Redbreast 18 Year Old fills the gap in the permanent range - and I’ve tasted it
Does Redbreast's new whiskey offer the experience of the £500-a-bottle 27 Year Old for less?
It has been four years since Redbreast added a whiskey to its permanent range but a new family member has finally arrived.
The prestigious Redbreast 27 Year Old was introduced in 2020, and sells for a tidy £507 a bottle. It’s now the middle child's turn as Redbreast's 18 Year Old takes its place in the family tree — at a more palatable £195 for 70cl.
The distillery’s other permanent fixtures in the Redbreast range comprise the 12, 15, 21 and 27 Year Old, each with their own distinctive characteristics. Redbreast 18 Year Old seemed an unusual gap in a premium brand’s range but as Master Blender Dave McCabe tells me, it’s about managing stock and ensuring a new permanent edition has a unique personality.
It would be easy to follow the 15 Year Old with a standard 18 Year Old single pot still whiskey - triple distilled, of course. It's the obvious chronological next step. But McCabe says it simply wouldn’t have been different enough to justify.
As you would expect, the new expression has the iconic base profile of the 12 Year Old, made up of Bourbon and Oloroso sherry casks. But what sets Redbreast 18 Year Old apart from its siblings is the introduction of cream sherry casks from the Antonio Páez Lobato cooperage into the blend for the first time.
There’s also a small amount from ruby port casks, and the four casks together provide a profile recognisable as Redbreast while offering something new.
It’s a whiskey of many complex layers and provides new aromas and flavours on each sip of a dram. On the nose, an initial burst of fresh hedgerow bramble gives way to a comforting scent of old wood and paper, reminiscent of an old library or church pews.
Flavours are plentiful and meander between spices, ginger, sweet syrup, caramelised fruit and vanilla oakyness. The cream sherry cask aged portion provides punches of chocolate and nuts while the ruby port reflects the 27 Year Old, enhancing those flavours and rounding things off.
The whiskey also has a slightly elevated abv of 46%. This provides a little more bite than flagship 12 Year Old and adds to the viscous and sumptuous mouthfeel.
Redbreast 18 Year Old is deep, rich, intricate and available now priced at £195/$249/€225.