There are bottles you drink and bottles you sit with. The Midleton Very Rare 2004 bottling belongs firmly in the latter camp — a release from the golden era of Barry Crockett's tenure as master distiller, when each annual edition carried the quiet authority of a man who understood that Irish whiskey's revival would be built on patience, not hype.
I came to this bottle late, years after its release, and that delay only sharpened my appreciation. Midleton Very Rare has always been Ireland's answer to prestige blending — a marriage of pot still and grain whiskeys drawn from the vast reserves at the Midleton distillery in County Cork, where the mild, damp air of the Lee Valley does extraordinary things to spirit resting in oak. The 2004 edition sits at that intersection of maturity and collectibility where the whiskey inside must justify a price tag that has climbed well beyond its original retail. At £1,500, you are paying for scarcity as much as liquid, and anyone who tells you otherwise is selling something. But the liquid does hold up.
At 40% ABV, this is classic Midleton restraint — bottled at a strength that prioritises integration over punch. That is not a criticism. The Very Rare series was never designed to be a cask-strength bruiser. It was designed to be the most composed, elegant expression of what Irish blending could achieve in a given year, and the 2004 delivers on that promise with a steadiness that rewards slow, attentive drinking.
Tasting Notes
Without detailed tasting data to hand, I will say this: expect the hallmarks of the Very Rare style — the interplay of rich pot still spice with the lighter, vanillin sweetness that well-aged grain brings to the blend. The 2004 bottlings from collectors I have spoken to consistently describe a whiskey that has settled into itself beautifully over two decades in glass, with a honeyed, almost waxy quality that speaks to the pot still component doing the heavy lifting. This is Irish whiskey at its most quietly confident.
The Verdict
A 7.7 feels right for this bottle. The whiskey itself is superb — graceful, layered, unmistakably Irish in the best sense. It loses a point or two for the ABV, which at 40% can feel a touch thin when you know the calibre of spirit that went into the vatting, and for a price that has ballooned beyond what most drinkers can justify for a Tuesday evening pour. But as a piece of Irish whiskey history — a snapshot of Midleton's craft from an era that shaped the modern category — it earns its place on any serious collector's shelf. If you are fortunate enough to own one, you are holding something genuinely rare: not just in name, but in character.
Best Served
Neat, in a tulip glass, with nothing but time and a comfortable chair. Let it breathe for ten minutes before your first sip. This is not a whiskey for cocktails or ice — it is a whiskey for a quiet room after dinner, perhaps with a square of dark chocolate from a Cork chocolatier if you want to honour the provenance. The 2004 has waited twenty years for you. Give it the evening it deserves.
