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Redbreast 12 Year Old Cask Strength

B1/11

0 489

@NockReview by @Nock

25th Oct 2013

0

Redbreast 12 Year Old Cask Strength
  • Nose
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  • Taste
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  • Finish
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  • Balance
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  • Overall
    89

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I opened this bottle on my birthday (October 10th) along with a few other cask strength bottles. Here are the notes from that experience.

Nose: Super hot on the nose. WOW!! Fresh fruit straight away: sweet red apples, pears, and strawberries all hovering over a base of oak. After a little time I am really picking up on some bourbon flavors – that sweet bourbon nose of caramel, apples, brandy, butter, and brown sugar. Perhaps a bit to bourbony for my nose? Still, you can tell it isn’t bourbon. There is an almost saccharin type sweetness to this nose.

Taste: Sweet and sour baked apples coated in sugar. Just a huge sweet fruit bomb with nothing bitter or off (and no soap or rotten hay)

Finish: Huge grassy finish with tons of tart apples (red delicious, gala, fuji, and granny smith), and very spicy: tons of pepper, cumin, cardamom, cinnamon, and all spice. Big and long for a triple distilled Irish whiskey! No crazy caramel!

Complexity, Balance: Quite complex for an Irish whiskey. I love the extra kick from the cask strength. The apples and fruit cross the spectrum while allowing other notes to pop up and around for little added bits of curiosity. I can’t fault it for much. Everything is behaving just as it should. It is everything Glenfiddich and Glenlivet should be!

Aesthetic experience: I really like the color and look of this bottle. It is very elegant and traditional looking – seriously it looks like a whisky bottle from 80 years ago . . . if it were being made today . . . to my imagination . I also love the batch stamp with the ABV. It is reminiscent of the new Laphroaig design. Very little not to love in this totally unpeated non-scotch.

Conclusion: I don’t love easy going whisky. In my mind that is the very definition of Irish whiskey. So this is one of the few Irish drams I was possibly going to like. And I do like it. Further, it takes water very well. I watered it down to 40% and found it very good – this is highly unusual for me. I almost always dislike water in my whisky. This is a huge exception. I highly recommend it.

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4 comments

@Victor
Victor commented

Glad to hear that you like the Redbreast 12 Cask Strength. I find it easy to like too. It would help, though, if there were some more of it around to be purchased. Redbreast 12 CS has been a pretty scarce item to find in my region, and, I am sure, other regions as well.

11 years ago 0

@Nock
Nock commented

@Victor thank you. Yes, I have enjoyed it. I found one bottle here in the unique store that seems to carry the few "special order" items that come through Virginia (same store where I found the last bottle of Elijah Craig Barrel Proof in the state). I think I bought the last bottle of Redbreast CS.

11 years ago 0

R
Rigmorole commented

I'm glad you are enjoying your bottle. I bought a bottle last year and didn't much care for it. Oh well. It was very expensive, as well, for what it is. I paid $80 American for it. This said, I didn't water my glasses as much as you watered yours. Maybe that was my downfall. To me, it wasn't a fruit bomb. It had a sickly sweet hard alcohol flavor that didn't open up for my tastebuds much as all. It reminded me of Cutty Sark, a whisky I have never learned to love since I was in my late teens and first tasted it. Thanks for your review. You express yourself well.

11 years ago 0

@onebourbon
onebourbon commented

@nock Are you talking about the abc store between harris teeter and Sams club on VB blvd? I picked up the redbreast 12 yr cs at that store just before Christmas. Last time I was in there they had abunadh batch 45 on the shelf, among others.

10 years ago 0