🥃 Teeling Single Grain

Teeling Single Grain is an Irish grain whiskey from the Dublin brand Teeling, and a good way to see how different Irish whiskey can be from pot still or single malt. It is made from 95% corn and 5% malted barley, distilled in column stills and aged in casks that held red wine. It is bottled at 46% ABV without chill filtration. It is one of the five core expressions of the brand.

The brand. Teeling Whiskey Company was founded in 2012 by Jack Teeling, and in 2013 his brother Stephen joined him. Their father, John Teeling, founded the Cooley distillery in 1987, and the brothers bought large stocks of its maturing whiskey. In 2015 Teeling opened the first new distillery in Dublin in more than a century.

How it is made. Under Irish whiskey rules, grain whiskey is distilled only in column stills, and the mash may contain no more than 30% malted barley. The producer says it is matured only in casks that held American red wine; retailers specify Californian Cabernet Sauvignon. The casks add berry and wine notes, and the tannins give a dry, short finish.

Owner and awards. In 2017 Bacardi Limited bought a stake in the company, in 2022 it became the majority shareholder, and in 2026 the sole owner; the Teeling brothers stayed on as advisers. Retailers note that Single Grain was named the best Irish single grain whiskey at the World Whiskies Awards several years running, from 2016 to 2019.

Why it matters to you. Grain whiskey is lighter than single malt, but here the wine cask strongly shapes the taste, so this is not the same whiskey as in blends. At 46% the strength is higher than the usual 40%. The WHO reminds us that there is no safe level of alcohol consumption.