Happy Saint Patrick’s day!
Over the last year I’ve spent considerable time and money getting my hands on all of Redbreasts Iberian series, plus the Kentucky Oak release. What better way to celebrate Saint Patrick’s day than with a blind comparison?
We’ve got four different finishes here: Oloroso sherry, PX, port, and virgin oak. Going into this I was excited to flex the ol’ gob and ponder the subtle nuances between these very different bottles. Coming out, I lived up to my username.
I couldn’t tell piss from turd. These bottles are all delicious, but when blindfolded, they tasted virtually identical to me.
Below are my thoughts as I went through each glass.
Glasses #1/#3/#4
I literally could not tell these apart on my first couple tastes. They all basically taste like Redbreast 12 but a little sweeter. After unlocking all seven chakras in my tongue, I decided glass #4 had a smidge more body to it than the other two. I figured glass #4 was the PX, and flipped a mental coin between the other two being the Tawney Port and Lustau.
Results: I’m the dumbest boy in school. I got the PX right, but mixed up the Lustau and the Tawney Port.
Glass #2
This was the easiest to pick out as Kentucky oak, based purely on the fact that it had more of a bite to it than the other two (owing to the higher proof).
Results: Marginal redemption. Clearly, my tongue knows burn when it feels it cause I got this one right.
Takeaway:
I may have gotten two of four right, but that really doesn’t say much. My basis for distinguishing them was purely (1) proof and (2) body. The flavors were identical, and what differences there were in proof and body were miniscule. It’s easy to form opinions about bottles when you taste them in a vacuum, but you really don’t know how much of your perception is complete horseshit until you’ve tasted that bottle blind in a lineup.
That’s terrible news for someone like me, who’s gone through the trouble of collecting all of them. But it’s great news for anyone else, who can rest assured that the cheapest and most readily available of the bunch (Lustau) gets them 99% of the way to the same experience as the rest.
I give these bottles 8/10 across the board.
I will say, for as much as I love Redbreast, if I have one criticism it’s that I think they could push the envelope a little more on their limited edition releases.
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