Redbreast 26 year 1991 Sherry Cask #82858 53.9% for The Temple Bar
Nose: Pure white refined sugar, like they use in fancy hipster coke. None of that high fructose corn syrup, this is a real deal homemade simple syrup. Cotton candy grapes. Under all the sugar sits classic sherry notes, sultanas, dates, figs. Spice cabinet, cloves, cinnamon. Touch of the old oak. This feels the most classic sherry cask of the redbreast single casks I’ve had.
Palate: The sherry cask influence dominates. A lot of those fruit flavors, but turned down a notch. Poached, not concentrated. Mild leather and dark chocolate. Oaky tannins at just the right decibel. Ryan thinks this drinks like a heavily oaked sweet bourbon but its leagues apart from an old Willet or Elijah Craig. What a sweet tooth of a pour.
Rating: (Ryan) 8 (Shane) / 10 – This is absurdly drinkable. It’s simple, solid all day long and lovely on all factors. But let’s be honest, it doesn’t challenge me in the way that it could. It’s the snapple of the single casks. I’d own a few if they had just priced it like the others.