Knappogue Castle 12 Year Single Malt Irish Whiskey

Jeffrey Lavallee
Oct 12, 2025
3 min read

Updated: Nov 13, 2025

ABC - $44.99

TW - $51.99

Class VI - Not Available

ABV - 43%

12 Years Old

Mashbill - 100% Malted Barley

8 Sep 25

Knappogue Castle Distillery

Recently, a friend gave me a bottle of Knappogue Irish whiskey—a thoughtful gesture of friendship that I genuinely appreciated. More of you are welcome to show your affection the same way—this hobby isn’t cheap, that’s for sure!

I held onto the bottle for several months, hoping to have my friend and the guys over for an evening of shooting pool, throwing darts, and sipping the Knappogue together. But as time went on, coordinating that hangout became harder and harder. Eventually, I couldn’t resist any longer—I had to crack it open.

I’ve had Knappogue Castle before and really enjoyed it. I’d put it on par with Tullamore D.E.W. or Slane—just a solid, sippable Irish whiskey.

I know what you’re thinking: “How do you pronounce it and what does it mean?’

Knappogue (pronounced Nah’ Pogue) translates to “hill of the kiss” in Gaelic. I’ve found that the more Knappogue I have, the easier it is to pronounce.

They offer 12-, 14-, and 16-year expressions—and even a rare 36-year-old whiskey. In fact, you can get your hands on the 1951 Knappogue Castle 36 Year Old Single Malt Irish Whiskey for a mere $1,235. (I’ll take two!)

The whiskey is named after Knappogue Castle, located about a three-hour drive west of Dublin. Built in the 1460s, the castle has an interesting history. From their website:

In 1966, Mark Edwin Andrews purchased Knappogue Castle, a 15th century castle in Ireland, which was then in ruins. He and his wife, a prominent architect, then embarked on an ambitious program of restoration, in an effort to return the structure to its original state of glory and grandeur.

Andrews then began sourcing Irish whiskey from various distilleries and they continue to do so according to Wikipedia. So, they don’t have a distillery on the castle grounds. That’s not the sort of information you’d find on a company’s website. Most of their juice comes from the Cooley Distillery - a fine Irish whiskey maker. We can be assured of the quality. And, of course, aging on the Knappogue Castle grounds is going to result in a different whiskey than what comes out of the Cooley rick houses.

Now, I could try to explain how it’s made, but I’ll let the distillery speak for itself:

Knappogue Castle 12 year old, our signature expression, is an exceptional single malt made exclusively from malted barley. Triple distilled one batch at a time in traditional, onion-shaped copper pot stills, the whiskey is then aged in bourbon oak casks for twelve years. The delicate distillation process, along with the moist and temperate climate, yields the distinctive flavor of this remarkable Irish single malt.

The tasting notes:

AROMA: Rich and biscuity with notes of peppery spice.

TASTE: Mellow and well-balanced with a bright, elegant fruitiness and mild spice flavors.

FINISH: Medium, clean, and smooth.

Knappogue Castle 12 Year Old is a fine Irish Whiskey. I recommend it. Saúde!

If you’d like a review of how whiskey is made, they have a nice explanation here.

They have an extensive list of cocktails and they’ll email you the recipes. Almost all drinks included a dazzling assortment of ingredients - most, I’ve never heard of.

AI was used on original content to polish the language for readability, fix grammar and punctuation issues, and slightly adjust structure where needed for smoother flow.

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