Canteiro Aged Madeira Cask Finish Single Cask Irish Whiskey (700 ml)

Founded in 2011 in the shadow of the Wicklow Mountains, Glendalough built its reputation on challenging Irish whiskey's cask orthodoxy — first with indigenous Irish oak, then Mizunara, and now with Canteiro-aged Madeira casks, a finishing wood virtually unseen in the Irish category.

Canteiro maturation is Madeira's slow, heat-driven oxidative process, where fortified wine ages in casks exposed to natural warmth rather than the estufagem heat-tank method — meaning the wood arriving at Glendalough carries concentrated rancio, dried fruit, and saline oxidative character baked in over years.

The base spirit is single grain Irish whiskey, Coffey-still distilled from a mash of Irish malted barley and corn, entering oak at 62.5% ABV for primary maturation in first-fill American oak ex-Bourbon barrels before transfer to this single Madeira cask for finishing.

Bottled as a single cask expression, output is by definition extremely limited, and cask variation means this release stands entirely apart from the Double Barrel core range. The Canteiro finish layers sun-dried grape, walnut oil, and briny oxidative depth onto the grain spirit's naturally lighter, cereal-forward frame — a structural contrast no standard Irish grain whiskey achieves.

Drink now through the near term; the Madeira influence will be most vivid in the first years after bottling.