Redbreast 12 year old Cask Strength, batch B1/11 (re-review)

I'm going to take a week-long break from Ardbeg to review Redbreast. And by that I mean full-powered Redbreast. And by that I mean four batches of the 12yo Cask Strength and one single sherry cask.

If you're a newer reader, then lemme catch you up. I adore Redbreast. Not only is it my favorite Irish whiskey, but I think it was one of the finest whiskies in the world. I say "was" because damned Scottish single malt has had me distracted for the larger part of the past decade, so I don't know what's happened with the standard Redbreast releases.

This very bottle of Cask Strength batch B1/11 was reviewed EIGHT years ago, back when I was handing out 90+-point scores to every Redbreast I'd meet. I gave this whiskey a 91-point score. And for some reason, I've been sitting on a 2oz sample from that very bottle ever since. So, I'm going to start this week with a re-review of that whiskey, and then I'll review its sparring partner tomorrow.

↑ this guy is from this guy ↓

Brand: Redbreast
Country: Ireland
Distillery: Midleton
Style: Single Pot Still
Age: minimum 12 years
Maturation: ex-bourbon and ex-Oloroso sherry casks
Batch: B1/11
Bottle Code: L120231241 10:22
Release year: 2011
Alcohol by Volume: 57.7%
Chillfiltered? No
Colored? Probably

NOTES

At full power, the nose unites oranges, apricots, eucalyptus, lilac, brown sugar, roasted almonds and a tickle of brine. Lemon cake and orange scones lead the nose once the whisky is reduced to 40%abv. There's a nice float of wort in the background, and a few roses in the midground.

The warm palate reads very close to the nose with its tangy citrus and stone fruits. Smaller notes of fresh ginger and vanilla bean linger in the back. The sweetness is kept in check by a growing tartness. Metals and minerals emerge after about 20 minutes. It's all very well knit. Reduced to 40%abv, the whiskey's palate becomes sweet and lemony, with a bunch of tart dried cranberries. Hints of sea salt and pencil shavings perch in the background.

It lands the finish with lemons, brown sugar, minerals and nectarines. A near perfect balance of tart and sweet. Diluted to 40%abv, the whiskey's finish holds lemon candy, sea salt and a hint of American oak.

WORDS WORDS WORDS

I wasn't too crazy eight years ago (in fact, I was probably saner), this whisky is a joy. My notes do not match those of the old review, in fact I no longer see the two cask types battling it out. It's balanced with a precision I don't frequently find in current Scotch or Irish whiskies. Water does seem to bring out the oak a bit, so in a 8-year 180-degree turn I'd say keep it neat. When neat, it sticks the landing brilliantly. The brand began this cask strength series well.

Availability - This batch is gone
Pricing - sorry, can't remember
Rating - 90

Islay Balance 14 year old 2005 Old Particular Spiritualist Series, cask DL14031

So the waiter says, "Who ordered the medium Swedenborger with the Mesmertini"

And Douglas Laing exclaims, "I didn't mean that kind of spiritualism!"

Wocka Wocka!

(I'm only halfway through the Ardbeg reviews, people. It's all downhill from here.)

Actually, Laing's 'Spiritualist' series does reference both alcohol and something......something. Possibly theosophical-ish more than spiritualist? The official site links "mindfulness" and "ying and yang" to Laing's tempered poison.

Where do I even begin, I mean--

The actual liquid is not called "Ardbeg" but the Intertube Sayers say it's Ardbeg. And a 14 year old cask strength refill hogshead-aged Ardbeg is what we former Ardbeg fans wish LVMH would offer. But they don't, so we have to go to the indies for all the fun.

Distillery: Ardbeg (?)
Region: Islay
Bottler: Douglas Laing
Range: Old Particular
Age: 14 years (November 2005 - April 2020)
Maturation: refill hogshead
Cask #: DL14031
Outturn: 325 bottles
Alcohol by Volume: 53.2%
Chillfiltered? No
Color added? No
(from a bottle split)

NOTES

There's a sauté of peat, butter, cherries and apples in the nose's foreground. Fresh apricots and grapefruits somewhere in the middle, and Bugles corn snacks and cheap plastic toys in the background. It shifts a bit once reduced to 46%abv. Ocean, grass and roasted nuts take over. Hints of honeydew, anise and hay appear later one.

Seaweed, salt and sweetness appear in the palate first rather than peat, with minor notes of limes, pepper and bitter herbs in the back. It tilts towards Campari, lime and copper with time. It gets gentler at 46%abv, with mild sweetness, moderate soot and some grapefruit (IPA-style).

Again, there's less peat than expected in the finish. It's mostly salt, bitter herbs, tart citrus and copper. Once diluted to 46%abv, the whisky finishes with grapefruit, soot and salt.

WORDS WORDS WORDS

I'm glad I could end the week on a positive review. The whisky isn't complex, but it does fill an empty spot on the OB marketplace. It is a reasonable, fuss-free and (yes) balanced Ardbeg. That combination of words is so detached from contemporary Ardbeg that I wonder if this really is Ardbeg. No matter. I'm sure Madame Blavatsky would approve.

Availability - European specialty retailers
Pricing - $140-$180 (w/VAT)
Rating - 86

Ardbeg Kelpie, 46%abv US Release

I almost never have anything positive to say about Ardbeg's annual special releases, and I had no plans to review another one, ever. But then there's Kelpie, which is in the hot running for the worst of those limited editions.

Kelpie and I met at a Scotch Night event about three years ago. No one at the event had anything nice to say about the actual liquid. I witnessed a few Ardbeg fans pour their Kelpies down the sink. The notes I wrote were, "Sour, bitter and hot. Oppressively poor."

Though I thought I'd ditched my whisky masochist side, I recently found myself drawn to try this whisky again, by myself, where no one could hear me scream.

Distillery: Ardbeg
Ownership: Glenmorangie Plc (owned by LVMH)
Region: Islay
Product: Kelpie
Age: NAS
Maturation: virgin oak from the Adyghe Republic
Limited bottling: of some sort
Bottling year: 2017
Alcohol by Volume: 46%
Chillfiltered? No
Color added? No
(from a bottle split)

NOTES

The nose begins with layers of moss, sugar and ocean and leaves. Granny Smith apples, mint candy and cocoa powder emerge after 15 minutes, with hints of yeast and dried berries in the background. Diluting the whisky to 40%abv keeps the fruits and yeast, adding in cardamom.

The palate is very astringent, brutal even, after a couple of sips. Lots of salt and ash, no Ardbeg soot to be found. It calms down after 30 minutes, but then bitter oak enters the picture. It nearly disappears after being diluted to 40%abv. Wisps of ash, bitter oak, sweet citrus and cardboard arise after a bit.

The finish is astringent. I hate to reuse the word, but it fits. There's lots bitter oak, bitter roots, fabric, paper and ash. Once reduced to 40%abv the finish matches the palate, with an added metallic effect.

WORDS WORDS WORDS

Sourcing alternate oak species is an interesting idea, but every experiment doesn't need to see the light of day. Unless there's a significant sunk cost. And there's a customer base enthralled with the brand's baloney.

As with many of its Special Edition cousins, the Kelpie smells unique and entertaining, but flops in flavor. Here it's more dramatic than usual. It is slightly better than what I'd remembered, but not something I'd even try to blend out. It got THUMPED in a side-by-side with the 5yo Wee Beastie, then I let the rest of Kelpie swim down the drain. Once again, unless you're an Official Lumsden Honk, don't weep if this annual release passed you by. There's better Ardbeg. In fact, all of it is better. (Even Galileo.)

Availability - Secondary market
Pricing - You do not want to know
Rating - 76

Ardbeg 5 year old Wee Beastie (2020 US Release)

The world does not need an Ardbeg cluster, and you and I live in that world.

But.

Welcome to two weeks of Ardbeg!

First up, I have this here sample of the only <20yo Ardbeg recent release I've had any interest in, their non-NAS (double negative) Wee Beastie. Though other distilleries have previously used 5-year-old age statements, it's nice to see this from a brand that hurls out NAS releases in a perpetual blur.

Distillery: Ardbeg
Ownership: Glenmorangie Plc (owned by LVMH)
Region: Islay
Age: minimum 5 years old
Maturation: bourbon casks and oloroso sherry casks
Alcohol by Volume: 47.4%
Chillfiltered? No
Color added? No
(from a bottle split)

NOTES

Nice bright barley notes shine through the nose's peat. A mix of cocoa powder, anise and pear juice hides in the background behind a curious meeting of ultra-briny shellfish and MDP-style pickle juice. It feels more like a single unit once reduced to 40%abv, and it gains notes of lemon, mint leaf, basil leaf and a touch of yeast.

The palate is lightly sweet, with minimal mezcal. "Loots of soot and salt," per my written notes. Hints of bitter and tart citrus merge with black pepper and mint leaves in the midground. Just a peep of vanilla bean in the back. It gets sweeter and calmer when diluted to 40%abv, while gaining some grassiness and a good herbal bitterness.

Salt, pepper, soot and tangy citrus stretch out across the warm finish. While dropping it to 40%abv, doesn't change much, other than getting saltier and limier.

WORDS WORDS WORDS

This is better than my last two bottles of Ardbeg Ten, which is good news for the Beastie and me. Five years younger and five bucks cheaper than the Ten here in Ohio, the Wee Beastie makes for a much better starter peated Islay than Laphroaig's Select. This Ardbeg isn't going to inspire you to run out and buy a case, but its style is remarkably restrained considering its age and its distillery. A very pleasant surprise.

Availability - Widely available in Europe and USA
Pricing - $40-$50
Rating - 85

Green Spot 26 year old 1991 cask 50776 for The Whisky Exchange

Graced with success, the major Irish whiskey players are handling matters in the exact opposite fashion of the Japanese whisky titans. Irish Distillers and Teeling were prepared for a boost in their industry's popularity, and have lots of well-aged casks (20 to 40 years old) to dish out to their wealthy fanbase. Even Bushmills has their ultra-premium Causeway Collection. Meanwhile, Suntory and Nikka have NASes. The best world is one in which both countries issue gorgeous old whiskies and I can afford them all. This is not that world.

The TWE folks selected this single cask, one which had experienced the sort of maturation antics that could squeeze the harrumphs out of us serious cats. Bourbon cask and sherry cask Irish Pot Still getting re-racked in a marsala cask?! I'm getting the vapors. I've never found marsala + whiskey to be an enjoyable combo...

But, there are three buts. BUT Irish Distillers made port-pipe Redbreast 27 sing. BUT I enjoyed Red Spot 15yo, which had some marsala cask action in the mix. And the final "but" is the cask; an actual butt as opposed to a hogshead, with the greater size potentially allowing for more graceful interactions.

But enough words.

Brand: Spot
Spot Color: Green
Style: Single Pot Still
Country: Ireland
Distillery: Midleton
Age: at least 26 years (18 Oct 1991 - 2018)

Maturation: "It was initially matured in bourbon and sherry casks, before the spirit was reracked into a single Marsala butt for further maturation."
Cask: 50776

Outturn: 576 bottles
Alcohol by Volume: 55.7%

Chillfiltered? No
Color added? Probably not?
(from a bottle split)

NOTES

It noses like a super-fruity old Speyside (think Glenburgie or Longmorn). Yuzu, yellow plums and yellow nectarines. Maybe a couple of roses. It's all very buoyant and pretty. Then mild unsmoked cigars ease in, followed by cloves, and it begins to remind me of a much older cognac. It shifts gears again at the hour mark, as an intense toffee pudding (The Sponge) appears in the glass. It's all very overwhelming and I think I feel a song coming on......

Peaches! Fresh peaches, canned peaches and peach candy on the palate. Lemon bars and almond cookies. Hints of those mild cigars and toasted oak spice. Very old cognac notes, again. It's all very silky, yet it still has a lively bite to it courtesy of Irish pot still power.

It finishes with peach crumble, elderflower and gentle toasted oak spice. More fruity and fragrant than sweet, it is all very extensive and lovely and I want more.

WORDS WORDS WORDS

This is grand. Imagine having an actual bottle of this! 20 pours rather than one. (That must be why people buy an entire bottle of whiskey.) I used to have a saying that any whisky that costs over $XXX had better be a storyteller. I no longer have that saying because now every whisky costs over $XXX. This Green Spot could be quite the storyteller, or at least leave a person babbling on with poorly phrased disjointed tales like this one. What a thing.

Availability - The Whisky Exchange
Pricing - £500 (can I pretend it's ¥500?)
Rating - 92

Red Spot 15 year old Single Pot Still Whiskey

I ended the Blue Spot review with a tremendously subtle hint about today's whiskey. And I began that review with multiple paragraphs about the Spots. So let's keep it moving.

When Red Spot arrived in 2018, I was like, "Yeah!" And then I was like, "Oh but I live Ohio." And then I forgot about it because scotch scotch scotch scotch scotch. Three years later, someone was generous enough to split a bottle. And so now, here we are.

This excellent label took one drizzle of whiskey
and went from red to green.
Was this foreshadowing?

Brand: Spot
Spot Color: Red
Style: Single Pot Still
Country: Ireland
Distillery: Midleton
Age: at least 15 years
Maturation: a vatting of ex-bourbon barrels, sherry butts, and marsala wine casks
Alcohol by Volume: 46%
Chillfiltered? No
Colored? Probably
(from a bottle split)

NOTES

Plenty of fruit jumps from the nose, though it's more from the casks than the spirit; think lots of dried stone fruits. But it does have a malty layer, somewhere in the middle. Some butterscotch, almond extract and saltwater taffy beneath that. And, of all things, rum cake. It gets quite scotch-like when reduced to 40%abv, specifically like Glenmorangie 18, complete with the active (though good) casks. Vanilla frosting on lemon cake. Dried apricots. Toasted grains and newspaper print.

Simpler than the nose, though well woven, the palate leads with carrot cake (brown sugar, walnuts, cinnamon), oranges and a Thai chile bite. The brown sugar, walnuts and chiles push to the fore with time. Diluted to 40%abv, it picks up some good bitterness, and swaps out the oranges for lemons. Gets a decent mix of sweet and sour.

It finishes with notes similar to the palate — chiles, brown sugar and oranges — though it also develops a slight crème brûlée character. Dropped to 40%abv, the finish is all lemons, brown sugar and cayenne.

WORDS WORDS WORDS

To answer the caption, no this did not go the way of Green Spot. I sort of spell things out above, but like Yellow Spot, this Red Spot feels like an Irish Pot Still whiskey that would appeal to single malt scotch drinkers, thanks to the active casks, a pinch of malt and some proper maturation time. It's not complex by any measurement, but it's a very nice summer and/or dessert pour, and probably the first marsala cask whiskey I've ever enjoyed. But they lost me with the price.

Availability - USA and Europe, frequently sold out
Pricing - $150-$180, though (again) some American retailers are selling it at 2x that price
Rating - 85

Blue Spot 7 year old Cask Strength Single Pot Still Whiskey, US Release

Until now, I've only reviewed one of the Spots, Yellow. There are two reasons for this, one less legitimate than the other.

Though I've never written extensively of the more famous Green Spot, I can tell you I find it the most forgettable of all Middleton's single pot still releases. While the Green Spot brand does have a pleasant independent history, and I did find it quite good when I had it in Ireland a decade ago, something seemed to have happened to the recipe once it became mass-produced and distributed to the United States. I can't prove it because I don't have a sample of the pre-expansion Green on hand to compare to the current bottling. That would be a fun Taste Off!

Lack of actual Spots is the other reason behind their absence on Diving for Pearls. Red Spot wasn't resurrected until 2018, and Blue Spot was reborn in 2020.

I'll make up for this spotty vacancy this week, beginning with the cask strength 7-year-old Blue Spot, which was blended from bourbon, sherry and madeira casks, though actual proportions or potential finish times have not been formerly disclosed by the producer.

I adore the label!

Brand: Spot
Spot Color: Blue
Style: Single Pot Still
Country: Ireland
Distillery: Midleton
Age: at least 7 years
Maturation: a vatting of ex-bourbon barrels, sherry butts, and madeira wine casks
Alcohol by Volume: 59.2%
Chillfiltered? No
Colored? Probably
(from a bottle split)

NOTES

There's plenty of heat and something smoky, like smoldering apples, in the nose. Beneath that darkness swirls a mix of the casks: oranges, cinnamon raisin bread, cherry lollipops and Cow Tales candy. Reducing it to 46%abv doesn't do much. I find flowers, apples, burlap, toasted grains and a hint of ocean.

The palate starts hot, metallic and salty, with subtle sugars and sweet citrus around the edges. A hint of lavender in the background. The salt develops into a defined coastal note. Here the 46%abv reduction works in the whiskey's favor. It has a better mouthfeel, and gains a good bitter herb note. More pepper, less sugar. Hints of vanilla custard, lemon candy and tart apples in the back. It's also picked up more of a young sharp pot still spirit, trending towards the Powers blends.

It finishes with sugar, salt and heat. Clementines, cayenne and dried lavender. It keeps that heat and pepper once the whiskey's been diluted to 46%abv. The citrus gets bitterer, and there's more grain and apple.

WORDS WORDS WORDS

Kudos to Irish Distillers for releasing a whiskey with a 7-year-old age statement, rather than going NAS and name dropping a historical Celtic landmark. I also appreciate that this didn't result in a sweet winey blob.

On the other hand, I'm not sure this one's done a-cookin'. The elements don't seem to have congealed in the neat nose, while adding water almost closes it up. Thankfully the palate takes to dilution better, releasing some of the pent-up spirit. The finish doesn't do it for me either way, reading sharper and rawer than its much cheaper blended cousins.

If Irish Distillers offers different Blue batches in the future, I'd be happy to give them a try to see how well the casks play together. But I'm more interested in something like this at say......15 years?

Availability - USA, mostly sold out
Pricing - $100-$120, though there are retailers selling it for $300-$500 because ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Rating - 80