Midleton Very Rare 2014

Make way. The nose is dense oily and mesmeric. There’s vanilla sure but it’s the intense aroma of vanilla pods split and scraped at knifepoint. Woven around it there’s crème caramel and heavier cinnamon flaring at the margins softening with dilution but remaining sweet. The first Midleton to carry master distiller Brian Nation’s name is purposeful and assured lacking some of the sappiness of the 2013 release. This is less about succession more an emphatic statement of intent.