COOLEY & Olivier Quenet WHISKEY Masterclass

Olivier Quenet’s fine restaurant Olivier’s at The Schoolhouse occupies a great room, made even better by the warm, bright afternoon sun as I found out last Friday when I breezed in to partake of a whiskey masterclass during which some of Cooley Distillery’s finest were teamed with Olivier’s creative and tasty cuisine. In fact we got a double whammy as whiskey, carefully chosen by Olivier in conjunction with Cooley Brand Ambassador John Cashman, featured in each course.

I interviewed Cooley’s head distiller Noel Sweeney back in 1999 when the business, started by John Teeling, was but a fledgling and before stocks of aged eaux de vie (enabling the production of top quality whiskey) had built up. It really is impressive to see how the business has developed, as a player on the international drinks scene and to visualize the portfolio of premium whiskeys (many of them award winners) that has evolved from Cooley’s efforts. The Schoolhouse itself is no stranger to whiskey. Bar Manager Adam Kilbane, seeing early a revival in interest in Irish whiskey, has put together a magnificent collection, with over 80 varieties available to customers, young and old who appreciate the finer things. Olivier’s accompanying 5 course tasting menu illustrates how seriously this restaurant and gastropub takes its tipple and this menu will be served as a Father’s Day special at the restaurant over the weekend of the 18/19 of June. On the day the menu included an amuse bouche of Carlingford Oysters with a Connemara Turf Mor peated single malt jelly with a carrot and orange foam, served with a big bruising heavily peated whiskey that goes by the name of Turf Mor – should sell very well in Burnley (in-joke, football fans only). This dish, visually, was tops. A starter of Dublin Bay Prawns with organic spinach topped with a sabayon of Greenore 8 year old was tasted with Greenore 15 year old. Greenore is something of a tour de force, the 15 being named Best Single Grain Whiskey for the third year running at the World Whiskies Awards. This was followed by a delicious main course of dry aged Irish Black Angus Chateaubriand served rare, with crushed potatoes and foie gras, a forest garnish of seasonal mushrooms, chestnuts, walnuts, jus and Tyrconnell Port Finish whiskey sauce and tasted with the Tyrconnell standard range. A lovely dessert of Millefeuilles of Raspberries with a Tyrconnell Madeira Finish and honey mousse is followed by a digestif of Connemara 12 year old and, to finish, a Kilbeggan Irish Coffee. My own tastes in whiskey sub-divide into three categories. The first two are stylistic: I love two malt idioms that lie at opposite ends of the spectrum, these being the peated Scottish malts that mainly gestate from what I call the ‘Western Crescent’ – up from Campbelltown, northwards through the islands as far as Orkney. Into this category, too, I’d lump Cooley’s own Connemara, Ireland’s own peated masterpiece. Smoke, kippers, sea air, seaweed, iodine, I love those fragrances and flavours, even the ones many others find offputting – bring ‘em on. Then there are the ‘old-fashioned’ leaden, serious Irish pot still whiskeys of which the two best exemplars are Redbreast 12 year old and Green Spot, both made at Midleton by Irish Distillers. The third category is whisk(e)y for consumption as a ‘chaser’ with beer which I’ve researched pretty conscientiously, even going back beyond the recent revival of craft brewing. Here the sweet/dry, light/heavy, peated/unpeated have a role to play. There are some classic pairings – like Glenmorangie (please, not… ‘more angie’) juxtaposed with a heavily-hopped English bitter. I’ll try and cover this in greater detail on the site soon. One of the pleasures of the day was to meet a couple of food bloggers – ‘other’ food bloggers I should say, although www.forkncork.com was in existence before the term was common parlance and it’s only lately that I’ve begun to think that maybe I’m a blogger too, creep out of the woodwork and meet others of the species. Anyhow, I Can Has Cook and 9 Bean Row were charming company, great craic and I loved their enthusiasm for all things food and drink. Looking forward to visiting the latter’s ‘L.Mulligan Grocer’ gastropub too. Socialising might be just what I need – lately even I have noticed the curmudgeonly quality to my demeanor that others (thanks Ross/Aoife Fish) have remarked upon before. Lastly, I should end this diatribe by thanking Sue James who set the day up and by saying how lucky we are to have Ally Alpine’s ‘Celtic Whiskey Shop’ where these treasures can be purchased, here in Dublin. http://www.cooleywhiskey.com http://www.schoolhousehotel.com http://www.celticwhiskeyshop.com http://www.lmulligangrocer.com/