There are bottles you drink, and there are bottles you sit with. Midleton Very Rare — the 2016 bottling — belongs firmly in the second category. This is the annual release from what remains Ireland's most storied distilling campus, a blend selected by the master distiller from a handful of casks deemed exceptional enough to carry the name. At £700, it asks a serious question of your wallet. Having spent an evening with it, I can tell you it answers that question with considerable grace.
Midleton Very Rare has occupied a peculiar space in Irish whiskey since Barry Crockett's father helped establish the tradition of these yearly releases back in 1984. Each bottling is a snapshot — a single year's judgment about which pot still and grain whiskey casks have peaked at exactly the right moment. The 2016 edition arrived during a period when Irish whiskey was surging back into global consciousness, and it carries that confidence. This is not a whisky trying to prove anything. It already knows what it is.
At 40% ABV, it sits at the standard bottling strength, which some collectors grumble about at this price point. I understand the complaint, but I'd push back: Midleton has always been about poise rather than power. The blending here is the craft, not the proof. This is Irish whiskey doing what Irish whiskey does best — presenting complexity without aggression, rewarding patience over spectacle.
Tasting Notes
I won't fabricate a flavour wheel where memory should live. What I will say is this: the 2016 bottling sits squarely in the Midleton house style — expect the interplay of pot still spice and grain sweetness that defines these releases, with the kind of integration that only comes from careful cask selection. If you know Midleton, you know the territory. If you don't, this is a remarkably polished introduction to what top-shelf Irish whiskey can be.
The Verdict
Is it worth £700? That depends on what you're buying. If you want raw value-per-millilitre, there are better places to spend your money. But Midleton Very Rare has never been about arithmetic. You're buying a year in a bottle — the distiller's choices, the climate's influence on the casks, the particular character of that moment in Midleton's long story. The 2016 bottling is a genuinely accomplished blend: balanced, assured, and unmistakably Irish. It doesn't shout, but it stays with you. I'd rate it 8.2 out of 10 — a whisky that justifies its reputation, even if the price tag requires a deep breath first.
Best Served
Pour it neat into a tulip glass and leave it alone for ten minutes. This whisky needs air the way a good conversation needs silence. A single drop of cool, soft water if you must — no ice, no mixers, no distractions. This is an after-dinner pour: the lights low, the evening unhurried, something worth talking about in your hand.
