The Midleton Very Rare Vintage is back and, maybe, better than ever. Well maybe not better, but older.
The 2026 edition marks the 43rd annual release from the Irish distillery and the sixth from master distiller Kevin O’Gorman, who finds himself with increasingly mature stocks in which to make it.
The Midleton Very Rare Vintage has always been a non-age statement (NAS) whiskey, and while that remains the official line from the distillery, we can tell you that the 2026 vintage is made with whiskies ranging from 14 to 36 years old.
The proliferation of NAS releases from other, most notably Scotch, brands in recent times has left consumers feeling oversold. The suspicion is that NAS labelling has been used to mask young liquid as a premium product. Brands often counter that the youngest liquid does not fairly represent the whole blend, which contains a wide range of ages. They do this without offering any details of the constituent parts.
That’s not the case with the Midleton Very Rare Vintage. O’Gorman, while speaking to a small group of journalists, actively offers the age ranges in his latest creation, young and old, while maintaining that Midleton Very Rare Vintage proudly remains an NAS whiskey. That will remain the case regardless of the aged stock, because while the oldest component appears to be getting older with the series, the youngest will always be roughly the same.
“For me, 12, 13, 14 years is the baseline for Midleton Very Rare Vintage,” O’Gorman says. “I wouldn’t see it going any lower than that. I find that pot whiskey around those years in bourbon barrels has this incredible fruity note. That’s why I use that in the blend, but it has to be a combination of different ages from different parcels.
“This year, I used some very old grain whiskies in first-fill bourbon and another in a second-fill bourbon. One of those was 36 years old, the other was 32 years old. At that age, it has this wonderful honeycomb note. All these different flavor profiles come together to create a complex whiskey.”
The level of transparency is not unique to Midleton. Independent brands such as Woven include percentages of individual components in each blend, even if it means admitting the oldest element is also the smallest. Midleton Very Rare has stopped short of that, but O’Gorman reassures that no whiskey goes into his expression to pump the numbers, only to improve the flavor.
He says: “We’re quite open talking about age. Consumers like transparency. In terms of adding a very old whiskey, if you’re adding a whiskey, it has to affect the flavor and the taste. You don’t just add a barrel for the sake of it.”
Bottled at the usual 40% ABV, Midleton Very Rare 2026 Vintage is priced at $240 / £220. Despite fluctuations in demand, which included a pause in production at the Midleton Distillery last year, the numbers produced remain similar to those of previous years.
What does Midleton Very Rare 2026 Vintage taste like? You can find out in our Tasting Notes library by clicking here.
