Distiller Notes
#2 Whisky Advocate Top 20 of 2022
Made from malted and unmalted barley, triple distilled in copper pot stills, and matured in American oak Bourbon barrels and Spanish Oloroso sherry butts, before being finished for three to seven months in naturally air-dried PEFC certified American Oak, sourced from the Taylor family’s Elk Cave Farm in Kentucky.
Professional Ratings
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Whisky Advocate
Redbreast’s new series champions the influence of American oak from various parts of the U.S., leaning less heavily on its signature sherried style. For this first U.S. exclusive, Irish Distillers worked with the Taylor family, renowned for their sustainable forestry practices, to select oaks from the Elk Cave Farm in Gravel Switch, Kentucky. The virgin oak cask-finished single pot still whiskey amplifies flavors of sliced almond, creamy vanilla, cinder toffee, red fruits, and oak spice, drawing inspiration from techniques developed with Irish oak for Midleton’s Dair Ghaelach series, while being bottled at 101 proof to pay homage to the Bluegrass State.
The result of an historically prohibitive tax placed on malted barley by the English crown, Irish Whiskey is most often produced from a combination of un-malted barley and other grains. Whereas most other Whiskeys are twice distilled, Irish Whiskeys are distilled three times in a column still and must mature in oak barrels for a minimum of three years. These intricate production steps combine to make them lighter, smoother and more approachable than other styles.