Redbreast 15 & 21 Reviews

Hi everyone,

Redbreast is known to be THE single pot still whiskey to try. Particularly the 21 has a reputation as one of the best Irish Whiskies that money can buy.

Now, I’m not usually a massive fan of Irish whiskey but had the chance to try two of the Redbreast range recently, including the 21.

If you didn’t already know, it is distilled at the New Midleton distillery with a mix of malted and unmalted barley. Although it is made on the same site as Jameson, this only uses pot stills, giving it a fuller body and character.

Redbreast 15 46%

Colour: Gold

Body: Medium

Nose: Loads of tropical fruit, fruit gums, a little banana, milk bottle sweets, apple sours, a real pix-n-mix! Creamy.

Taste: Very soft, a little watery to start (46%?!), tropical fruit, green banana, underipe mango, orange juice, creamy vanilla. Flat in places though.

Finish: Medium/Long length. Soft spices, some oak, a bit flat here and lacking life.

I was very surprised by the mouthfeel to this. Very average in my book, especially considering the price is pretty high.

69/100

 

Redbreast 21 46%

Colour: Dark Gold

Body: Medium/Full

Nose: Stunning! A massive fruit bomb! Expressive mango and mango juice, guava, some pineapple, perfume, clean laundry and biscuit, candied orange peel, ripe banana and milk chocolate. Complex and lively.

Taste: Juicy arrival, mango, pineapple, great oak, still so fresh, creamy, biscuit, lovely viscous mouthfeel, orange, light touch of white pepper and ginger.

Finish: Medium length. More orange, then drier, orange chewing gum, not as complex here.

Just loses a few points on the finish but fantastic Irish whiskey.

80/100

Thanks for reading!

Irish Reviews #28-#29

Whisky Network Reviews #965-#966

Network Average: 75.1

Best Score: 94

Worst Score: 12

0-49 Terrible

50-59 Bad

60-64 Just About OK

65-69 Ok to Good

70-74 Good

75-79 Very Good

80-84 Excellent

85-89 Superb

90+ Magnificent

Full Disclosure Disclaimer: I currently work as the Global Brand Ambassador for Penderyn Distillery. The views expressed here are purely my own and do not reflect the views of Penderyn Distillery or The Welsh Whisky Company. I try to maintain as much objectivity as I can but feel free to take my reviews with as big a pinch of salt as you like. Furthermore, my rating scale is NOT based on a Parker type wine scoring scale or a school/college/university % or A-F grade score. You can find more on my scoring here. I apologise for any seemly low or 'bad' scores given with my system and I am sorry I can't say only nice things. Please keep in mind that I am ethically compromised and I am unable to produce 100% unbiased reviews.

Why is this here?

Method & Madness Single Pot Irish (Chestnut Finish)

Hi everyone,

I know I’m a little late for St. Paddies day, but I should have put this up ages ago when I tried it and I’d totally forgotten.

So this is part of a series of Irish whiskies, each wackier and more ‘out there’ than the last. This one in particular caught my eye because it was a single pot (which is of course the King of Irish whiskey) and it had been finished in Chestnut. Not Oak, Chestnut wood.

Oak replacements are something that is being looked at by a few people, including Springbank and Hunter Laing filling Chestnut barrels recently, despite being against the Scotch whisky laws. Irish whiskey hasn’t got anything against Chestnut though, the laws only stipulate that it should be matured in a wooden barrel.

What flavours will Chestnut bring over Oak? No idea. This is the first I’ve tried!

 

Method & Madness Chestnut Finish 46%

Colour: Bronze

Body: Medium

Nose: Aromatic and lovely. Fresh tropical fruit is immediate, gummy bear, chewing gum, candy floss, Turkish delight, which means rose but it's also chocolately like Turkish delight chocolate. Underneath it's woody in a great way, spicy with curry paste and very subtly earthy. Like Willy Wonker snorted something and came up with the nose for a whiskey! Edges closer towards the taste as it goes on...

Taste: Spices start, black pepper, then virgin oak comes through, well not oak actually, I'm guessing the Chestnut has really taken this over because it's a strange and rubbery to taste. Little of the complexity of the nose. Any of the normal green or tropical fruit are hidden far away. A shame but I had a feeling this would happen.

Finish: Medium length. Like a Bourbon, caramel but some of that rubbery flavour is still there.

Single Pot still Irish whiskey matured in Bourbon and Sherry then finish in French Chestnut. A great nose, but the taste lets it down. Really interesting to try though!! My first non-oak whiskey.

70/100

Thanks for reading!

Irish Review #22

Whisky Network Review #699

Network Average: 74.7

Best Score: 93

Worst Score: 12

0-49 Terrible

50-59 Bad

60-64 Just About OK

65-69 Ok to Good

70-74 Good

75-79 Very Good

80-84 Excellent

85-89 Superb

90+ Magnificent

Full Disclosure Disclaimer: I currently work as a Brand Ambassador for Penderyn Distillery. The views expressed here are purely my own and do not reflect the views of Penderyn Distillery or The Welsh Whisky Company. I try to maintain as much objectivity as I can but feel free to take my reviews with as big a pinch of salt as you like. Furthermore, my rating scale is NOT based on a Parker type wine scoring scale or a school/college/university % or A-F grade score. You can find more on my scoring here. I apologise for any seemly low or 'bad' scores given with my system and I am sorry I can't say only nice things. Please keep in mind that I am ethically compromised and I am unable to produce 100% unbiased reviews.

Why is this here?

Midleton Dair Ghaelach Review [From Paris with Love]

Hi everyone,

Daves Whisky Reviews is 1 year old! Yay! It's the blog's anniversary today. Does that mean anything special? Not particularly. Business as usual: More reviews.

Cask strength Single Pot Still Irish Whiskey? Yes please!

Finish it in Virgin Irish Oak Hogsheads? Yeah, that’s got my interest piqued.

Throw in some great to going mental reviews? Sounds good.

So, this is a Single Pot Still Irish Whiskey from the New Midleton distillery that was initially aged in Bourbon barrels and then finished in some local oak, then given an impossible to spell name. These trees were pretty bloody old, and they only yielded about 5-6 barrels each I believe. Did you know that only about 50% of the wood from an oak tree makes it into barre staves?

The particular one I got to try was from Tree 3.

Midleton Dair Ghaelach 57.9%

Colour: Bronze

Body: Full

Nose: Virgin oak is big, some Irish tropical fruit but not enough to balance it, spices, quite closed. Harsh alcohol with water.

Taste: Intense, very spicy, tannins, honey, dry, burnt wood. Virgin oak comes in towards the end.

Finish: Long length. Harsh spice and virgin oak.

Quality is obvious but in no way balanced. Please keep in mind, I don’t normally like virgin oak much at the best of times, but here it seems to have taken over.

66/100

Thanks for reading!

Irish Whiskey Review #16

Whisky Network Review #534

Irish Average: 66.6

Network Average: 74.3

Best Score: 92

Worst Score: 22

0-49 Terrible

50-59 Bad

60-64 Just About OK

65-69 Ok to Good

70-74 Good

75-79 Very Good

80-84 Excellent

85-89 Superb

90+ Magnificent

Full Disclosure Disclaimer: I currently work as a Brand Ambassador for Penderyn Distillery. The views expressed here are purely my own and do not reflect the views of Penderyn Distillery or The Welsh Whisky Company. I try to maintain as much objectivity as I can but feel free to take my reviews with as big a pinch of salt as you like. Furthermore, my rating scale is NOT based on a Parker type wine scoring scale or a school/college/university % or A-F grade score. You can find more on my scoring here. I apologise for any seemly low or 'bad' scores given with my system and am sorry I can't say only nice things. Please keep in mind that I am ethically compromised and am unable to produce 100% unbiased reviews.

Why is this here?

Redbreast 12 Cask Strength Review [From Paris with Love]

Hi everyone,

Irish whiskey... I've got a bit of strange relationship with it, as with Bourbon.

I just don't get the balance and complexity that I would from a Scotch. Often the style is too much of this artificial, rubbery fruit juice that everyone else seems to love.

I haven't tried too many yet though, and there is hope coming in the form of many new Irish distilleries.

Redbreast 12 Cask Strength 57.2%

Colour: Gold

Body: Full

Nose: Sweet with some tropical fruit but more gummy bears and chewy fruit sweets. There's an interesting gun smoke note.

Taste: Really intense, gummy bear, some tropical fruit, dry oak, slight rubber and that gun smoke or maybe gun oil? (I went gun shooting in France once)

Finish: Long length. Spicy, tingling, Madeira-y actually, some fresh fruit.

It's not really balanced to be honest, although the gun notes are nice. It's very good whisky, but not perhaps as good as I was expecting.

75/100

Thanks for reading!

Irish Review #15

Whisky Network Review #515

Network Average: 74.2

Best Score: 92

Worst Score: 22

0-49 Terrible

50-59 Bad

60-64 Just About OK

65-69 Ok to Good

70-74 Good

75-79 Very Good

80-84 Excellent

85-89 Superb

90+ Magnificent

Full Disclosure Disclaimer: I currently work as a Brand Ambassador for Penderyn Distillery. The views expressed here are purely my own and do not reflect the views of Penderyn Distillery or The Welsh Whisky Company. I try to maintain as much objectivity as I can but feel free to take my reviews with as big a pinch of salt as you like. Furthermore, my rating scale is NOT based on a Parker type wine scoring scale or a school/college/university % or A-F grade score. You can find more on my scoring here. I apologise for any seemly low or 'bad' scores given with my system and am sorry I can't say only nice things. Please keep in mind that I am ethically compromised and am unable to produce 100% unbiased reviews.

Why is this here?

Redbreast Lustau Review

Hi everyone,

Another Irish review today.

Haven't been too keen on the Irish stuff I've tried so far (only 13 mind you!!), with my highest score being 82 for a single Sherry cask Redbreast.

This one is also a Redbreast, also Sherry so hopes were high.

Redbreast Lustau 46%

Colour: Gold

Body: Medium

Nose: Marzipan, Sherry, raisin, Cherry and dirty orange, almond and hazelnut.

Taste: Quite rich but soft, slightly oily, orange, slightly rubbery Sherry and cherry. Then some marzipan and almond.

Finish: Medium length. Cherry chewy sweets then some chocolate and dry oak spice.

Sherry finish NAS. It has potential but never quite comes together with enough balance. Also feels slightly generic as a Sherry finish. Funnily enough I preferred the Glendalough 7yo to this by a hairs width. Just a little more character maybe.

68/100

Thanks for reading!

Irish Whiskey Review #13

Whisky Network Review #464

Network Average: 74.8

Best Score: 92

Worst Score: 44

0-49 Terrible

50-59 Bad

60-64 Just About OK

65-69 Ok to Good

70-74 Good

75-79 Very Good

80-84 Excellent

85-89 Superb

90+ Magnificent

Full Disclosure Disclaimer: I currently work as a Brand Ambassador for Penderyn Distillery. The views expressed here are purely my own and do not reflect the views of Penderyn Distillery or The Welsh Whisky Company. I try to maintain as much objectivity as I can but feel free to take my reviews with as big a pinch of salt as you like. Furthermore, my rating scale is NOT based on a Parker type wine scoring scale or a school/college/university % or A-F grade score. You can find more on my scoring here. I apologise for any seemly low or 'bad' scores given with my system and am sorry I can't say only nice things. Please keep in mind that I am ethically compromised and am unable to produce 100% unbiased reviews.

Why is this here?

Greenspot Single Pot Still Whiskey Review

Hi everyone,

An Irish whiskey from me today, Greenspot. I kept an eye out for this because it’s in my 101 whiskies from Ian Buxton.

A lot of Irish whiskey is blended but this is a single pot still whiskey, meaning that the whiskey is from one distillery (in this case Midleton Distillery) and made with a mix of malted and unmalted barley.

Does anyone know if they mean barley that is completely unmalted? Or ‘green’ malt (been through steeping and germination but not kiln dried)?

I’m no expert on Irish whiskey but I would have thought that the lack of malting the barley would protect the starch in the protein matrix and cell walls that malting breaks down, making the starch more inaccessible to the action of enzymes to break it down into sugars??? Whereas Green malt is very active in enzymes, even more so than malted barley.

Hopefully someone can help?
EDIT: Someone on Facebook pointed me to the Redbeast website, where you can find that Unmalted barley means just that, dried barley taken straight to the distillery.

Anyway, the whiskey:

Greenspot 40%

Colour: Gold

Body: Light

Nose: Sugary, Mr. Kipling Country Slices, sugar crystals, light malt, sponge cake, icing, orange marmalade, some jam, very light oak, treacle tart, pear tart. A floral note with sweet rose. A waxy oily fruitiness after some time.

Taste: Very light. Tonnes of sugary treats and cakes, maybe a little weak. Slightly oily, Mr. Kipling Country Slices again (God they're delicious, stewed pears, light malt, building orange marmalade and light oak, very light cinnamon, icing sugar, some orange.

Finish: Medium length. Orange marmalade hit then light spice.

Could do with 46% but a very nice Irish whiskey.

71/100

Thanks for reading!

Review #344

Network Average: 74.5

Best Score: 92

Worst Score: 44

0-49 Terrible

50-59 Bad

60-64 Just About OK

65-69 Ok to Good

70-74 Good

75-79 Very Good

80-84 Excellent

85-89 Superb

90+ Magnificent

Full Disclosure Disclaimer: I currently work as a Brand Ambassador for Penderyn Distillery. The views expressed here are purely my own and do not reflect the views of Penderyn Distillery or The Welsh Whisky Company. I try to maintain as much objectivity as I can but feel free to take my reviews with as big a pinch of salt as you like. Furthermore, I have never accepted free samples from anyone in the whisky industry, but have bought bottles or samples with my money, bringing a different set of biases. Also, my rating scale is NOT based on a Parker type wine scoring scale or a school/college/university % or A-F grade score. I apologise for any seemly low or 'bad' scores given with my system and am sorry I can't say only nice things. Please keep in mind that I am ethically compromised and am unable to produce 100% unbiased reviews.

Why is this here?