Review: Redbreast All Sherry Single Cask Irish Whiskey

By Christopher Null | March 26, 2016 |

The name speaks for itself: This lot of 576 bottles of 16 year old, completely sherry-cask-aged whiskey is the first ever single barrel bottling of the Irish single pot still classic, Redbreast. Here’s the gist, straight from the source:

Redbreast Single Cask offers a unique take on Redbreast’s full bodied flavour profile, renowned for its signature Christmas cake character – the result of a strong contribution from Oloroso sherry casks. With just 576 bottles available exclusively through The Whisky Exchange at the recommend selling price of £180, the rare expression is expected to become highly sought after by Irish Whiskey connoisseurs and collectors.

Barrel #30087, the butt that matured Redbreast Single Cask, was crafted in late 1996 at the Antonio Paez Lobato Cooperage in Southern Spain near Jerez, the world’s sherry capital. The cask was then toasted and seasoned with Oloroso sherry for two years at the Páez Morilla Bodega until early 1999, when the cask was shipped to the Midleton Distillery in County Cork, filled with Single Pot Still Irish distillate and laid in warehouse M15A until August 2015 – 16 years and 147 days later.

Only a handful of single casks are selected and bottled at Midleton each year, a process that is overseen by Head Blender Billy Leighton who takes pride in individually nosing each cask to make sure it is at the peak of maturation. Each single cask possesses its own unique flavour character that is inimitable; Redbreast Single Cask #30087 is bottled without chill filtration at 59.9% ABV and offers classic pot still spices with fruit and almond notes, a hint of vanilla and a balanced finish. Cask #30087 was selected by Leighton and The Whisky Exchange team from a choice of two Redbreast single barrel samples in March 2015.

We had the rare opportunity to sample this highly limited release.

The nose offers notes of coffee bean, strong tea, gingerbread, and a heavily nutty, aged sherry character. The body is rich and intense — a far more powerful expression of Redbreast than I’ve encountered to date — offering more of that deep, almost pungent oloroso sherry character, giving the whiskey a character not unlike a Spanish brandy.

That coffee character is what endures the most forcefully, layering on notes of furniture polish, caramelized banana, cloves, and dark chocolate. The finish is as big as everything that has come before, enduring to the point of being epic. Is it conceivable that it’s all a bit too much? You be the judge.

119.8 proof.

A- / $256 / singlepotstill.com