Midleton Very Rare 40%

[Mr Fjeld]

In the Norwegian Wine monopoly this costs an outrageous amount of money. Do any of you know what makes it so special?

Christian

[Aidan]

Just the fact that they write "Very Rare" on the bottle... It is a blend of whiskeys ranging from about 14 years to about 26 years. It is nice, but not worth the money, in my opinion.

[Mr Fjeld]

Just the fact that they write "Very Rare" on the bottle... It is a blend of whiskeys ranging from about 14 years to about 26 years. It is nice, but not worth the money, in my opinion.

I see. Well, for the price they charge I guess one should expect more. I would have thought it was a single cask or at least "guaranteed xx years" or so. Thanks for the information.

Christian

[Aidan]

I suppose it's a special cask selection. They don't put an age statement on it because there are some relatively young whiskeys in it. The vintages they put in are older every year, though. Soem rare high quality whiskey goes in.

It is a quality product, but again, not worth the money they charge for it.

Next time I open one, I'll send you a sample so you can judge for yourself.

[Deactivated Member]

I guess if it is so overpriced, then it will be very rare whenever they sell a bottle.

[Aidan]

You don't have to push all the right buttons to get people with lots of money to buy things. You just have to push some of them. If they put bells on it, I'm sure they'd sell more.

[Deactivated Member]

I'm afraid it was just my attempt at a rather weak joke

[irishwhiskeychaser]

I agree with Aidan that it is probably over priced but it is a nice whiskey but not my favourite. Redbreast 15yo beats the socks off it . This is marketed as the top premium irish whiskey. However what ye malt heads have to get your head around is midleton don't do single malts pretty much full stop and their blends are top quality blends and in my opinion are as good as single malts. I would imagine no grain goes into midleton but I could not swear on that. Aidan do you know? Jameson 18yo is also around the same price here in Ireland and is still a blend. However in Germany I notice there is a considerable difference between Midelton VR and Jameson 18. It's all about preception really but this also equates to single malts to a small bit.

[Aidan]

I'm afraid it was just my attempt at a rather weak joke

I know that, Nick. It was a good attempt at a weak joke.

[Aidan]

I agree with Aidan that it is probably over priced but it is a nice whiskey but not my favourite. Redbreast 15yo beats the socks off it . This is marketed as the top premium irish whiskey. However what ye malt heads have to get your head around is midleton don't do single malts pretty much full stop and their blends are top quality blends and in my opinion are as good as single malts. I would imagine no grain goes into midleton but I could not swear on that. Aidan do you know? Jameson 18yo is also around the same price here in Ireland and is still a blend. However in Germany I notice there is a considerable difference between Midelton VR and Jameson 18. It's all about preception really but this also equates to single malts to a small bit.

Hi Adrian, there is grain whiskey in the Midleton VR. I think it's about 80% pot still, though.

I think the difference between an Irish blend is that it contains very few whiskeys, maybe only two in many cases. They also usually all come from one distillery, or at most two (in the case of Blackbush).

I haven't had the Midleton VR 2005, but the 2004 is excellent.

[dram_time]

="aidan" I haven't had the Midleton VR 2005, but the 2004 is excellent.

firstly, sorry to dig up an thread...

I have one of the 2004 bottles, dont know what to do with it to be honest, thought about keeping it and selling on later if the price were to rise. I did email the producers to find out how many bottles were filled of the 2004, but got no reply, I don't supose you or any one else would know???

And what makes it very rare ?? is it as you say, just because it says so on the bottle ???? can not be to scarce, my bottle is number 007119, sugesting that there may be 999999 of them about !

Dt

[Aidan]

I think they've increased the production recently, but I'm not sure. Anyway, they used to make it from about 50 casks per year.

Here's a blurb from the http://www.premiumwhiskeys.com website:

Midleton Very Rare, a magnificent blend of the finest distillates hand-picked by the Master Distiller, Barry Crockett, is one of Ireland’s most exclusive whiskeys. Whiskeys from the old Midleton distillery have always been acknowledged as special. Thus, this top Irish whiskey takes its name from the east Cork distillery town. This whiskey is aged between 12 and 25 years, and is matured exclusively in seasoned Bourbon barrels. Midleton Very Rare was launched in 1984 to celebrate the whiskeys of the Midleton distillery, and a new vintage has been released every year since then. Each bottle carries its own individual number and the signature of our Master Distiller. This annual release of a new vintage is a departure for the whiskeys of Irish Distillers where consistency from year to year is highly valued. The individual nature of the selection process for each vintage of Midleton Very Rare means that each year’s vintage provides its own character. Prized among collectors, we know of very few collections of all vintages since the first in 1984.[/i]

[Aidan]

Oh, and there are better investments than the Midleton Very Rare, I'd say. However, the 1984 can fetch up to 1,000 euro (because it was the first). A whole collection from 1984 to about 2003 fetched 10,000 euro a few of years ago.

[dram_time]

Thanks for the reply,

mine was a gift, maybe i will just open and enjoy then i think !!!

cheers.
Dt

[Frodo]

...However what ye malt heads have to get your head around is midleton don't do single malts pretty much full stop and their blends are top quality blends and in my opinion are as good as single malts.... Jameson 18yo is also around the same price here in Ireland and is still a blend. However in Germany I notice there is a considerable difference between Midelton VR and Jameson 18...

1) I agree with the first contention entirely. Middleton VR and Jameson 12 are the equal or better of many malts.

2) Middleton VR is twice the price (when we can get it) of Jameson 18 over here! If middleton VR was $90 like Jameson 18 I'd probably be tempted to pick up a bottle!

[Aidan]

They should change the name to Midleton Very Very Rare and charge $200 for it.

[kallaskander]

Hi there,

it is my general observation that Irish whiskies tend to become very expensive as soon as there is an age statement on the bottle. Compare the Powers with the Powers 12 years. The Jameson, Jameson 12 and the Jameson 18. And then there is the Midleton Very Rare. No age statement, only the claim that it is rare. The higher the age the higher the price. That is not uncommon but in the case of Irish whiskey it is asking too much, most of the time and as all those Irish is blended it is much too high priced in comparison to Scottish blends in the same age group.

Greetings
kallaskander

[Mr Fjeld]

Maybe you're right kallaskander but in my opinion I would say the Jameson 12 is vastly superior to any scottish blends. I'd say it's good enough to be compared to scottish single malts......

Christian

[Aidan]

Hi there,

it is my general observation that Irish whiskies tend to become very expensive as soon as there is an age statement on the bottle. Compare the Powers with the Powers 12 years. The Jameson, Jameson 12 and the Jameson 18. And then there is the Midleton Very Rare. No age statement, only the claim that it is rare. The higher the age the higher the price. That is not uncommon but in the case of Irish whiskey it is asking too much, most of the time and as all those Irish is blended it is much too high priced in comparison to Scottish blends in the same age group.

Greetings
kallaskander

Well I partly agree, but an Irish blend is much different to a scottish blend. First of all, there can be only two or three different whiskeys in an Irish blend. In fact, there are always very few different whiskeys in an Irish blend. Also, all the whiskey is from the same distillery (apart from Paddy and Bushmills blends). Irish blends also use the very best quality casks, usually second fill and third fill, not disguarded casks. And finally, Irish blends are must better quality in general than scottish blends. In fact, many of them are much better quality than the majority of Scottish malts.

[irishwhiskeychaser]

Yes it is a hard one to get the head around really...

I do agree that Midleton may be over priced and Jameson 18 is deffinitely over priced in my opinion eventhough it is a good whiskey.

Basically Midleton has the very rare tag as they take the best casks to make the annual run. This means that each vintage can be different from the one previous. It also means that you can have whiskey over 20 years old in the bottle but also some that may only be 7 or 8 years. Basically the mentality behind this is, if the whiskey is good, it's good no matter what's the age. Therefore no age statement.

The Jameson 18 is a good whiskey but for nearly 3 times the price of the 12yo here in Ireland I won't be rushing out to buy it as the 12yo is far better value for money and also a great expresion. The 12yo is also more consistent than the 18yo. Again you could have 20 yo whiskies in either of these expressions but I would imagine they try to reserve as much of the older stuff for Jameson 18 & Midleton Very Rare as they can.

I still maintain Redbreast 15 is the best of the lot but then again it's a matter of taste.

[memepool]

Hi I would consider Midleton Very Rare one of the finest spirits never mind whisk(e)ys. Yeah it's expensive but it's amazing stuff, similar to an older Highland Park but much more elegant and refined like a really top Cognac.
There arn't many whiskies made in Ireland in this class and until fairly recently it was only the North American and Japanese who could afford to drink this kind of stuff....

[rabal260]

I fully agree with memepool. Midleton VR is amazing. I'll admit to never having bought a bottle due to the price, but on special occasions I've purchased a dram here and there and I've never tasted a whisky/whiskey quite so exquisite. Some day I will buy a bottle (when I can find an occasion special enough to justify it)!
Redbreast, on the other hand, is also an amazing dram, and much more easy on the wallet. Many would argue that it's actually better than Midleton, but, for me, it's a close run thing. Midleton has the edge, but only just!

[lohssanami]

Hey...did we get a couple of Midleton employees to revive this thread?

Kidding...but at that price and the reviews I hear, I will have to stay with the Redbreast 12 until I find a MVR in a bar.

[BruceCrichton]

It costs 125 euros at the distillery.

I decided not to try it as even the price for a dram would have blitzed my wallet.

Great distillery though.

[Wendy]

I was given a bottle of Midleton Very Rare 2006 from a friend who had been traveling in Ireland last summer. I had been saving it for this March's St. Patrick's Day tasting, so in preparation, I opened it up last weekend and shared the first dram with my mum. She loved it and said, "Oh, the Irish really know how to do it!" In the JMWB 2008, Jim reviews vintages from 1984 thru 2006 with the lowest score being the Midleton VR 1984 at 70 points and the highest Midleton VR 1990 at 93 points. My particular bottling (2006) has been rated 92 points which I think is pretty bang on. I am not sure how much my gift was but was quite grateful to add it to my Irish collection. I won't be writing notes until I have had a few tastings of this, but will update the thread when I can pull it together.
Cheers,
Wendy

[Aidan]

Hi Wendy

I think it gets better each year, and I believe the last few years have been pretty much the same whiskey, just aged a year longer. The earlier stuff was from much younger stock. I particularly like the more recent years, anyway.

John

[Lawrence]

I liked it, I had it a few years ago, there was a certificate inside the box inviting me to 'register' my bottle with the distillery which I did but I never heard another word from them. Good whisky though.

[Aidan]

Watch out Lawrence. You could hear from them at any moment. One day you'll be stroling down the road and some people in tweed coats will jump out and bundle you into the back of an Irish Distillers van.

[Lawrence]

Watch out Lawrence. You could hear from them at any moment. One day you'll be stroling down the road and some people in tweed coats will jump out and bundle you into the back of an Irish Distillers van.

Well, as long as the van is kitted out with a bar.........

[IainB]

I find with this one that people who don't drink a lot of whiskey tend to like it, probably because it is pretty easy to drink. I think it's nice and all but nothing really special, and as everyone says, overpriced.

Certainy it's the only one of my whiskeys my wife will taste. Or at least used to until I found her gargling with it for a sore throat. It's now hidden!

[IainB]

Reading back through some of the earlier posts on this one I've just one thing to add on the make up of the whiskey. Aside from the pot still and grain there is, or at last was, I think, some Midleton Malt added to this from time to time.

[irishwhiskeychaser]

Well for all of us who thought it was over priced it has now gone up again ....

from 125Euro to 150Euro here in Ireland

It must be getting even better

Anyway since the repackaging of Jameson I have had asoftening towards Irish Distillers Limited (IDL)

They have brought out a fine range and there is something for everybody

[IainB]

Well for all of us who thought it was over priced it has now gone up again ....

from 125Euro to 150Euro here in Ireland

It must be getting even better

Anyway since the repackaging of Jameson I have had asoftening towards Irish Distillers Limited (IDL)

They have brought out a fine range and there is something for everybody

I agree - top class blends - about the best anywhere if you ask me. They could do better on the pure pot still though!

[BruceCrichton]

I agree - top class blends - about the best anywhere if you ask me. They could do better on the pure pot still though!

I don't know about that, Redbreast 12 is outstanding. I have a bottle waiting to be cracked open at the weekend.

[IainB]

I agree - top class blends - about the best anywhere if you ask me. They could do better on the pure pot still though!

I don't know about that, Redbreast 12 is outstanding. I have a bottle waiting to be cracked open at the weekend.

I agree - Redbreast 12 if great and the 15yo a step above. What I was getting at is that they've a huge range of blends but really only one regularly available PPS, or 2 if you count Green Spot. Compare that to the range of single malts you get from Cooley, Bushmills and pretty much every Scottish distillery. And Midleton is a massive distillery!