Price – 750 ml – $43.99 – (www.shoppersvineyard.com)
Method – 50 ml in a Glencairn
Rating – 90-100 – standard rating scale for wine and spirits
Review –
Before we get into the review of this really great whiskey, I’d like to take a small side route. As of yesterday, when I posted the Woodford Reserve Double Oaked review, I realized that I am 1 week from the 6-month milestone for WWT, so I figured I’d celebrate it with Whiskey Week. One whiskey per day, for 7 days. Sounds like fun, so lets get down to brass tacks here.
This is one of the whiskeys that I bought for St. Paddy’s day, and never got around to reviewing, and I’ll also say that the 15 year version of this whiskey was the choice of G-Lo from the Booze Dancing crew, so this ones for you G-Lo! It also ended up being one of my favorite Irish bottles in my burgeoning collection in the end. Continue reading
Thanks to our friends over at Angel’s Envy (click here to go to their facebook and like them), I read that today, March 27th, 2012, is the first ever World Whiskey Day. Since it bears a resemblance to this very blog title, and since it IS whiskey oriented, I thought I should write up a little piece about our favorite caramel colored liquid and its day in the sun (or in the dark cabinet since the sun will prematurely age the fine liquid).
When I started poking around the net to get some info about the genesis of a day dedicated to our favorite libation, I came across a story on http://www.scotsman.com , that lay the story pretty bare. A college student by the name of Blair Bowman went looking for World Whiskey Day after learning of World Gin Day which was a huge hit in Spain. Upon finding out that there wasn’t one, he quickly bought up the virtual real estate associated with the day, and set about starting a whiskey empire with his own personal holiday as his flagship. Click here to read the article from Scotsman.com (which is a fine piece of writing if I do say so myself). I will do my very best to post a review or two this evening. St. Patrick’s Day saw me sick and unable to imbibe, so I have a few bottles left without review.
Overall, I found myself as surprised as Mr. Bowman when learning that there wasn’t a whiskey holiday, even if St. Patrick’s day (rather insensitively some would say – I not being among them) is an unofficial one, but if this does even half as well as Bowman hopes it to do, then we should have a really exciting addition to our drinking schedules. Either way, I look forward to seeing how this whole thing pans out.
But until then… Happy World Whiskey Day from Whiskey World Tour!
Slainte,
Chuck
p.s. Special thanks to our friends over at http://boozedancing.wordpress.com for the repost and the kind words. Great members of the community and knowledgeable folks all around. I learn something every time I read an article. (check em out)
So being the half-Irish mongrel that I am, I tend to get giddy when St. Paddy’s comes around. I feel like my beard gets a little more red in it than usual, and my skin a little more pale. Also, this will be WWT’s first St. Paddy’s so I figured I might as well do something a little bit special for the Irish Wine lovers in all of us. I’ve decided to take a poll that will determine the next bottle of whiskey I buy, and if I get some votes I will buy the most voted for and have one hell of an evening. I’m only going to list bottles that I dont currently own, and they will range in price, but feel free to vote for whichever whiskey makes your Irish tingle. Enjoy!
Slainte,
Chuck
p.s. If you dont see one you’d like to suggest, write it in the comment section and I’ll see what I can do.
Price – 750 ml – $135.99 reg $113.99 Sale – (www.shoppersvineyard.com)
Method – 2 ice cubes – 3 fingers of alcohol in 8 oz. rocks glass
Rating – 98-100 – standard rating scale for wine and spirits
Review –
First off let me say that I owe this bottle of glory to my lovely girlfriend who bought it for me as a Christmas present. It was a great present and not just because it was expensive.Also, this was the winner in my poll to see what the readers (however few you may be 😉 ) wanted to get a review of next.I’ll start as I usually do with the packaging. The blond, wood-grain box that the bottle comes in is well made and is a great match to the fresh color and taste of this whiskey. It comes with a personal registration card that you can send back to the distillery to let them know who purchased each numbered bottle. It’s a corked bottle that has the same color cork stopper as the wood of the box and a beautiful gold and parchment label that really dresses up this traditional Irish whiskey bottle rather nicely.On the nose, you get something that not a lot of Irish whiskeys will give you, honey. But its not the cloying honey that plagues some bourbons, its the fresh-light honey scent that really brightens up both the nose and the taste. The spice that you would expect from a Midleton whiskey is there, reminiscent of the Redbreast (click to read my review of Redbreast 12), but it is much more mellow and has a very clean feel on the nose. Continue reading
Milestones are all about reminding yourself about the journey it’s taken to get to a certain point. My first 1000 views have been a blast, getting to know new people, learning new things, and drinking new whiskeys all along the way. Here’s to my next 1000, and for those of you who read and comment, thank you for acknowledging me, even if it is only by spending the time to look at the words I string together on the page.
In the interest of full disclosure I should say that I have had my bottle of Redbreast for a few months now and the glass I wrote my review from was the last glass in the bottle. The entire bottle was well worth the slightly higher price tag that I paid for it and I would suggest it readily to anyone who asked for a good Irish whiskey.
The drink experience is much better after allowing the alcohol to open with either a spoonful of water or a few ice cubes and I would definitely suggest drinking almost any Irish with at least a little bit of water. As most Pot Still whiskeys (which most iconic Irish is – read more about pot still Irish whiskey and its origins here) it has a lot of spice which mellows with the water and air. Redbreast has a bold spice note on the drink but has little heat until well after the swallow. The finish has heavy amounts of spice followed by a mouth-filling warmth if you let it settle for about 20-25 seconds. The finish is very long and gets warmer and more full the longer you let it set.
One suggestion when drinking is to let the whiskey sit in your mouth for 10+ seconds before swallowing. It mellows the spice and really allows the complexity to take over. There is very little heat to the whiskey so holding it for a few seconds shouldn’t be a problem.
A tip I read for drinking new whiskeys, which has almost always led me to good things, is to let the whiskey swirl in your mouth for the 1 second per year of aging. So for Redbreast, 12 years = 12 seconds. The extra time on the palate pays dividends in the flavor department. Also, if it is a whiskey that is over 90 proof, drinking is straight is fine, but if you don’t add at least a little bit of water, the alcohol content is going to shock your taste buds and not really allow you to taste the whiskey. Two things that will make any whiskey experience better.
Before we get into the review of this really great whiskey, I’d like to take a small side route. As of yesterday, when I posted the Woodford Reserve Double Oaked review, I realized that I am 1 week from the 6-month milestone for WWT, so I figured I’d celebrate it with Whiskey Week. One whiskey per day, for 7 days. Sounds like fun, so lets get down to brass tacks here.
Chuck
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