Jameson Rarest Vintage Reserve

[IainB]

I see this has just been released ot €400 a bottle!!!! For a blend!!!!!

Are they taking the piss?????

[DavidH]

This reminds me of a book that came out this year that I meant to hunt down and read: Deluxe: How Luxury Lost Its Luster. It describes how for a luxury brand these days the quality and craftsmanship delivered do not match the price charged.

Pernod Ricard just need to sell this whiskey to customers who want to belong to the club of people who spend €400 on a well-marketed brand of whiskey. I suspect that the members of this forum are not the target market.

That said, the high pricing seems to be a very late decision, as if they did not initially plan this to be Jameson's entry to the world of luxury brands.

[Aidan]

Yeah - they originally said it was going to be 10 times the price of a standard Jameson, so maybe they are going to put the price of that up to €40. You can get a Dugourney for the price of the Jameson Rarest Reserve... A single barrel once-off release.

I beleive they know the price of the new Bushmills that will be released next year (since they were involved in its planning) and decided to match it in price.

[DavidH]

I beleive they know the price of the new Bushmills that will be released next year (since they were involved in its planning) and decided to match it in price.

Plus Diageo has form in marketing premium blends (Johnnie Walker Blue) in huge potential markets like China. Jameson is nowhere in China at the moment (you can find it but it has no market presence). The Vintage Reserve might be what they need to attack the Far East.

I hope they got the bottle design right though. A friend who works in whiskey marketing in China remarked to me after seeing a bottle of Jameson: "Well, that won't sell - looks like a bottle of soy sauce".

[Aidan]

The bottle will be exactly the same as the 12 yr old, the 18 yr old etc. The lable will be different, of course.

There's a picture on this link - http://www.barkeeper.ie/News_Item.asp?News_ID=1052

I think that, like the Walker, the second most expensive in the line is always boosted when a more expensive bottle is released, so maybe the 18's sales will increase. I believe it's not selling that well at the moment.

[DavidH]

I've noticed the Jameson advertising in the Sunday papers recently. In the Sunday Business Post, there are 4 bottles in the picture (12/Gold/18/Vintage). In the Sunday Times there are only 3 (12/Gold/18). Otherwise the ads are identical. Are they holding it back in the UK for now?

Have you tried the 18? How is it?

[Aidan]

The 18 yr old is very good, but too expensive at 100 euro. One of my favourites, though.

[IainB]

Yeah - they originally said it was going to be 10 times the price of a standard Jameson, so maybe they are going to put the price of that up to €40. You can get a Dugourney for the price of the Jameson Rarest Reserve... A single barrel once-off release.

My thoughts exactly. For not a lot more you can get all sorts of old and rare Irish whiskeys. I really don't understand where they're going with this. At €250 I might have actually considered buying a bottle but at €400, forget it!

I agree with you that the 18yo is a great whiskey, and the gold's pretty good too in my opinion. But €400 for something that seems to me to be a variation on the Midleton theme, which is bad enough at €120. I understand what you're saying about the prive of the 18yo but compared to the midleton I think it's better value.

On an aside by the way, I've seen Midleton and Jameson 18yo listed by a few bars recently and for some reason the Jameson 18 seems to be dearer in many of them than the midleton. Now that doesn't make sense either.

[Aidan]

The Celtic Whiskey Shop is going to have it's own limited edition Midleton - think it will be a 12 yr old blend and will be available from March. It was supposed to be a pure pot still whiskey, but they seem to have changed their mind (IDL, that is). They'll be dowing the same for two other places, possibly in the US.

Also, the Redbreast 15 is not being made any longer. However, they have found some bulk stock in bond somewhere and it could be released as something similar.

[IainB]

Mmmm, interesting. I guess the 12yo will be another variation on the theme of the standard 12yo and the 2 distillery reserves. Not that I've a problem with that, they're all good whiskies. Pity it's not a PPS though, I still can't get my head around their aversion to releasing variants on the redbrest theme.

As for the 15yo Redbreast, I'm just glad I've been stocking up.

[irishwhiskeychaser]

The Rarest seemingly is a once off ... but the problem is can we believe that.

Probably a once off every year

[Aidan]

Apparently they'll be releasing this every year.

[irishwhiskeychaser]

Guessed as much .... @ €400 a pop .... bahhh Hum Bug

[IainB]

Reopenign an old post but I have to confess. I am a hypocrite. I cracked. I bought a bottle. I opened it (when drunk - idiot!). I loved it. I tried it again sober. I loved it. In fact I really really love it!

I still think it cost twice a much as it should. I AM A SUCKER!

[irishwhiskeychaser]

Well Iain I admire your courage ... I had no doubt that it was a great dram but beyond me really ..... anything different in there from the normal or is it just a really nice dram

[IainB]

Well Iain I admire your courage ... I had no doubt that it was a great dram but beyond me really ..... anything different in there from the normal or is it just a really nice dram

I suppose the real reason I bought it is that it's rare enough that anything new and interesting happens with IDL, and curiosity got the better of me. Price wise it is a bit mad, but as a once off I don't mind. I spent a hell of a lot more on Islay last october. That said, I was just comparing the price to, say a 21Yr Old Bushmills at €150 and the 25yo Bowmore at say €300 (By the way I think the bottle I brought back was, for me, the best Scotch I've bought, by far). I would have expected the cost to be somewhere between the 2. But there you go.

In answer to your question, I'd say yes, it is definitely something different. Despite all my rantings I think it's one of the most interestingand complex things to have ever come out of IDL. I've been dipping in to it over the last few days, and I'm still trying to get to grips with what the tastebuds are telling me. (It has crossed my mind that this could just be me adjusting to not smoking!)

I don't do tasting notes at the best of times but I would make some observations. Part of me thinks it's quite close to a pure pot still - I can definitely taste a stong presence of what appears to be very old PPS. The port is in there too, though I can't quite get my nose and tongue around how it's mixing with the pot still. At times though I think I'm picking up the grain too - there's not much of it and it reminds me of some of the very old single grains I've tried.

It's interesting you use the expression "just a really nice dram". I'm thinking of some of their other premium products. If you think of Jameson 18 it's not a million miles from the 12yo - just a better version of the same theme. Likewise the Midleton is a nice easy drinker but hardly anything to get excited about. To me this is quite different - I tried it the other night with the rest of the Jameson range - 12, 18 Gold.

Tell you what, enough waffle, PM me your address and I'll send you a sample.