Killowen Bonded Experimental Series Rum & Raisin 10 Year Old
Killowen Distillery · Killowen Distillery
A rare living link to Ireland's direct-fired, peated past — muscular, mineral, and defiantly artisanal. One of the most characterful Irish whiskeys being bottled today.
Nose
Wet slate and coastal brine open the glass, giving way to raisin-soaked pot still oiliness, smoldering turf, and a lick of molasses-tinged rum sweetness. Underneath sits a flinty, mineral spine — struck match and damp stone — with orchard fruit lingering behind the smoke.
Palate
Thick and chewy, the pot still cereal grip meets a wave of dark muscovado sugar, singed raisins, and clove-studded orange peel. Peat smoke arrives mid-palate as embers rather than a bonfire — earthy, dry, and mineral — braided with hazelnut oil and a whisper of leather.
Finish
Long, warming, and gently smoky, with lingering rancio, cocoa nib, and a saline mineral echo that recalls the Mourne granite outside the distillery door.
- Mash Bill
- Blend of peated malted barley and traditional single pot still mash of malted and unmalted barley (with oats in the pot still component)
- Distillation
- Triple-distilled in direct-fired copper pot stills with worm tub condensers
- Maturation
- Matured 10 years in ex-bourbon casks, then finished in first-fill Jamaican rum casks and Pedro Ximénez sherry hogsheads
- Single Pot Still
- No
- Chill-Filtered
- No — non-chill-filtered and natural color
Cocktail Suggestion
The Rostrevor Ember — 2 oz Killowen Rum & Raisin, 0.25 oz Pedro Ximénez sherry, 2 dashes Angostura bitters, 1 dash saline solution. Stir with a single large rock, express an orange peel over the top and drop it in. Serve in a rocks glass with a smoked salt rim (half rim only).
Food Pairing
Grilled lamb chops with rosemary and sea salt, served alongside charred fig and a wedge of aged Coolea cheese.
Founded in 2019 in the shadow of the Mourne Mountains, Killowen is Ireland's smallest licensed distillery, run by Brendan Carty using direct-fired copper pot stills and traditional worm tub condensers — techniques abandoned elsewhere in Ireland decades ago.
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