—the company’s Buffalo Trace Distillery produces some of the most highly allocated and collectible whiskeys like Pappy Van Winkle, the Antique Collection, and W.L. Weller. The company’s footprint overseas, however, is smaller—it imports single malt whisky from scotch distillery Glenfarclas, and it owns a few Canadian brands, Indian single malt Paul John, and Paddy’s Irish Whiskey. That last category is getting a boost with the addition of the Hawk’s Rock Distillery to the company’s portfolio, and the inaugural release is a 20-year-old single malt called Garavogue that is worth seeking out.

Hawk’s Rock was formerly known as Lough Gill, a distillery in County Sligo, Ireland that produced the Athrú Irish whiskey brand. Sazerac acquired it in 2022 and renamed it after a location in the nearby mountains, and hired former Bushmills master blender Helen Mulholland to oversee the operation (she is the first female to hold that title in Irish whiskey). The distillery had only been operating for a few years, but it had acquired a number of aged barrels of whiskey that were produced elsewhere (likely Bushmills or Cooley, although the source is not disclosed), which had been stored at the distillery since 2015. At the time of the acquisition, some of the whiskey had already been moved into secondary casks after 14 years in bourbon barrels, specifically muscat and sauternes. Under Mulholland’s oversight, more whiskey was given cask finishes—some in rum barrels from Barbados, and whiskeys aged in Barbadian rum, Cognac, marsala, and virgin oak casks were finished in Spanish Pedro Ximénez sherry casks for 15 months.

Yes, that’s a lot of cask finishes to combine in one whiskey, something that could easily go overboard as flavors collide or get muddled in the process. That’s not the case here, undoubtedly due to Mulholland’s expertise as a whiskey blender. Garavogue is complex and fruity, with a nice balance between hits of sweetness and spice. There are notes of ripe pear, vanilla, rum raisin, brown sugar, fig, dried cherry, apricot, and toasted nuts on the palate. The whiskey is bottled at 94 proof, and that extra bit of alcohol goes a long way, buttressing the mouthfeel and allowing the whiskey’s flavors to shine through with less dilution.

Garavogue is a standout Irish single malt, and to be honest that’s not entirely what I was expecting. It’s not that I thought this would be a bad whiskey—it’s Sazerac, after all—but perhaps I was expecting something that was just… fine. It’s much better than fine. It’s also an experiment that won’t be repeated, because according to Mulholland each subsequent batch will differ from the previous one (she did not give specifics as to how, but likely the cask finishing will change). Based on the quality of the inaugural release of Garavogue 20 Year Old Irish Whiskey, I look forward to seeing what comes next.

Score: 92