Midleton Very Rare 2022 is the first vintage composed by Kevin O'Gorman, appointed Master Distiller at Midleton in 2020 and the heir to a lineage of blenders who have made this annual release one of Irish whiskey's most anticipated. 40% volume. THE BLEND: single pot still and single grain whiskeys aged between 12 and 33 years, married in ex-bourbon casks selected by the master distiller for character and consistency rather than the youngest commercially viable age. The pot-still spices and the grain-whiskey sweetness sit together at a finished-blend density that no individual cask achieves alone — the architecture is the work. SERVING: pour neat at room temperature in a tulip glass — the long finish is the point and ice will close it. A single drop of cool water can lift the citrus dimension. At the table it pairs with a slow-cooked beef cheek, an aged Coolea or Cashel Blue, dark chocolate with sea salt, or a Honduran maduro cigar where the pot-still spice and the wrapper's earth find common ground. Equally a Manhattan with La Quintinye Vermouth Royal Rouge — the Irish weight needs the richer vermouth.
Tasting notes
Coppery gold, warm highlights.
Fresh citrus over pot-still grain.
Luscious at 40% — orange zest, caramelised apple, pot-still spice, mature cereals. Caressing texture.
Long, persistent — pot-still spice, lightly toasted oak, enveloping.
County Cork — and the working heart of Irish whiskey distillation. Midleton produces Jameson, Redbreast, Powers, Green Spot, and Method and Madness alongside the eponymous Very Rare; together this is one site responsible for more of Ireland's premium output than any other. The Old Midleton stills date to the 19th century — kept as a working museum next to the modern distillery — and the pot-still tradition kept alive on the new floor preserves a method that disappeared from much of Ireland in the post-war decades.
