Whiskey at a rich €450 a glass
Flash Gordon with the €6,000 bottle of Irish whiskey.
The €6,000 bottle of precious product represents a collaborative effort between Brian Nation, Midleton’s current Master Distiller and Barry Crockett, former Master Distiller there, who blended two whiskies from 1981 and 1984 into American oak barrels stored for over 30 years.
Only 117 bottles of the 53.1% ABV cask-strength golden liquid were produced thus producing, in turn, the hefty €6,000 price for just the one bottle.
Part of that price for just one bottle includes the glass which was crafted by Jerpoint Glass Studio. And the bottle itself is presented in an oak case, hand-crafted in County Wexford from wood supplied by Shane Castle Estate in County Antrim.
“We pride ourselves on our craft beer & whiskey collection at Revolution and Oskars bar in Waterford and we wanted to be in the top four whiskey bars in the country with the best collection of rare whiskeys,” Jim ‘Flash’ Gordon told Darren Skelton of the Waterford News & Star, “We’ve 13 different types of Midleton in stock at the moment from €17 a shot to €77 a shot. We also have our own whiskey called Revolution 19 which is a blend of 10 year-old pot still and 8 year-old pot still which is matured on the premises in American oak barrels for a minimum of six months.
The craft beer and whiskey business is growing at a phenomenal rate. Whiskey, like craft beer, is having a resurgence – the more you specialise in Irish whiskey, the more fine whiskey you stock, the more business comes your way.“We stock nearly 100 craft beers, 70 whiskeys and our latest addition is 27 gins – our new gin menu is our new best-seller – but we’re very serious about our whiskey!” states Flash who also stocks a selection of lesser-known whiskeys from around the country.
But he needn’t worry if nary a customer buys a €450 snifter.
“We’re going to keep it,” he explains, “It’s going to double in value every five years, so maybe I can retire on it someday!”
