Redbreast 21 Year Irish Whiskey

REDBREAST 21 YEAR
Batch #L106331149 bottled on 4 March, 2021

MASH BILL – unknown proportions of malted and un-malted barley

PROOF – 92

AGE – 21 years in ex-bourbon barrels and first fill Spanish oloroso sherry butts

DISTILLERY – Midleton Distillery

PRICE – $243 (on sale from $326)

WORTH BUYING? – Ultimately no, but…

I picked this up in 2023 because it went on sale for 25% off the normal price. Even at that discount it was still a hefty tab. My experiences with other high-end Midleton offerings—e.g. Midleton Very Rare Dair Ghaelach Kylebeg Wood, Gold Spot 9 Year, Red Spot 15 Year—have all been good… but… worth it?

The Dair Ghaelach Kylebeg Wood was excellent whiskey, yet not so incredible or unique to warrant $$$. The Gold Spot 9, at about a third the price of the Dair Ghaelach Kylebeg Wood, was also good. But was it so much better than the cheaper Redbreast 12 Year Cask Strength? Mmm… And the perfectly lovely Red Spot 15 has doubled+ in price since I last bought it, so, nope.

And that’s the thing. Midleton whiskeys are all fine and good. All of them. Even standard Jameson achieves what it aims for very well. So if the high-end stuff isn’t going to offer radical surprises or differences, maybe only an unnecessary fancy box, how much more are they worth from a consumer’s perspective? I absolutely understand why a 21-year whiskey is going to cost more than a 12-year whiskey. But if the tasting experience isn’t proportionately higher alongside the price, why pay it?

Let’s get at that question, subjective as it is, via tasting the current whiskey on the table.

Here we are, five days after uncorking and two pours into the bottle. These brief notes were taken using both an Irish crystal tumbler and traditional Glencairn.

COLOR – a beautiful honey-orange that shines with tarnished gold and brass

NOSE – gobs of toasted vanilla, lemon zest, marmalade, bright caramel, oak wood and bitter tannin, metallic copper zing, sea salt

TASTE – a creamy texture, with papaya, melon, grilled pineapple, the vanilla and caramel, honey, oak, subtler bitter tannins and copper

FINISH – medium-short, with vanilla and papaya, honey, the copper zing and ABV numbness lingering longest

OVERALL – both decadent and seemingly unpretentious, like someone dressed brightly for a summer outdoor party in an outfit that’s really expensive but doesn’t look it.

It is very good, though for me ultimately not worth the price I paid. The fancy box it comes in tastes like nothing, of course, and is purely for show. I’ve always assumed distilleries package products this way to either appeal to trophy hunters, make up for something lacking in the whiskey itself, or both. Without the box the whiskey could certainly be at least a bit cheaper.

It’s telling that in my summary comments I’ve bypassed the whiskey itself and gone straight to the marketing. When the price is so high and the whiskey is not amazing, I find it difficult to not think about the jangling bells and whistles. Some people contend packaging and price should not be considered when assessing a whiskey “objectively.” But these people must have money to burn. The weird idea that the tasting experience of a whiskey is somehow separate from cost and presentation stands in complete contradiction to another common sales pitch for whiskey—that it’s about the people you share it with, where and why you share it with them, the story of how and where the whiskey was made, the culture of place and the foggy magic of terroir. If all those things are a part of the whiskey experience, then c’mon, so are packaging and price.

As with many such sticker-shock bottles, I’ll enjoy this one too. It is good whiskey. Nothing wrong with the liquid itself. Freed from tasting it formally as I am today, I’ll certainly enjoy it in my sunny backyard as warm spring wends its way toward hot summer.

I’ll also put it toward Highball and Cameron’s Kick cocktails, which I’m sure it will serve very well. And when I do, I admit I’ll take some pleasure knowing that particularly sensitive whiskey trophy hunters out there might be wondering why they suddenly felt a disturbance pass through them, they’re senses having picked up that someone somewhere has committed a heresy. 😉

Sláinte!