Connemara Turf Mor 46%

No. Connemara is a single malt Irish whiskey, meaning it is made from 100% malted barley distilled in pot stills at a single distillery, Cooley in County Louth. What distinguishes it from other Irish single malts is that a portion of the barley is peated, making it the only commercially available peated Irish single malt. Single pot still whiskey, by contrast, uses a mash of both malted and unmalted barley and is a style associated primarily with Midleton Distillery.

Yes, particularly for peat lovers who find Islay Scotch too aggressive. Connemara occupies a unique position as Ireland's only heavily peated single malt. The Cooley distillery character adds fruit and light spirit notes that coexist with the earthy, medicinal peat smoke in a way that feels distinctly Irish rather than Scottish. The Peated Single Malt and Turf Mór expressions are the most worthwhile in the range, the latter offering a noticeably more assertive phenolic smoke character.

Connemara is distilled at Cooley Distillery in Riverstown, County Louth, on the east coast of Ireland, not in the Connemara region of County Galway that the name evokes. Cooley is owned by Beam Suntory and is the only Irish distillery producing a peated single malt whiskey. The peat used to dry a proportion of the malted barley gives Connemara its distinctive phenolic smoke and iodine character, setting it apart from all other Irish whiskeys.