The Beverage Testing Institute (BTI) recently awarded the Redbreast 27 YO Single Pot Still Irish Whiskey, 54.6% ABV, a perfect 100/100 score.
BTI is a Chicago based organization that plays a hybrid role in the beverage industry. On the one hand, it functions as a consultancy that, in its own words utilizes:
Exceptional methodology, proprietary tools and decades of experience to offer research, development and marketing services that protest large investments, elevate brand reputations, optimize market reception and engage consumers.
BTI will provide confidential research services. It also does “audits of brands, their liquid and packaging” for beverage companies “to optimize their in-market or pre-release products.”
It can help brands “learn what matters to decision makers,” “find out what keeps bartenders from engaging with your brand” and “maximize their chances of product success armed with the deepest insights from our panelists.”
In short, according to BTI, “we catch the mistakes that prevent bartenders, retailers and consumers from fully engaging with brands.” Think of BTI as the McKinsey & Company of the beverage world.
On the other hand, BTI also scores, on a 100-point scale, and gives out awards for the beverages that it evaluates. This activity makes it more like a conventional wines and spirits competition.
This dual role is unprecedented within the beverage industry. Its evaluations and advice are closely followed in the beverage industry by both global wine and spirit companies and by recently established craft spirit producers.
Its praise can often ignite an explosion of consumer and industry interest, catapulting an obscure brand to overnight stardom and financial success. In 1997, for example, BTI gave a rare 99/100 points to an obscure bourbon brand named Pappy Van Winkle Family Reserve 20 YO. The rest as they say is history!
Over the last 20 years, BTI has only given out 13, 99/100 scores. Among the winners were The Macallan, Single Highland Malt, 30 YO Scotch Whisky, (2000); The Dalmore, 1974 Single Highland Malt Whisky, (2011, and 2012); and the Kavalan “Solist, Sherry Cask Strength Single Malt Whisky (2014, 2015).
Herradura Selección Suprema Añejo Tequila was awarded 99/100 points by BTI in 2002 and 2015, and was scored a perfect 100/100 in 2013.
BTI has been even stingier with perfect scores of 100/100. Only 5 spirit brands have received a perfect score since 2000. The most recent was the Redbreast 27 YO this year. In addition to the Herradura, Selección Suprema, The Kavalan Solist, Fino Sherry Cask Strength Single Malt Whisky was awarded scores of 100/100 in 2012, 2013 and 2014.
The official tasting note from the BTI called the Redbreast 27 YO “spicy, rich and fruity,” describing it as:
Amber colored. Aromas of candied lemon and ginger, echinacea, toasted caraway seed, caponata and sarsaparilla with a velvety, vibrant, drying, medium-full body and a warming very complex, endless cola, eucalyptus, Chinese 5-spice, exotic woods and crime brûlée finish. The stylish, brooding, Irish Single Pot Still Whiskey that will surely be unforgettable for the whiskey connoisseur; a dapper extrovert that engulfs the senses.
When advised that the Redbreast 27 YO had been awarded a perfect score by the BTI, Billy Leighton, the brand’s Master Distiller remarked:
We are thrilled and honored that Redbreast 27 Year Old has received this rare recognition from the Beverage Testing Institute. Almost 30 years in the making, Redbreast 27-Year-Old pushes boundaries and yet fits seamlessly into its role as head of the beloved Redbreast Irish Whiskey family.
Treading a balance of tradition and innovation, it builds on a foundation of bourbon and sherry casks with the addition of a ruby port cask, imparting fleshy fruit characteristics with notes of toasted oak which complement the rich and robust style of the single pot still distillate.
This accolade a testament to the passion and craft of my colleagues at Midleton Distillery and beyond in the cooperages, bodegas and caves in the US, Spain and most importantly, Portugal’s beautiful Douro Valley.
Redbreast is a hugely under-appreciated Irish whisky brand. Easily one of the finest whiskies in the world. Will the BTI’s recognition do to it what it did to Pappy? Time will tell, but in the meantime, it might not be a bad idea to pick up a bottle or two just in case.
