ctbeck11
Blue Spot 7 Year Cask Strength Single Pot Still
Single Pot Still — Ireland
Reviewed
November 22, 2021 (edited July 6, 2022)
Nose - cereal grain, shortbread cookie, light toffee, vanilla cream, green apple, orange, yogurt covered raisins, mango, lemon meringue, fig, sweet dough, powdered sugar, caramel corn, cinnamon, dry herbal notes, moderate ethanol burn.
Taste - shortbread cookie, caramel, vanilla, lemon oil, grapefruit, ginger, chili pepper, cinnamon, allspice, orange zest, milk chocolate, pineapple skin, green apple, mint, bitter herbal notes, moderate alcohol bite, finishing medium length with shortbread cookie, lemon, and sour tropical fruit flavors.
During a recent virtual tasting with @PBMichiganWolverine @pkingmartin and @Richard-ModernDrinking , I had the rare opportunity to taste this elusive Irish whisky. The nose is classic Irish, but cranked to eleven. Buttery shortbread cookie, sherried fruits, lemon, and some sweet tropical fruits. Juicy, effervescent, and sparkling come to mind with the palate. It’s richly citrusy, tropical, buttery, and fruity.
This is great Irish whisky. Some of the best I’ve tried. The closest comparison I have is Redbreast 12 Year Cask Strength. I like this slightly more, but it’s in the same category of tastiness for me. It’s absolutely worth the ~$100 retail price, as was the Redbreast, but good luck finding this unicorn. Don’t pay the secondary markup for this. It’s a great example of the category, but it’s not mind-blowingly good. A massive shout-out to @PBMichiganWolverine for sharing this. It’s inspired me to dedicate my next few reviews to knocking out the small backlog of Irish whiskies I’ve accumulated.
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@cascode but I think new folks jump in. Sort of like a messed up Ponzi scheme
@PBMichiganWolverine The craze is probably waning. Whisky exploded for a while but I think that's passing. A lot of folks only ride the train for 2-3 years before jumping off.
@Scott_E with increasing inflation rates and buying power for essentials decreasing, I certainly hope so.
@PBMichiganWolverine gee I hope so. The pendulum needs to swing back, even if a little bit.
@cascode I’m wondering if runaway pricing has finally caught up? I noticed for the first time TWE Christmas malt and their Black Friday malt didn’t sell out
@cascode Hopefully production and distribution increase. I would absolutely buy a bottle at retail. Not even close to being worth the $300+ I see it going for online. Best to get it at a bar or from a generous friend :)
Still not tried this and probably won't bother unless I see it as a bar pour. It's at the fringe of my preferred whisky style.
@pkingmartin Glad to hear that since I like my bottle, but I don't love it.
@ctbeck1111 @ContemplativeFox Blue spot is far better than the sample from 🦊’s bottle. That one veered towards a spicy imbalance mid-palate and stayed drying on the finish. Blue spot was creamy and very well balanced without a high spice. I think @ctbeck11 had a better 12 CS without the drying spice, so I can see the similarities. I’d still favor the blue spot.
@PBMichiganWolverine I’ve got the 27 queued up for review in the next week. I think I’ve only tasted it two or three times since I opened the bottle a year ago. Looking forward to spending some time with it.
@ctbeck11 Thanks for those details :) I'm pretty bitter about the constant shift to NAS too. There seem to be very few cases where the quality has held up.
@ContemplativeFox I didn’t, but (and I may be mistaken) I think @pkingmartin tried yours via sample and mine at a tasting night we had before I finished my bottle, and I remember him mentioning that yours had some strange spice imbalance on it that didn’t seem to present with my bottle. It’s probably moot since I believe that particular bottling is now discontinued. I’ve heard good things about the Small Batch Cask Strength that replaced it, but haven’t grabbed a bottle yet, partially because I’m bitter Redbreast seems to be going the way of NAS’ing their new releases. Wondering if the standard 12 Year will receive the same treatment in the future.
As good as this was, that asking price is just unjustified. Anything over $110 is highway robbery. But, this was nothing compared to that Redbreast 27….that was a masterpiece
Did you ever try my bottle of Redbreast 12 CS? I'm under the impression that it isn't the most representative, so I'm wondering how close I should be thinking this is to it.