Green Spot Chateau Montelena Zinfandel Wine Cask Finish Single Pot Still Irish Whiskey 750ml Bottle

In 1805, William Mitchell established a bakery and confectionery business on Dublin's Grafton Street. In 1887, the business expanded into the wine and spirit trade at a location on nearby Kildare Street. At the time, it was common practice in Ireland for merchants to purchase distillate in bulk from whiskey distilleries and then mature it themselves in their own casks in bonded warehouses. The merchants had ample supplies of casks due to the importation of wine and fortified wines such as port and sherry. Therefore, it was a natural progression for Mitchell & Son to enter the bonded whiskey trade. Using distillate obtained from Jameson's nearby Bow Street Distillery, Mitchell & Son matured whiskey in a mix of casks that had been used to hold both dark and light sherries in their cellars under Fitzwilliam Lane in Dublin. For the first five years of maturation, half of the whiskey was aged in casks that had previously held Oloroso and other darker sherries, with the other half aged in casks that had held lighter finos. This combination prevented the darker wines from overpowering the whiskey. After five years, whiskeys from the respective light and dark sherry casks were then vatted together and allowed to mature for an additional five years in neutral oak. Mitchell & Son's whiskey was originally marketed as "Pat Whisky", with the labels featuring the logo of a man on a green background. However, in 1933, it was rebranded as "John Jameson & Son 10 Year Old Green Seal" and later became known simply as Green Spot. Mitchell & Son sold a range of whiskeys under the "Spot" brand. The name itself originated from Mitchell's practice of marking casks of different ages with a spot of colored paint. There was a 7-year-old Blue Spot, a 12-year-old Yellow Spot, and a 15-year-old Red Spot. However, it was the 10-year-old Green Spot that emerged as the company's most popular whiskey, and it was the only Spot whiskey to remain in continuous production until the present. Although it relaunched in 2012, Yellow Spot ceased bottling for decades in the late 1950s. According to posts on the Irish Whiskey Club's Facebook page in August 2018, Red Spot is set to be relaunched, possibly in October 2018. In 1971, Irish Distillers closed its Dublin distilleries (including Bow Street) and consolidated production in Midleton. As a result, the makeup of the whiskey was altered for the first time in known history. This change, coupled with low stocks of maturing whiskey, led Mitchell & Son to make an agreement with Irish Distillers to mature the whiskey onsite in Irish Distillers' own casks, with Mitchell & Son having sole rights to market, sell, and develop the whiskey.