If you would like to head straight to the reviews, please scroll down to the bottom of this article. Otherwise, let’s get a little bit of background on the SENSES Collection, as well as my final thoughts.
About The SENSES Collection
This is a collaboration between Rupert Egan, a whiskey bonder, and the great, great-grandson of Henry Egan – the founder of P&H Egan in Tullamore, County Offaly. Rupert represents the sixth generation of whiskey bonders.
The other half of this project is Damien Gray, chef and owner of the two-star Michelin restaurant, Liath. Having grown up in Australia and worked his way up from the bottom, he is now the proud owner of two Michelin stars, awarded in 2019 and 2022. Liath has a focus on five building blocks: bitter, sour, salt, umami, and sweet.
The goal of this project was to combine algorithmic patterns and instinctive creativity to produce something transformative. A merger of Michelin star gastronomy, and ultra-premium Irish whiskey. In 2023, the SENSES project took 5 single casks of single malt and finished each in a different cask to create these five foundations of taste.
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You can purchase the SENSES Collection for $5,500 here.
Whiskeys Similar To The SENSES Collection?
Currently available on the market of whiskey, nothing really touches on the work and effort that have gone into putting this selection together. Between Rupert and Damien, you have far-flung sourcing of casks from all over the world, all to impart flavors to this incredibly unique selection of single malt whiskies.
Yes, The Macallan has teamed up with Roca Brothers for a few limited-release, NAS whiskies, but even with that team of gastronomical minds helping with cask selection or flavor finale, this just has so much more reach and depth to it.
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Rupert is driving casks in rented cars across Ireland and Italy. Sourcing Mezcal casks from Oaxaca and it turning up with liquid still inside it. Just an absolute, 100% dedication to a project that is unlike anything else we’ve seen in whiskey, let alone in Irish whiskey.
What Makes The SENSES Collection A Must-Have For Collectors?
Along with everything that has been mentioned above, can you think of another collection of whiskey, from an ever-expanding and powerful spirits country like Ireland that has ever matched this before?
Five bottles, each with its own unique world cask sourcing for a finishing project. Monitored and bottled with some exceptional looking, never-forgotten bottle designs, all sorted and delivered together in a case that could rival the plate delivery of any food in the finest restaurants in the world. We often see ‘luxury’, ‘premium’, and ‘collectible’ products delivered with Lalique crystal or luxury car partnerships with some over-the-top branding. This is cool, elegant, unforgettable, and so bespoke that it puts so many other things at similar price points to shame.
If you have the money to sit and experience something like this in your home, what are you waiting for? No other brand has ever done anything like this, whether they be Scottish, Irish, American, or Japanese. This pure passion, excitement, unrestrained outlook, and one hell of a final product design.
My Overall Thoughts
Food is something we all need to survive, whiskey is a luxury in the grand scheme of everything. The vision and final execution of this product is something that all brands should aim for.
The incredible thing is that old Irish whiskey is generally quite hard to find. Whether you are after Teeling, Bushmills, or Midleton, there isn’t much of it around.
Yes, this is expensive, but for five entire bottles of whiskey with this kind of story attached to it, it isn’t that much when compared to everything else available on the market. To see five bottles of twenty-three-year-old single malt with multiple cask finishes across the world, worked together in conjunction with a two-star Michelin chef’s ideas of base flavors – every single brand in the world should be paying attention to what has happened here, and how to present a luxury, one-off, unique, bespoke, whatever adjective you can throw at it style of product.
I think this is one of the most unique, special Irish whiskey experiences that you can get yourself involved with. I’m in a special position as I’ve been able to try the stout, cognac, and mezcal that have helped influence these final whiskies, and they are quite frankly delicious! I’d buy them by the case if I could.
But even with this collection’s rather big price tag, it is an experience that even brands like Macallan haven’t even touched on when it comes to varied cask influences and such a huge variety of worldly influences, let alone just whisky and gastronomy.
Don’t buy a Macallan M, buy these five bottles of whisky instead. If I could, I would.
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