“Do it once. Once only. Never again,” says Damien Grey, creator of SENSES whiskey as well as head chef and founder of the two Michelin Star Liath in Dublin. With just 200 sets of SENSES by Laith available and just 14 seats in his restaurant, Grey is a man who understands exclusivity. Having secured two Michelin Stars you can also be assured he knows his way around creating memorable flavors.
SENSES by Liath is a collaboration between Grey and Rupert Egan, Head Bonder of Egan’s Irish Whiskey. They have worked together to create a collection of five 23-year-old single malt Irish whiskeys that are designed to express taste’s five building blocks: bitter, sour, salt, umami and sweet. These five characteristics of flavor underpin Grey’s approach to gastronomy, and the set reflects his gastronomic views.
Creating A Michelin Level Whiskey Experience
“Whiskey hasn’t been approached in the way we’ve done it,” Grey explained to me over an email discussing the project. I was curious to know why he looked to whisky rather than the more traditional beer or wine pairings. Probably unsurprisingly for a two Michelin star chef, the challenge of something new was part of the appeal.
With whiskey “the flavor profiles go much deeper, and there’s more ways to fail, which sounds off-putting, but for me is an exciting concept because it’s more challenging to create and produce something truly exceptional. It was such hard work, so complex to navigate but if it was easy, it would have zero appeal for me – that’s why it was only ever going to be whiskey.”
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Because the idea of expressing the five characteristics of taste through a set of whiskey hadn’t been done before the process for doing it had to be created from scratch too. When Grey and Egan first began working together they started with a selection of exceptional 20-year-old Irish single malt whiskey. This was then finished for varying lengths of time in a series of custom casks in order to create the desired effects on the pallet.
Egan explained the pressure when dealing with whiskey that was already an exceptional 20-years-old product. “You need to be confident any next step must elevate what is already a spectacular spirit,” explained Egan.
Five Unique Cask Finishes
One of the advantages of working with whiskey rather than other spirits is the potential for adding new flavors through cask finishes. The selection of those casks was key to the project Egan explained to me over email.
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“We started with blind taste tests of other whiskeys, other spirits, cut and uncut, wine, beer, everything. Rupert [Egan] brought his expertise of the spirit world and basically tasked me with bringing my knowledge from the kitchen,” said Grey about the creation process. Grey’s attention to detail is exceptional, and you can see it in the process he describes.
“With each trial I was picturing ingredients, restaurants I’d eaten in, dishes I’ve never forgotten, home cooking from when I was a child—I was tapping into the subconscious. It was memories that came into play in the decision making rather than being so tightly regimented to the combination of casks that would express sour or umami the most. Bringing an unbiased whiskey palette to the project opened so many doors for us.”
Just like a Michelin Star experience is more than simply the food itself, the story behind the cask selection became as important as the flavors. “When we chose the casks, the big thing—other than the liquid we liked the most from the taste tests—was that it had to have a history, a significance to the whiskey world or something that hadn’t been introduced.”
Some of the casks they used to create SENSES by Liath took up to 18 months to source and some came from sources that had not previously worked with the whiskey industry. “We knew we needed to tread carefully and would end up, quite literally, traveling the globe to find the most unique and suited cask partners for our whiskeys,” Egan explained in the press release.
The team really pushed the boundaries of creation with these spirits, working with casks previously filled with a range of liquids, from Cognac and Brunello to Imperial Stout.”Who we got casks from made the difference; the centuries old relationship between Egan’s and Godet as an example, or the use of a stout cask as homage to Ireland and what the country has given to me.”
A Taste For The SENSES
Egan expanded further on the cask process for the Bitter (Searbh) bottling, “we re-charred an oak cask, filled it with a bespoke Imperial Stout brewed by Dot Brew, bottled the stout and filled the ex-stout cask with the single malt whiskey. This yielded the most amazing dark chocolate, coffee, and bitter notes.”
I’ve always found tasting notes to be a strange fixation of the whiskey world. To me the experience of consuming anything is subjective. For me reading tasting notes is a bit like reading someone describe their feelings when looking at a masterpiece by Caravaggio or Bernini. Or indeed, like describing the individual flavors in a beautiful plate of food.
Grey’s approach to the whiskies he’s created echoes this sentiment. Instead of tasting notes each whiskey is accompanied by the story of how it was created “We want every sip to unearth a different memory or emotion for those who get to enjoy them.”
Don’t worry though, while it’s not my expertise we have plenty of expert tasters who were more than willing to share their notes. Read the SENSES tasting notes here.
More Than Just A Whiskey
When you purchase SENSES you don’t just get the Whiskey. As well as drinking Grey’s decades of experience on the five building blocks of flavor, purchasers of SENSES will get to sample his food too. Lucky purchasers will receive a complimentary table for two at Liath Restaurant as Grey’s guest. Diners will get a seasonal seven course tasting menu, plus ongoing access to the super exclusive restaurant.
“We offer the meal so we can show where the concept for the whiskeys originated—exploding the building blocks of taste in ways you couldn’t have imagined and being able to guide and explain in person.”
The experience is sure to be unforgettable. As well as holding two Michelin Stars, Liath Restaurant in Blackrock Dublin can seat just 14 diners at a time.
“It’s an intimate affair and that’s because I value that direct interaction with every single customer.” It was developed specifically to explore the senses through seasonal menus and is regularly booked out by repeat patrons and other Michelin Starred chefs.
Priced at $6,550 (€5,950) each “collector case” of SENSES by Liath contains a set of five 700ml whiskeys as well as five 40ml tasting phials. The sets also include additional booklets documenting the creation of the whiskies themselves.
Whiskey For Drinking
In an industry that is increasingly shifting toward premiumisation with an emphasis on packaging and concept above the whiskey/whisky itself, it is refreshing to see a whiskey that has been created specifically to drink.
While I’m by no means saying that $6,550 is “cheap” the price for five bottles of super limited edition, high age-statement whiskies, samples, and the experiences that go alongside it seems relatively reasonable compared to what I have come to expect in the ultra-premium end of the market. But maybe that is also something to do with the difference in the market position of scotch versus Irish single malt? For now, that’s a discussion for another day.
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