The Drink Column: Make a date with vintage whisky

It was asking for trouble, proposing to spend the best part of £100 on a bottle of Midleton Very Rare. "Irish whiskey should be unpretentious, especially on St Patrick's," I am told each year by my red-haired, green-eyed partner. This one was too fancy, she protested. "It's even vintage-dated, for Pat's sake." We don't see eye to eye on this one.

In a blindfold tasting for Whisky Magazine, myself and spirits writer Dave Broom gave Midleton Very Rare our second highest score among a dozen new releases from Scotland, Ireland and Japan.

Midleton Very Rare typically has a spicy aroma, with notes of ginger and vanilla; a light, sweetish palate, reminiscent of walnut cake and fresh peaches; and a biscuity finish.

The 2002 bottling was released recently, and seemed markedly less delicate and more luxurious. It reminded me of indulgent sensations like Amaretto macaroons, zabaglione and Marsala wine.

This vintage is the most flavoursome and well-structured Midleton yet. It has gained some of the warmth and sociability that I missed in earlier vintages. It is only one bottling, but I think the whiskey's flair typifies a new confidence on the part of its producers.

I quite like the idea of vintage-dating. The aroma and palate of whisky or Irish whiskey (the latter being the Irish spelling) are influenced by differences in the barley each year, by the weather during distillation and the years of maturation. Those differences add interest, and remind us that it is an agricultural product. But the differences are so small, there is little chance of the whiskey slipping out of its house character and confusing the customer.

The classic Irish style takes its linseedy, oily smoothness from a blend of raw and malted barley run three times through a pot still. This is then blended with lighter column-still whiskey made from maize, wheat or barley. Over the past 15 years worldwide sales of Irish whiskey have more than quadrupled.

Midleton is the name least known outside the industry, yet the distillery produces the best known, Power and Jameson. Not far from Cork, the town of Midleton had its origins in a Cistercian monastery. The distillery, built by the Murphy family of stout fame, subsequently merged with the two big names. It looks like a power station from the outside, but has an extraordinary menagerie of both pot and column- stills inside.

Midleton Very Rare was launched when the new distillery had produced and matured enough whiskey to form the basis of a blend, which comprises a 70-80 per cent proportion of pot-still whiskey. Component whiskeys range in age from 12 to 25 years old and Midleton Very Rare is matured in bourbon barrels.

This is all very well, but Midleton Very Rare came second in the Whisky Magazine tasting. What came first? Jameson, but not the oily, creamy, peppery standard version favoured by the girl with the green eyes. Nor the fruitier, 12-year-old Jameson 1780; the more scenty 15-year-old Jameson Pure Pot Still; nor the toasty, honeyed Jameson Gold. The winner is an 18-year-old called Master Selection, remarkably fresh and aromatic, with flavours reminiscent of gunpowder tea and an explosive finish.

I wouldn't call this fancy, as much as downright sexy. Master Selection will be available in Britain by June, in time for some Midsummer Madness.