There are bottles you drink, and there are bottles that hold time. The Midleton Very Rare Bot.1987 is emphatically the latter — a blended Irish whiskey released nearly four decades ago from one of Ireland's most storied distilling operations, now commanding a price tag that reflects not just what's inside the glass, but the era it represents. At £5,000, you're not simply buying whiskey. You're buying a passport to a moment when Irish whiskey was fighting for its very survival on the world stage, and Midleton was quietly laying down some of the finest liquid the country had ever produced.
I should be honest: holding a bottle like this changes the way you taste. There's a reverence that creeps in, a slowness to the pour, an attention you don't give your Tuesday night dram. But the 1987 bottling earns that reverence. Midleton Very Rare was the brainchild of Master Distiller Barry Crockett's predecessor, and each annual release was — and remains — a hand-selected marriage of pot still and grain whiskeys drawn from the vast Midleton inventory. The 1987 expression sits in that golden early chapter of the series, when production volumes were smaller and the programme was still proving itself.
At 40% ABV, this is bottled at what was then the standard strength for Irish whiskey, and it wears it gracefully. There's no cask-strength swagger here — this is composed, measured, a whiskey that was built for balance rather than brute force. The style leans into that classic Midleton DNA: the interplay between the richness of pure pot still spirit and the lighter, sweeter character of grain. You can expect orchard fruit, gentle spice, a certain waxy depth that pot still devotees will recognise immediately, and a finish that lingers with quiet authority.
Tasting Notes
As no verified tasting notes accompany this particular bottling, I'll refrain from inventing what the nose, palate, and finish deliver in granular detail. What I will say is this: Midleton Very Rare from this period is consistently praised for its honeyed elegance, its soft wood influence, and a complexity that unfolds over twenty minutes in the glass rather than announcing itself all at once. Pour it. Wait. Then wait some more.
The Verdict
Is any whiskey worth five thousand pounds? That's a question for your accountant. But within the world of collectible Irish whiskey, the 1987 Midleton Very Rare occupies a genuinely rare position — early enough in the series to carry real historical weight, old enough now that the liquid inside has become a time capsule of late-twentieth-century Irish distilling at its most ambitious. It drinks beautifully, it tells a story worth hearing, and it represents a period when the entire category was being redefined. I'm giving it 8.2 out of 10: a remarkable whiskey that stops just short of transcendence, held back only slightly by its modest bottling strength, which leaves you wondering what this liquid might have become at 46%.
Best Served
Neat, in a tulip glass, with nothing but patience for company. Pour no more than 25ml — this is a meditation, not a session. Let it sit for ten minutes before your first sip. A single drop of room-temperature water after the second taste, if you like, but no more. And for God's sake, don't put it in a tumbler with ice. This bottle waited thirty-nine years for you. Give it the courtesy of your full attention.
