Description

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Official tasting notes for this new Redbreast are as follows.

Nose: A mix of exotic fruits and red berries, complemented by fresh herbs and wood spices. Vanilla sweetness and treacle toffee combine with the nuttiness of toasted oak.

Taste: Incredibly rich in texture with a luxurious combination of ripe stone fruits and summer berries, balanced by the prickle of a hint of chilli oil. Cherry menthol, vanilla and cinnamon sweet spices complement red pepper, nutmeg and toasted oak.

Finish: A satisfyingly long balance of ripe fruit and wood spices, worthy of a journey of nearly three decades.

The Redbreast single pot still Irish whiskey brand is a popular part of the larger Irish Distillers/Pernod Ricard Irish whiskey portfolio. The permanent line up of this brand currently includes Redbreast Lustau and 12, 15 and 21 year old offerings. Joining those now is a new release in the form of a 27 year old that’s been partially matured “in ruby port barrels from Portugal’s Douro Valley to bring a new complexity and depth to the Redbreast collection.”

The new Redbreast 27 Year Old, according to those behind it, spent over two and half decades aging under the “watchful eyes of the team at [the] Midleton distillery,” which includes Master Blender Billy Leighton and Blender Dave McCabe.” For over 30 years, said team “travelled to the Douro Valley in Portugal, where port has been produced for two thousand years, to discover the finest caves in the region in a quest to provide drinkers with a truly unique taste experience.

“After sourcing ruby port casks, the masters filled them with pot still distillate before leaving them to mature, then combined them with whiskey aged in bourbon and sherry barrels.   The ruby port barrels impart fleshy fruit characteristics with notes of toasted oak which complements the rich and robust style of the distillate.”

Irish Distillers, part of Pernod Ricard and the makers of fine Irish Whiskey such as Jameson, Midleton and “the Spots” have just released their oldest ever permanent expression of Redbreast at 27 years old. This single pot still whisky contains whisky matured in Ruby Port barrels designed to bring a new complexity and depth in form of fleshy fruity characteristics to the Redbreast range.

Master Blender Billy Leighton and Blender Dave McCabe decided to add the Ruby Port casks to the successful standard combination of bourbon and sherry casks in order to create this older expression to join the 12, 15, 21 year olds and Lustau in the regular line.

Bottled at a cask strength of 54.6%, it’s produced in limited quantities and released in 11 markets.

The Whiskey

The color is a beautiful golden yellow that reflects in the rapid, narrow legs indicating an oily but not overly sweet whiskey.

The nose is absolutely beautiful and complex (at first just yum!). Then the scent develops a succulent mix of strawberries and raspberries mixed with a clear base of ripe plums and vanilla sweetness. After a while a hint of lime cuts through the fruitiness and a malty backdrop of biscuits with mature cheddar cheese completes the vision of complexity and maturity.

The plums are very clear on the palette together with essential oils of blood orange. Spiciness of chili and cinnamon compliments the fruitiness perfectly and leads into a lingering and velvety aftertaste with after-eight thins joining the pepper and spices.