Tasting Notes: Midleton: Red Spot

Midleton: Red Spot (Irish Single Pot Still Whiskey: 15 Year: 46% ABV)

Visual: Deep, rich gold. Fast thick streaks come from the spirit.

Nose: Smooth toffee and honey. Touch of cherries. Vanilla. Grain fields. Barley cakes. Light fish oil. Water adds fudge cakes and apples.

Body: Apricot. Smooth. Honey. Apples to apple pie fillings. Raisins and sultanas into Madeira notes. Cherries. Light oak. Slightly drying. Water adds more apples and makes very smooth. A touch of liquorice comes out along with shortbread and rice crackers.

Finish: Madeira. Light oak. Plums. A gin air. Slightly drying. Water adds apples, honey sponge and a light menthol touch.

Conclusion: This is so smooth and yet such a rewarding whisky. 46% abv so a tad above the norm and yet still even neat it is super smooth and just two drops of water brings out everything perfectly

It mixes between the smooth honey and toffee backbone and the other notes that then dance over that backbone. Initially light apple notes … dominate seems the wrong word considering how they are nicely subtle … are most prominent is probably the best way to put it. It is a refreshing, easy drinking dram but over time the red fruit and heavier dark fruit notes show their way through to make this a really rich and rewarding experience.

It is like you get the best bits from a fruity speyside, a rich highland and the smooth as silk Irish whiskey all in one glass, with a bit of unusual barrel ageing love on top. Water adds both a fresh menthol touch at the end, but also a more shortbread like slightly more robust middle which makes for a more substantial whiskey overall.

On the down side water also adds a slight rice to rice crackers like character mid body. Nothing too bad, a light not quite right touch, but that is the worst I can say about it. The rest of the whiskey is fantastic.

This is genuinely one of the greatest Irish whiskeys I have tried – all of the smoothness you would expect and with the extra age and barrel ageing bringing such depth of character an already great spirit.

I am so very impressed.

Background: During a short trip with the family around Ireland we ended up with some time in Arklow and not much to do so we poked our heads into a pub called The Old Ship. I asked what irish whiskeys that they had that tended not to leave Ireland and they showed me a delectable set that included this Red Spot and 21 year Red Breast. After much umming and ahhing I went for the Red Spot. It was close. The person pouring accidentally put ice in when I had asked for no ice, and so removed the ice and gave me extra Red Spot to make up for it. I have zero complaints about this at all. Top notch. I was not going to do notes on this as I had no paper, but my parents both supplied paper, and picked up the cost of the whisky. Far too kind. Many thanks. Anyway the whisky, this is single pot still whiskey that has been aged in a mix of the usual Bourbon and Oloroso sherry casks, but also Marsala fortified wine.

Advertisement

Tasting Notes: Midleton: Green Spot: Chateau Leoville Barton

Green Spot: Chateau Leoville Barton (Irish Single Pot Still Whiskey: 46% ABV)

Visual: Deep, rich, slightly reddened gold. Fast and thick streaks comes from the spirit.

Nose: Brandy cream. Toffee. Noticeable alcohol. Peppermint cream. Shortbread. Pencil shavings. Light sulphur. Water lightens giving gentle toffee and white grapes.

Body: Honey. Fudge. Red berries. Alcohol air. Brandy cream. Toffee. Slightly spicy. Water makes smoother. Slight sulphur. Sherry trifle. Spicy red wine. Green grapes. Cake sponge.

Finish: Red cherries. Fudge. Slight alcohol air. Warming spice. Water makes smoother. Sherry trifle. Spicy red wine.

Conclusion:This is a lovely dram. It takes the already impressive, easy drinking, Green Spot and polishes it up with extra notes from the time in Bordeaux wine casks to give it a depth that makes it the whiskey it always had the potential to be.

With the standard Green Spot I had wondered if a few points extra abv would help it out, or would hurt it. With this being a tidy 6% abv stronger we fine out that the answer is help. Definitely help. Now, oddly, I recommend adding a touch of water to open the whiskey up – but only a small amount so it is probably still above the 40%. Taken like this is has extra grip and flavour but loses the small but noticeable alcohol touch it has neat.

Anyway, as indicated, neat this is slightly – just slightly – alcohol touched. However there are nice red fruit notes and sweet fudge backing. It is slightly sulphurous which was unexpected. Probably something from the wine barrel finish, along with the slight spicy notes. Here it is good but not exceptional.

Water really opens it up, bringing more to both the sweetness and the red wine character, revealing depth in both while soothing the alcohol. Sweeter trifle notes meet spicier wine notes, and if you are light with the water touch it is still slightly thicker than standard Green Spot with cake sponge weight and that sulphur giving a slightly darker, heavier feel while not making this smooth whiskey harder to drink.

Not the super easy sipping Irish, but still easy going and now so rewarding and with room for a lot more play and examination. A very impressive whiskey that balances character with ease of drinking.

Very highly recommended.

Background: Soo, first and most relevant to these notes. Boris Johnson is a piece of shit. In so many ways. So very many ways. Anyway, super relevant. So, I generally enjoyed my experiences with Green Spot – but at the BrizDram meet up a few years ago I got to try one of the unusual barrel aged versions and it blew my mind. So when I got the chance to try this Bordeaux wine cask finished version at Independent Spirit I grabbed it. It comes with a little leaflet detailing the history of Chateau Leoville Barton Wine. Apparently it is super good. I have never tried it. If anyone wants to donate any to me for research purposes I will happily drink it. Before the wine cask finish this was aged in a mix of bourbon and sherry casks. Not sure of age statement – regular green spot is ten year according to some sources – or a mix of seven to ten according to others, and googling says this spent 18 months in the finish barrel – I presume on top of standard ageing. Soooo 8 years? 11 year? Ish? No idea. Anyway, went with The Eels: End Times for music while drinking. This was before finding out the election results so the appropriateness is completely coincidental.

Tasting Notes: Midleton: Barry Crockett Legacy

Midleton: Barry Crockett Legacy (Irish Single Pot Still Whiskey: 46% ABV)

Visual: Darkened gold. Slow thick streaks come from the spirit.

Nose: Sherry trifle. Alcohol hits in a wave. Almonds. Pencil shavings. Menthol. Brandy cream. Water adds fatty butter notes and pepper. Pumpkin. Slight lime. Apricot.

Body: Smooth. Caramel. Alcohol feel if held. Vanilla. Brown bread. Honeycomb. Peppery. Water makes very smooth. Dry cake sponge. More vanilla. Apricot.

Finish: Oak. Sulphur notes. Dry sherry. Peppery. Fatty butter. Water brings out more fatty notes. Slight fatty cheese. Buttery shortbread. Sherry trifle.

Conclusion: This is unexpectedly thick for a triple distilled Irish whiskey, It’s still smooth (for the most part), still packed with those sweet vanilla and caramel notes – but against that it has an odd, slightly fatty and buttery thick note and flavour. It is really hard to describe but gives a more robust flavour and feel than most of the style.

To move back from that for a moment, initial impressions are completely against all that I just said. The aroma comes straight out with strong alcohol against sherry trifle. Two elements that notably do not show up much within the rest of the whiskey. Odd. Go figure. Admittedly there is a little alcohol if you hold this in your mouth, and there are subtle sherry feeling notes that have come from bloody somewhere, I don’t know where, as time goes on, but neither are anywhere as dominant as they first come across.

Neat it does have that touch of alcohol if held, as we just discussed, but a few drops of water quickly remove that. The rest of the whiskey’s character is remarkably resistant to water – keeping that odd fatty feel even up to where I had nearly 50/50 with water,

What water does do is change it from a simple sweet treat to a peppery touched thing that still shows the sweetness, then with a ton of water it becomes a kind of buttery shortbread character, which can become quite empty of any other character if you put in too much water. My preference is to just add a few drops, to add a bit of contrast to the sweetness and lose the alcohol character, but leave everything else intact.

So, is it good and worth buying? Eh, it’s average. The fatty, buttery notes are interesting but not an element I would actively search for in a whiskey. It makes it less easy drinking, but not really more rewarding.

Ok, but there are far better out there.

Background: More whiskey minis! I only really know Midleton from their very rare, so was surprised to see this – a new single pot still expression in Independent Spirit. Even more surprised to see it in a mini. Anyway googling tells me this is a mix of bourbon cask aged and new American oak aged whiskey. I put on the haunting Perte D’Identité by Marie Davidson while drinking.

Tasting Notes: Midleton: Green Spot

Midleton: Green Spot (Irish Pot Still Whiskey: 40% ABV)

Visual: Bright yellowed gold. Fast sheet from the spirit, then thin secondary streaks.

Nose: Slight alcohol and grain. Bright lime notes and kiwi notes. Later on dried banana comes out. Dried apricot. Slight golden syrup and pencil shavings. Adding water makes very light.

Body: Smooth and light. Honey. Slight alcohol. Custard. Pears. Water adds apples. Makes lighter. Adds more pears.

Finish: Pears. Custard. Apricot syrup. Honey. Light tannins. Light oak. Water adds a green fruit sheen. Slight cardboard. Banana.

Conclusion: Darn Irish whiskey is smooth, especially this one we have here. Even with the small amounts of grain and alcohol notes from what I presume is younger spirit, this still is super smooth, light and easy to drink. Just what I need as a change after having a few heavy duty Islays over the past few weeks. Water manages to take out the small alcohol harshness pretty much completely as well.

As a whiskey it is mainly a game of two halves, with the emphasis of the whiskey decided by if you have added water or not.

One side is light, sweet honey and golden syrup. The aroma promises banana, but the actualisation of this is put off until much later. Generally it is sweet, easy going, but with a subtly honeyed weight. The very, very slightest weight, In general this is soft and easy drinking.

The other side is paying off a lot of what is promised by the aroma, but this side is only shown if water is added. Soft green fruit comes out, initially lime in the aroma, then apples and pears in the main body. As mentioned, neat it really doesn’t show too much of this but water brings it out in full flow. However this does come at the expense of a lot of the honey notes vanishing, along with the slightly thicker texture. It feels just a tad too light here in mouthfeel.

So, on balance I would say this is just slightly better neat. It is not as complex, but the extra grip to the mouthfeel makes it such a pleasant one to spend some time with. I wonder if a slightly higher abv would help or hinder this? Dunno, but I would love to try it to see.

So you have to pick between great texture, or good variety of flavour – it never quite manages to bring both at the same time, but still a fine easy sipping whiskey.

Background: I have been meaning to do notes on this for a while. I tried an unusual barrel aged version of this at the #Brisdram event a while back and it was great, then I tried Green Spot at The Hideout during an amazing Midleton whiskey tasting event. So, when I saw a mini of this in Independent Spirit I grabbed it to bring back and give a proper going over. The name of the whiskey relates to the markings they used to use on barrels to indicate their age – Blue was seven years, Green ten, Yellow twelve and Red fifteen. However a quick google indicates that the age statement has been removed from green spot whiskey recently due to it now using a mix of between seven and ten year old whiskey. Cheeky if so. I’d been re-watching new Doctor Who recently before drinking this, and had noticed one of the character’s had a Slayer t-shirt on, resulting in me using Reign In Blood as the background music for this, despite it not exactly matching thematically.

Tasting Notes: Midleton: Very Rare 2008 Edition

Midleton: Very Rare 2008 Edition (Irish Blended Whiskey: No Age Statement: 40% ABV)

Visual: Bright banana gold. Very rich and vibrant.

Viscosity: Very fast medium sized streaks.

Nose: Vanilla and toffee. Quite smooth. Touch of barley and understated oak. Slightly peppery. Honey.

Body: Pepper. Malt loaf. Vanilla and custard. Very smooth. A lime touch. The tongue tingles but never burns. Light malt chocolate. Water smoothes even more and makes fruitier. It also removes a lot of the pepper style.

Finish: Peppercorn. Light oak and light malt drinks. Sweet syrup. Oak rises slowly.  The flavours merge together with water to make a more simple but more rounded flavour.

Conclusion: This one has a reputation and when I saw the chance to try it by the measure in a local pub I was surprised. I was initially sceptical the sign was true, but here it is, in my hand.

At first the whiskey seemed quite closed. Sweet and smooth but it wasn’t distinct. The day’s heat however soon got the aromas flowing and produced an understated oak and pepper amongst the sweetness. This proved be the distinctive back of the whiskeys character.

Like Tyrconnell, I have a suspicion that some of the pepper like flavour is tied to the alcohol prickle, but it seems too distinct to solely be explained by that.  This also, while very smooth, has a sense of vibrancy to the character that belies its smoothness. However because of that it really doesn’t need water and does not benefit from its addition.

It is a careful mix of light sweet flavours and just enough bite. The finish, while nice, is not overly long, which is a pity. It does pick up over time though as it has time to set up layers on your tongue. It is very relaxing, smooth but with character. Even so it will not win on depth of character, but does have enough to keep you interested. The real job is balancing the character it does have without becoming heavy.

Very pleasant and if it were cheaper I would say to treat it as a bottle to get you and some friends through the night. The flavours would not get old over many measures I would imagine and in fact I think would possibly improve. It’s a tad too costly to do that lightly, but I think those of you with a full bottle will be able to take full advantage of this characteristic.

In fact this is unlike nearly every expensive whisky that I have tried in that it seems specifically designed to be better by the shared bottle rather than in a teased out measure.

Nice then if you can afford it.

Background: Having heard of Midleton’s fine reputation I was surprised one day walking through Bristol when a pub listed on its sign that they had this whiskey in their selection. So I poked my head in and, lo and behold, there was a bottle behind the counter.  Since I have been on a bit of an Irish Whiskey kick recently I popped back in with my mate an a steaming hot day and ordered a measure to review.  The bartender was very friendly and helpful in taking the photos, and gave advice on how to enjoy the whiskey. All good. Despite having no ages statement Master of Malt tells me that it is normally between 12 and 25 years of age for the various components.