Midleton: Barry Crockett Legacy (Irish Single Pot Still Whiskey: 46% ABV)
Visual: Darkened gold. Slow thick streaks come from the spirit.
Nose: Sherry trifle. Alcohol hits in a wave. Almonds. Pencil shavings. Menthol. Brandy cream. Water adds fatty butter notes and pepper. Pumpkin. Slight lime. Apricot.
Body: Smooth. Caramel. Alcohol feel if held. Vanilla. Brown bread. Honeycomb. Peppery. Water makes very smooth. Dry cake sponge. More vanilla. Apricot.
Finish: Oak. Sulphur notes. Dry sherry. Peppery. Fatty butter. Water brings out more fatty notes. Slight fatty cheese. Buttery shortbread. Sherry trifle.
Conclusion: This is unexpectedly thick for a triple distilled Irish whiskey, It’s still smooth (for the most part), still packed with those sweet vanilla and caramel notes – but against that it has an odd, slightly fatty and buttery thick note and flavor. It is really hard to describe but gives a more robust flavor and feel than most of the style.
To move back from that for a moment, initial impressions are completely against all that I just said. The aroma comes straight out with strong alcohol against sherry trifle. Two elements that notably do not show up much within the rest of the whiskey. Odd. Go figure. Admittedly there is a little alcohol if you hold this in your mouth, and there are subtle sherry feeling notes that have come from bloody somewhere, I don’t know where, as time goes on, but neither are anywhere as dominant as they first come across.
Neat it does have that touch of alcohol if held, as we just discussed, but a few drops of water quickly remove that. The rest of the whiskey’s character is remarkably resistant to water – keeping that odd fatty feel even up to where I had nearly 50/50 with water,
What water does do is change it from a simple sweet treat to a peppery touched thing that still shows the sweetness, then with a ton of water it becomes a kind of buttery shortbread character, which can become quite empty of any other character if you put in too much water. My preference is to just add a few drops, to add a bit of contrast to the sweetness and lose the alcohol character, but leave everything else intact.
So, is it good and worth buying? Eh, it’s average. The fatty, buttery notes are interesting but not an element I would actively search for in a whiskey. It makes it less easy drinking, but not really more rewarding.
Ok, but there are far better out there.
Background: More whiskey minis! I only really know Midleton from their very rare, so was surprised to see this – a new single pot still expression in Independent Spirit. Even more surprised to see it in a mini. Anyway googling tells me this is a mix of bourbon cask aged and new American oak aged whiskey. I put on the haunting Perte D’Identité by Marie Davidson while drinking.
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