Redbreast 21 Year Old joins Irish Distillers’ single pot still family

Irish Distillers Pernod Ricard has added a Redbreast 21 Year Old to its range of Irish single pot still whiskeys, the ninth in the company’s range.

Redbreast 21 Year Old is only available in limited quantities in select markets

Continuing in the Redbreast signature style, Redbreast 21 Year Old has been made from a mash of malted and unmalted barley, tripled distilledin copper pot stills and aged in a combination of first-fill oloroso Sherry casks and first-fill Bourbon casks.

Bottled at 46% abv and non-chill filtered, the edition is available in “very small” quantities, but will be rolled out in the UK, Ireland and continental Europe (by La Maison du Whisky) this week.

Billy Leighton, master blender at Midleton Distillery, said the process of launching Redbreast 21 Year Old took three years, as finding the right aged casks for blending was challenging.

“We’ve done a lot of work on Redbreast 21 Year Old. We decided in 2010 we wanted to extend the Redbreast family and it just had to be an age to continue the Redbreast style – we’ve always been an age statement brand. Luckily my predecessors had the foresight to squirrel away a few casks but it wasn’t what I thought we could call Redbreast. But as more stock became available over the past year to use in a 21-year-old blend, we managed to put the expression together”.

“Once my team and I tasted the 21 Year Old whiskey, there was never any question about whether we should release a younger expression – the older whiskey showed such stunning levels of depth, flavour and taste, we just had to bring it out for the growing army of Redbreast and single pot still Irish whiskey fans around the world.”

The whisky is described by Irish Distillers as full-bodied with notes of rich dried fruit on the nose with soft vanilla, Sherry nuttiness and fresh fruit nots in a creamy mouthfeel on the palate.

The last Redbreast Irish single pot still whiskey to launch was the Redbreast 15 Year Old in 2007. The 21 Year Old now joins that expression, along with the Redbreast 12 Year Old and 12 Year Old Cask Strength in the range.

Brendan Buckley, global innovation and category development director at Irish Distillers, said: “The increasing global interest in single pot still Irish whiskey is really encouraging and we see great potential for continued growth at the higher end of the Irish whiskey category.”

Redbreast 21 Year Old is available this week at an RRP of €180 for a 700ml bottle. It will be rolled out to the US early next year.