What another review!? Well I needed a sparring partner for the Gold Spot.
Ok I think this has been reviewed by other's so I will try and keep it brief. Power's rounds out the OG trio of classic Irish Pot Still styles made at Midleton distillery. According to Irish whisky historian Fionan O'connor, the Power's family were the other big family clan of controlling interest along with the Jameson's in the Irish Distillers conglomerate. That said where the Jamesons were a bit hoity toity and uptight, the Power's clan had kept their working class roots and also had a powerful reputation among those same folks thus their sales reps knew this and loved to rub it in to the faces of the other folks in the IDL organisation. Power's Pot still style was a bit more edgy than what was produced elsewhere and the pot still recipes used at Midleton for their blends maintain that style.
This is matured in a combination of ex-Bourbon & ex-Sherry casks.
Nose: Just a great start, plump raisins, Popeye Candy sticks, grape candy, linseed oil, wet grain, mineral oil, there are spices, like a wonderful blend heavy on the powdered ginger, with a hint of clove and cassia. Time brings more grain forward and a feeling of old copper coins or tin box before it's back to fruit salad with emphasis on apples, and bananas.
Palate: Pleasantly sharp, waxy apple peel, a pleasant bitterness, a little tobacco, apricot, rustic bread with marmalade, there's a lovely slightly industrial note that keeps popping to tamp down all the sweet stuff.
Finish: A little bitterness like one would find in dark chocolate, boiled honey and then that yeasty/mineral/fruity/leather feeling left by sherry.
Blab: What a great balance, there's power and edge to remind you this aint' Redbreast but it's not harsh. There's again this fresh, nervous side here that is definitely in other Power's products like Signature or the Gold blend. I really instantly loved this, it hit all the right points, I wish this was available in Canada, hell I think it's barely available in the US. I suppose that Pernod doesn't want to cannibalise it's own sales since it flogs Redbreast and Spot products pretty hard in this market, or perhaps they're still holding the grudge of the Jamesons.
@cricklewood as to the science naysayers: I know we can't scientifically explain it for now but most of us have had the experience of a whisky changing over time. It isn't always us or our senses. I did the experiment myself a few months ago with a fresh Highland Park 12 and a sample a friend gave me from an older bottling that had been opened over a year at the time he bottled the sample. Ok, I admit that batch variation plays a role here too, but wow what a difference ! The newer one had almost no peat or smoke to speak of. The older HP12 had that nice, gentle heathery peat and smoke that was present but not dominant.
As @casualtorture notes Powers' John's Lane 12 yo is NOT a common whiskey to find in many parts of the USA. When Jim Murray rated it 95 points and named it Irish Whiskey of the Year about 10 years ago I continuously had my eye out to get some. My sister got a bottle in Baltimore in about 2013, and I was able to get a bottle, also in Baltimore, about a year later. In both cases those were the only bottles offered for sale, and in the last 10 years those were the only bottles of this whiskey I have seen on any store shelves in the DC and Baltimore regions.
Her bottle was opened right away and I found it very disappointing at first. 2 years' air later it became great, and stayed that way until its end, about 4 years ago. My bottle hasn't been opened yet, but I expect it to be stiff at first in all likelihood, as both my sister's bottle, and @RianC's bottles were. After a waiting period I expect it to be Mr. Murray's 95 class whiskey.