2000 Redbreast 21 Year Old Single Cask No. 21285 Cask Strength Single Pot Still Irish Whiskey (700ml)

“Redbreast is always grand, even when heavily sherried.” – whiskyfun.com

An exclusive for French retailer, La Maison du Whisky, drawn from Oloroso cask #21285 after 21 years and bottled at natural strength as part of their Antipodean Collection. 546 bottles were produced. The sherry input is said to be quite profound, similar to what you’d expect from heavily sherried Scottish equivalents. 58.7% Alc./Vol. Non chill filtered. Collectable.

Other reviews… Colour: reddish amber. Nose: perhaps a tad hot, but you already get a splendid, tobacco-y sherry, with dried oranges and clove plus juicy ripe apricots and nectarines in the back. Yet I feel water is mandatory. With water: roasted pecans, walnuts and sesame; that’s game, set and match. Mouth (neat): I’m not sure it would be very smart to mention old-style Macallan. Oops, too late. Pleasantly a little ‘over the top’, with very rich prunes in armagnac, pipe tobacco, cherry jam (you may check Itxassou in French Basque country), black raisins, ganaches, the obligatory old walnuts Isn’t this actually an old Tnarze? Do Pernod-Ricard own some armagnac house(s)? With water: civilisation, at last. Seriously, this would gather many jams and pastries, let’s mention only one, perhaps Arctic rolls? Or raspberry muffins? Marzipan-filled dates? Fig jam? Finish: long. This time again, I’m reminded of that cherry-flavoured pipe tobacco that we used to smoke what, forty years ago. But what was the name again but of course, Borkum Riff (thanks Google). Comments: Redbreast is always grand, even when heavily sherried. 90 points – whiskyfun.com