JJ Corry - The Capuchin 2024

The third and last bottle in the Friends of Irish Whiskey series provided by JJ Corry, The Capuchin is a bottling of ex-Palo Cortado, Bourbon and most interestingly, a ‘Pajerette’ cask.

Now, I’ve never heard of Pajerette, and information online about it is fairly patchy. From what we’re told, its a Pedro Ximenez based sweet wine that has largely fallen out of fashion. It was also apparently involved in some Scottish cask scandal from a few years ago. Where Louise got this one I’d love to know the story behind. The Capuchin is also the weirdest whiskey I bought in 2024. At the very least, the whiskey I was most conflicted over.

The nose is fairly noxious. Harsh, sour alcohol. Vine. Geranium. A first sip delivers deep sultana. Rich, old, golden grape. Sticky toffee treacle. Very heavy. Little dryness on the tooth. Stinky. Pugnacious. Its way over the top. Without sounding too critical, because I actually enjoyed drinking it over the course of the bottle, it was overly complicated, with far too much going on. I think the pajerette may well have overpowered every other element in it and possibly was kept too long on that wood. Who knows how it developed over the 5 months it was in there.

I wish this sold better, for a few reasons. Primarily, because I think the guys from FOIW do great work sourcing and organising these bottlings and this was an example of a share that they probably ended up taking a hit on, which is regrettable. But secondarily, I just wish there was more dialogue around it. Unfortunately, it may have been the victim of their success in a way - after a year of solid releases people may have simply been tapped out and by Christmas, money may well have just been routed elsewhere. The Butt, first in the series, was a favourite of mine from 2024. The Trio is still up on JJ Corry’s website - I’d encourage anyone to pick one up to clean out the stores.