Welcome to Taste Test, where every week our critic Jonah Flicker explores the most buzzworthy and interesting whiskeys in the world. Check back each Sunday for his latest whiskey review.
Sometimes the celebrity behind a celebrity brand is a curse and not a blessing; an annoyance that can drag down the reputation of whatever product they are endorsing. Of course, even the worst famous people still have their legions of fans, and such is the case with MMA fighter Conor McGregor, who has been accused of racism, punching old men in pubs, and sexual assault. Fortunately, he’s no longer involved with the Irish whiskey brand he founded, Proper No. Twelve, which just launched a brand-new expression. Unfortunately, this upgrade to the original is still just not that good.
Proper No. Twelve quickly became a huge success after it launched in 2018, even though it did not get great reviews and was considered by many to be a subpar whiskey. The blend consists of grain and malt components, the latter of which comes from Bushmills, that are aged in various types of casks. Now Bushmills is a reputable distillery that makes some very good single malt, but apparently that whiskey is not in the barrels it sells to Proper No. Twelve. The original blend had a sort of weird and unpleasant earthiness to it, and didn’t really supply the simple pleasures that you get from drinking a similarly priced whiskey like Jameson.
In 2021, McGregor and his partners sold a majority stake in Proper No. Twelve for a reported $600 million to Proximo Spirits, the company that owns major brands like Jose Cuervo. And in 2024, after McGregor was found liable in a civil rape case, Proximo stopped using his name or likeness to promote the whiskey. Good riddance. Last year, Proper No. Twelve launched its first single malt, a 13-year-old expression that was a hell of a lot better than the core blend. And earlier this month, it introduced another innovation called Black…