FIRST SIP: Drumshanbo by The Shed Distillery

The Shed Distillery and founder PJ Rigney created Drumshanbo Single Pot Still whiskey with its whimsical jackalope logo and unique story. Drumshanbo itself is a small rural town of 1,000 residents in County Leitrim in the western province of Connacht, sitting in the shadow of Sliabh an Iarainn, the Iron Mountain. In 2014 The Shed became the first distillery in Connacht to open in over a century. 

Drumshanbo the whiskey is triple distilled from malted and unmalted barley blended with Irish Barra oats. It is then aged in ex-Bourbon barrels and finished in Spanish Oloroso sherry casks. 

We really like Drumshanbo. It's a good whiskey backed by a good story in a part of Ireland that has been historically very under-the-radar. The whiskey is smooth and creamy, thanks to the Barra oats, but there's some spice here as well. It goes down easily--but not so easily that you don't remember it. 

Drumshanbo Single Pot Still retails for $60-75.

The Shed also makes a Gunpowder Irish Gin at Drumshanbo, which while not our focus, is quite interesting with its oriental gunpowder tea botanical infusions. The gin is more easily found in U.S. retail stores, while we had to search a bit to find the Single Pot Still whiskey online. 

(Note: we always buy our whiskeys rather than seek out complimentary samples from distilleries, partly so we experience the process of trying to locate some hard-to-find offerings like all whiskey enthusiasts do.)

We should also mention that Drumshanbo has some of the best packaging we've seen. The box it arrives in is lined with copper-colored foil, mimicking the five copper pot stills at the distillery. The bottle has an impressive medallion above the label and the cork is adorned with a distinctive copper ring around the oversized wooden sphere. It's the kind of bottle you leave out for people to see. Packaging matters!

Drumshanbo Single Pot Still: 94 POINTS (a bonus point for the best packaging we've seen in the sub-$100 category)