I tasted the oldest single pot still Irish whiskey ever — and it was incredible

It’s the end of an era for Midleton. The Irish distiller has just released the sixth and final chapter of the Midleton Very Rare Silent Distillery Collection and, in astonishing fashion, saved the best until last.

Chapter Six is the culmination of six years’ work — there has been an annual release from this collection since 2020 — with previous releases all being distinctly different from each other. The one thing they do have in common is their rarity.

I was lucky enough to taste test the fourth chapter back in 2023, so it was fitting to be there at the unveiling of this special drink which took place in the old distillery in Midleton, County Cork, Ireland in the very room the whiskey started its maturation.

Chapter Six marks the last drops of the Old Midleton Distillery which closed its doors in 1975. This means the whiskey has had 50 years of maturation, overseen by three different Master Distillers: Barry Crockett, Brian Nation and current Master Distiller Kevin O’Gorman.

“There’s a bit of sadness,” says O’Gorman to Shortlist, about the range coming to an end. “It’s like, what do you do next? I'd say it was probably the highlight of my career. It’s hard to see it being topped. It's like winning the World Cup.”

Like football, making whiskey is a team sport and O’Gorman had an incredible team helping to make sure this release was special and this craftsmanship can be seen from barrel to bottle.

The joy of Six

First the barrel. Making the whisky’s final resting place was Master Cooper Ger Buckley, A fifth generation cooper at Midleton Distillery. Using wood from the Silent Distillery Collection’s original casks, he created a cask that was steeped in history, which included his own, when he put his mark next to his father’s, who was Master Cooper before him, on a cask that he had previously made.

“I was delighted to Ger involved,” says O’Gorman. “We had the idea of making a cask that encapsulated all of the chapters, using the heading and the staves and Ger got stuck in and created it. He was ultra careful putting it all together. Especially when I told him that the whiskey was worth millions. He made sure it didn’t leak!”

A special whiskey deserves a special presentation box and decanter. The decanter has been designed, individually mouth-blown, hand-finished, etched, and polished by the crafts folk of House of Waterford.

Housing all of this is a stunning cabinet, made once again by Irish master craftsman John Galvin. Galvin was born local to Midleton and is now set up in Glasgow.

He has been behind all the cabinets in the series and this one is the pinnacle, using six rare woods – each previously featured in the cabinets of the first five Silent Distillery releases – with the sixth being bird’s eye maple. Add to this some 18ct gold-plated trim and it is, up close, a work of absolute beauty.

“To match the whiskey and the decanter, we needed a really ultra-prestigious cabinet. And that's where John came in,” says O’Gorman. “We left John to come up with the designs and sourcing all the different woods. We helped him by suggesting he maybe use some oak from the old vats in Middleton.

"He's very innovative and creative. And then to have that blue bird’s eye maple... I never realised but it’s only ‘point one percent’ of maple that has that bird’s eye. It’s stunning.

“John will miss the whole thing, will miss working with us and we working with John.”

Housing history

The release of Chapter Six also coincides with the 200th anniversary of Midleton Distillery. The person whose job it is to preserve this 200-year history is Carol Quinn, head archivist of Irish Distillers.

“I was the first archivist to be recruited and part of the job was to build the archival repository, because this was something I was very clear about: that I wasn't going to be there as historical window dressing. I'm a qualified archivist. I understand the care and maintenance of archival collections, and I wasn't going to do a poor job of that,” says Quinn to Shortlist.

“So the company invested a significant amount of money in converting part of the distillery's cottage. We have five strong rooms, which are the rooms where the records are stored. They're all designed to international museum standard, with humidity and temperature controls.”

Creating this sophisticated storage area and collecting up all the archival material, from not just Midleton but also Dublin and Cork City, took time. So Quinn initially set up shop somewhere else in the distillery.

“I brought the archives into one of the grain stores in Middleton, and we rigged that up as a temporary store, because everything had to be cleaned,” says Quinn.

“You can imagine something that's been lying sometimes up a chimney for almost 100 years, the dust, the dirt, and also some little living creatures were in there.

“It was a couple of years, around three years, before everything was clean enough to transfer into the archive.”

Having these archives is fantastic, but having someone explain them was key and that’s where one of Midleton Distillery's most famous people lent a helping hand.

“Master Distiller Barry Crockett was just entering into his retirement, so he was still there on site, but he didn't have the daily duties in the distillery. Barry moved into the cottage with me, into the archive, which had been his family home," notes Quinn.

“He indexed the minute books of the distilleries for me and I don't think there's a week goes by that I don't refer to that index. He was so generous with his time, because having been brought up there, he remembered the old distillery and all the processes.”

Tasting Midleton Very Rare Silent Distillery Collection Chapter Six

It’s with this heaviness of history that I pick up a glass of Chapter Six. As O’Gorman says in his speech before unveiling the drink: “We think of the people that went before us. The people who have worked here with that whiskey. If these walls could talk…”

I have a nose. Dark fruits and honey are the first things that are apparent but there’s also a distinct leather in there. Given this is whiskey that’s been matured for 50 years, it’s incredibly complex.

I take a sip. There’s peaches and spice at play. The amount of oak tannins that have set in really add mature but mellow notes. It coats the mouth and doesn’t want to leave.

So much so, the finish is long and lingers, with rich sweet notes and a little grating of ginger staying past closing time.

All good things must come to an end and the final chapter of the Midleton Very Rare Silent Distillery Collection is as good an ending as any could ask for.

These, the last drops from a distillery that stands silent, are louder than any words that can be written about them. Slàinte, indeed.

Midleton Very Rare Silent Distillery Collection Chapter Six is bottled at 53% ABV and is available to purchase on the Midleton Collection website, as well as in specialist retailers in the UK, Ireland and the US, at a RRP of €60,000, £55,000, $60,000 USD.