Redbreast 12 Year Cask Strength

First real Irish whiskey. Incredible. It’s awesome.

Nose: cherry and dark fruits, wood (oak), grapes Taste: spicy, alcohol heat, vanilla and oak Finish: long spicy finish turning to sweetness and wood An explosion of spice and flavor, especially for an Irish.

Batch B1-20 57.6% abv, 115.2 proof Open 3.5 months Nose - Bright orange compote, butterscotch, honey, green apple, grass and grain, strong ethanol. Palate - Biting and tingly ethanol up front, vanilla cake, buttery shortbread, golden raisins, unripe green apples, roasted cashews. Medium-long finish with oily citrus and sweet floral notes, cereal grain and malt, unfrosted vanilla cake, and mellower than expected ethanol after the initial burst on the tongue. At first, this was too much. The alcohol and pot still congeners on the nose and palate were overwhelming when I first cracked the bottle. But after a month of letting it settle, it's a much more pleasant experience. This was my first cask strength Irish whisky, and it is an all-encompassing pour similar to cask strength Islay, but substitute the peat for cereal grain and alcohol bite. There aren't many options out there to compare with, but I'm looking forward to picking up a Blue Spot when I have the chance. Overall, this is really good but I think it's slightly overrated in the whiskey tasting community.

Happy Saint Patrick’s Day, a perfect reason to open an Irish whiskey and give a tasting or two. Sadly I was all out of stock, but @ContemplativeFox was kind enough to give me a sample of this to taste. The nose starts sweet with freshly baked short bread cookies then caramel and citrus fruits of orange, lemon, apple, and cereal before finishing with spices of cinnamon, ginger, pepper, cloves, light oak and medium ethanol burn. The taste comes through with a medium viscosity starting with bubble gum, light caramel, leading to citrus fruits of orange, lemon, apple, then spicy pepper invaded and hits hard along with flavors of ginger, cloves, and medium oak tannins with medium ethanol burn leading to a medium finish that’s very spicy with pepper, ginger, cloves, medium oak tannins and light lemon. Overall, I think this is a pretty solid whiskey and happy I got to try it, but for the price of 70 and above, there are better value options than this one to choose like Writer’s Tears Double Oak. The flavors on the nose are nice, the first half of the taste was nice but then the spice bomb came on and seemed to not stop.

Fantastic. Short bread cookies, keep it on your palate and it blossoms with some fig and raspberry a little heat at the end to remind you your drinking a cask strength.

Buttered biscuits, vanilla and sherry coming through on the nose. Needs to sit in the glass for a while to really open up. It coats the glass like a much older whisky. The palate follows the nose. First to appear is the biscuit but more like a short bread biscuit without too much sugar. The sherry influence comes across with dried apricots and dates. The finish is long with a bit of butterscotch and peppery bite without the typical ethanol singe. Great balance of salty and sweet!