Proper No. Twelve Irish Whiskey: What It Is and What It Costs

Proper No. Twelve is the Irish whiskey people ask for by the fighter's name and then keep buying because it is $34.99 and it goes down easy. It is a real blended Irish whiskey, not a novelty bottle, and it is worth knowing what is actually in it before you decide whether it belongs on your bar.

Where the name comes from

Twelve is a Dublin postcode. Crumlin, on the south side of the city, is Dublin 12, and it is where Conor McGregor grew up. "Proper" is the way he says the word. The brand launched in 2018 through Proximo Spirits, the same house that owns Jose Cuervo, and it sold out its first run in a matter of days on the strength of the name alone.

You will see it written as Proper 12, Proper Twelve and Proper No. Twelve. They are all the same bottle - Proper No. Twelve is what is printed on the label.

That start is why a lot of people assume there is nothing behind the label. Seven years later it is still on shelves and still selling, which is not what happens to a celebrity bottle that has nothing in it.

What is in the bottle

Proper No. Twelve is a blend of golden grain whiskey and single malt, triple distilled, aged in ex-bourbon barrels and nothing else, bottled at 40%.

The ex-bourbon-only part matters more than it sounds. Most Irish blends in this price band get some of their colour and sweetness from sherry, port or wine casks. Proper No. Twelve does not. That leaves it lighter, drier and more straightforwardly vanilla than the bottles beside it, and it is also the reason the finish is short and clean rather than long and jammy.

Triple distillation is the standard Irish move and it is what separates the whole category from Scotch, which is usually distilled twice. Three passes strip out more of the heavy character and leave a softer, rounder spirit. If you want the long version of that difference we wrote it up in Irish whiskey vs Scotch.

How it tastes

Vanilla and honey on the nose, light malt behind it, a little toasted oak. The palate is soft and sweet, mostly honeyed grain with a touch of orchard fruit. The finish is short, clean and gently sweet, and it does not burn.

Nobody is going to tell you this is a complex whiskey. It is not trying to be. It is smooth to the point of being easy, which is exactly the brief for a bottle at this price.

What to do with it

Shots, first and most honestly. It is one of the easier whiskeys on our shelf to drink cold and fast, and that is most of what it gets bought for.

After that: Irish coffee, where the honeyed grain does something real against the sugar and the cream, and a ginger highball, where two parts ginger ale over ice and a lemon wedge turns it into a summer drink. It also holds up in a whiskey sour better than its price suggests, because the vanilla gives the lemon something to push against.

Neat with a drop of water is fine. It is just not the reason to buy it.

Where it sits on our shelf

$34.99 puts Proper No. Twelve right in the middle of the whiskey shelf, and the bottles either side of it are the useful comparison.

The Sexton Single Malt is $31.99 - a dollar less, and a single malt rather than a blend. It is aged in sherry casks, so it is darker, richer and nuttier. If the ex-bourbon lightness of Proper No. Twelve reads as thin to you, The Sexton is the correction.

The Busker Triple Cask is the same $34.99 and takes the opposite approach to casks: bourbon, sherry and marsala all at once. Same money, three times the wood.

Writers' Tears Copper Pot at $54.99 and Redbreast 12 Year at $69.99 are where Irish whiskey gets serious - both single pot still, both a different category of drinking. Redbreast in particular is one of the best whiskeys in the shop at any price.

The honest summary: Proper No. Twelve is the bottle you buy for the party. Writers' Tears and Redbreast are the bottles you buy for yourself.

Is it worth the $34.99

Yes, if you know what you are buying. You are paying for a clean, soft, ex-bourbon Irish blend that mixes well, pours easily for a crowd and does not need explaining to anyone. You are not paying for depth, and the name on the label is doing some of the pricing work.

If you want to know how the price compares across the whole spirit shelf, what a bottle of whiskey costs lays the bands out. And on the kashrus question, which we get asked about whiskey more than any other spirit, start with is your whiskey kosher and ask your rav about any specific bottling.

Call the store at (347) 533-8586 if you want a hand picking between this and the ones next to it. We ship anywhere in the country.