Irish Whiskey Week: Redbreast All Sherry

I had planned to avoid the cliched St. Patrick's Day week Irish Whiskey reviews and instead review the best green dye to use for beer, but since I happened to attend an Irish Whiskey tasting with some interesting new bottles, I thought I'd swallow my pride and Irish it up this week.

We start the week with a single cask, Oloroso sherry aged Redbreast single pot still Irish Whiskey bottled exclusively for The Whiskey Exchange. It was distilled in 1999 and has no age statement, but The Whisky Exchange says it is "around 15 years" old. There are 576 bottles of this stuff.

Redbreast All Sherry Single Cask, 59.9% abv ($255)

This is sweet sherry from nose to finish. In fact, it's more sherry than whiskey. The lighter notes of a single pot still just don't stand up to the sherry the way a single malt does. That isn't necessarily a bad thing, but whereas the sherry aging on a Glenfarclas or Glendronach presents a synthesis of spirit and wine, this tastes more like amped up sherry. It's somewhat reminiscent of the Navazos Palazzi sherry finished brandy and Spanish grain whiskey with their high power sherry notes.

All of that being said, this is enjoyable stuff, and if you're a fan of sherry (as opposed to sherried malts), you will undoubtedly love it, and it's probably worth your time.  If you're looking for the flavor of single pot still whiskey however, you may want to stick with the more traditional Redbreast expressions.