Redbreast 12 Year Old Cask Strength

I opened this bottle on my birthday (October 10th) along with a few other cask strength bottles. Here are the notes from that experience.

Nose: Super hot on the nose. WOW!! Fresh fruit straight away: sweet red apples, pears, and strawberries all hovering over a base of oak. After a little time I am really picking up on some bourbon flavors – that sweet bourbon nose of caramel, apples, brandy, butter, and brown sugar. Perhaps a bit to bourbony for my nose? Still, you can tell it isn’t bourbon. There is an almost saccharin type sweetness to this nose.

Taste: Sweet and sour baked apples coated in sugar. Just a huge sweet fruit bomb with nothing bitter or off (and no soap or rotten hay)

Finish: Huge grassy finish with tons of tart apples (red delicious, gala, fuji, and granny smith), and very spicy: tons of pepper, cumin, cardamom, cinnamon, and all spice. Big and long for a triple distilled Irish whiskey! No crazy caramel!

Complexity, Balance: Quite complex for an Irish whiskey. I love the extra kick from the cask strength. The apples and fruit cross the spectrum while allowing other notes to pop up and around for little added bits of curiosity. I can’t fault it for much. Everything is behaving just as it should. It is everything Glenfiddich and Glenlivet should be!

Aesthetic experience: I really like the color and look of this bottle. It is very elegant and traditional looking – seriously it looks like a whisky bottle from 80 years ago . . . if it were being made today . . . to my imagination . I also love the batch stamp with the ABV. It is reminiscent of the new Laphroaig design. Very little not to love in this totally unpeated non-scotch.

Conclusion: I don’t love easy going whisky. In my mind that is the very definition of Irish whiskey. So this is one of the few Irish drams I was possibly going to like. And I do like it. Further, it takes water very well. I watered it down to 40% and found it very good – this is highly unusual for me. I almost always dislike water in my whisky. This is a huge exception. I highly recommend it.

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