Redbreast 27 Year Old Whiskey Review!

One very special Redbreast Irish whiskey, the brand's oldest regular bottling, and my favourite single pot still whiskey to date! We may as well have a refresher on what that actually means, while we're at it!

The Redbreast brand of Irish whiskey dates back to 1912, when a 12-year old was sold by wine & spirit merchants W&A Gilbeys. Supposedly one of the company owners was an avid birdwatcher, and Redbreast is named after the European robin, also known as the "robin redbreast" owing to the red feathers on their chests. The spirit for this first iteration of Redbreast was purchased from Dublin's Bow Street Distillery (a.k.a the original Jameson distillery) for maturation in the Gilbey's' own casks and bottling under their brand name. When Irish Distillers Limited (IDL) closed that original Jameson distillery in 1971 Gilbey's, had to sourced from the same company's Midleton Distillery in County Cork in the country's south. Gilbey's continued to produce Redbreast until 1985 when they discontinued the brand, and they sold the brand name to IDL a year later. Irish Distillers Limited was purchased by Pernod Ricard in 1988, who re-launched Redbreast in 1991 with a 12-year old bottling of Single Pot Still Irish Whiskey. The current Redbreast core range consists of two NAS expressions (Lustau Edition and PX Edition) and six age stated core range expressions; a 12-year old, 15-year old, 18-year old, 21-year old (previously reviewed in 2021 here), and two smaller batch releases; the 12-year old Cask Strength, and the 27-year old. The entry-level 12-year old is bottled at 40% ABV, while the rest of the core range is bottled at 46% and above, and most are matured in second-fill or first- and second-fill ex-bourbon and ex-sherry casks. Aside from the core range there are a number of limited release Redbreasts, often exclusive to the distillery shop and/or website, the most recent of which was a 15-year old Cask Strength that sold out very quickly. There's also been one single cask Redbreast bottled for Australia, exclusive to Ray Daniel's Barrel & Batch group, which was a 19-year old Oloroso sherry matured at 60.1% ABV.

Midleton Distillery is located in the namesake town of Midleton, a little over 2.5-hour's drive south of Dublin. The original Midleton Distillery was built in 1825, with that original site now being the visitor's centre and "home of The Jameson Experience". The current actual distillery was built in 1975 and is the largest distillery in Ireland, housing three mash filters for mashing (replacing the mash tuns in 2012), 48 washbacks, six column stills for grain spirit, and ten pot massive stills for pot still spirit. Two of these pot stills have a capacity of a whopping 75,000-litres each, which is over six-times the size of the spirit stills at Caol Ila on Islay. Midleton's production capacity for both grain & pot still spirit combined is roughly 70-million litres per year, with the majority of this production being blended together for owner Pernod Ricard's blended whiskeys. Pernod own six different brands of Irish whiskey that are produced at Midleton; blended whiskeys Jameson (which sold over 60-million bottles in 2023), Powers, and Midelton Very Rare, plus single pot still whiskey brands Redbreast, and Spot (e.g. Green Spot), plus the Method & Madness range of blends, single malts, and single pot stills. Midleton also produces gin and vodka in their column stills, and also supplies whiskey to a number of other companies producing "sourced whiskeys" - independent bottlings in Scotch whisky terms, or non-distiller producers (NDPs) in American whiskey terms. Fermentation time for the pot still whiskeys produced at Midleton is 60-hours, giving an ABV of 10-12%, and while the pot still spirit varies by the chosen cut points it is triple-distilled to up to 85% ABV. There are currently 74 maturation warehouses on site at Midleton and another 88 near the village of Dungourney around 10-minutes north of the distillery site. Most of these warehouses are palletized, each of which can hold up to 16,000 casks. This is an absolutely massive operation!

Single Pot Still Whiskeys are a little confusing from a Scotch whisky perspective. The main differences are that they're made from both malted barley and unmalted barley, plus optionally a small amount of other grains, and that they are basically always triple distilled. Just like in single malt and single grain whisky/whiskey, the word "single" only means that the spirit was made at one single distillery. It does not mean that it was produced in one still, just as "single" in single grain whisky/whiskey does not mean that the whisky was made from one type of grain. Aside from single pot still whiskeys, just like there are blended malts containing single malts from different distilleries there are blended pot still whiskeys containing single pot stills from different distilleries. Adding confusion though is that these blends aren't labelled as blended pot still whiskeys, they're labelled either as "pure pot still whiskey" or simply as "pot still whiskey". The Irish pot still whiskey regulations dictate that a minimum of 30% malted barley must be used in the mash bill, and that a minimum of 30% unmalted barley must be used, plus a maximum of 5% of non-barley grains. For example you could a single pot still from 30% malted barley and 70% unmalted barley, or you could make one from 30% malted barley, 65% unmalted barley, 2% oats, 2% rye, and 1% wheat. The commonly accepted story behind the unmalted barley and other grains being included in Irish pot still whiskeys is the Malt Tax that was imposed on malted grains in 1785, but there are records of mixed mash bill Irish whiskeys which pre-date that tax. In the case of Redbreast single pot still whiskeys, only malted barley & unmalted barley are used with no other grains being included. The Irish pot still whiskey regulations state that traditional practice in Irish pot still whiskeys is to triple distill, but this is not actually a requirement, and obviously these whiskeys can only be distilled in pot stills as the name suggests.

Redbreast 27-year old was added to the range in 2019. The sample that I'm reviewing is from Batch 5, released in 2024 and bottled at 54.6% ABV. There has since been a Batch 6 released which is yet to arrive in Australia. Officially we're only told that it was matured in ex-bourbon, ex-sherry, and ex-ruby port casks, while the label states that it was "enriched by" ruby port casks, which isn't very helpful. I have it on good authority from local Pernod Ricard Brand Ambassador Nick Miles that this 27-year old spent ten years in ex-bourbon and ex-sherry casks before being transferred to those ruby port casks for the remaining 17-years of maturation, all second-fill. It's non-chill filtered and natural colour. Being a 27-year old cask strength single pot still whiskey this isn't a cheap bottle, ranging from $850-1,100 AUD on these shores. Let's see how it goes!

Redbreast 27-year old Single Pot Still Irish Whiskey, Batch 5, 54.6%. Midleton, Ireland.

Triple distilled from both malted barley and unmalted barley, matured for 10-years in ex-bourbon and ex-sherry casks then finished in ex-ruby port casks for 17-years. Non-chill filtered, natural colour.

Colour: Bronze. 

Nose: Rich, fruity, and deep. Stewed cherries, plums, and apricots, roasted nuts (hazelnuts, maybe brazil nuts?), warm cinnamon and nutmeg, powdered ginger, and rich dark chocolate. Some toffee fudge, and bitter orange peel. Slight touches of vanilla and caramelised banana around the edges. Time brings out soft leather. 

Texture: Medium-heavy weight. Rich, chewy, fruity. No heat at all. 

Taste: Rich and fruity. Chewy toffee, stewed stone fruit (cherry, plum, and apricot again), soft leather, and more roasted nuts. Then turns sweeter and beautifully tropical, with sweet mango and white peach. The stone fruit is still there too, but it's sweeter now - glace cherries, and plum and apricot jam. The back palate really is the star of this show! 

Finish: Long length. Handfuls of honey-roasted nuts now, and more tropical fruit - mango and white peach again, slight touches of lychee and banana. The bitter orange peel & toffee come back through, along with a good pinch of drying oak, powdered ginger, and leather. 

Score: 4 out of 5. Very close to a 4.5 though. 

Notes: OK, I know this whiskey is widely loved, but just let me get my controversial opinion out of the way here; did this whiskey really need the additional port casks? They've clearly been quite active, and I'm guessing they're responsible for the extra oak notes too, but I don't see why that was necessary! Before you start writing angry emails, yes they've added more richness and decadence, but without them we might have gotten more of that lovely tropical fruitiness and hopefully more of the pot still spicy chewiness that we love in some of the younger expressions from Redbreast, and also the 18-year old. Don't get me wrong, this is still a delicious whiskey. Very rich & chewy, loads of flavour, and a fantastic switch on the mid-palate from a rich dessert dram to a luscious tropical fruit whiskey which really gets the pulse racing. And the pricing, while expensive, is sadly competitive in the current market for a high-strength whisky/whiskey at this age. 

This is a fantastic whiskey, but - here's another controversial opinion - if you're a fan of the more spirit-driven side of pot still Irish whiskey you're probably better served by Redbreast 12-year old Cask Strength and the newer 18-year old. Both are more identifiable as pot still whiskey, more "singular" as Ralfy would say, and the value for money that they offer is tough to beat!

Cheers!