Would you pay €35,000 for a bottle of whiskey? Or €1,200 for a single pour? Would you do so knowing that some connoisseurs describe its aroma as reminiscent of old furniture—layered, venerable, unmistakably aged? And would it help to know that it may be the oldest Irish peated whiskey ever released?
Alongside that evocative note of timeworn wood come peat smoke, toffee pennies, blackcurrant jam, sultanas, grapefruit peel, and sweet cherries. This is not a whiskey designed to charm immediately. It is one meant to be considered.
Silent Distillery Collection: Chapter One marks the opening chapter in a remarkable series of exceptionally old Irish whiskeys released by Midleton. Just forty-four bottles exist. Each contains a single-batch, third-fill sherry cask whiskey bottled at 51.2 percent ABV—distilled in 1974 at a distillery that no longer operates.
The term “silent distillery” refers to a place where the stills have gone quiet, yet their legacy remains alive in the casks left behind. These are the so-called unicorn whiskeys—rare, finite, and impossible to replicate. Chapter One was laid down just a year before the Old Midleton Distillery was decommissioned, capturing a moment that would never come again.
There has been distilling at Midleton for nearly two centuries. Through the Great Famine, the War of Independence, and the Civil War, the distillery endured. This collection will comprise six releases—each between 40 and 50 years old—unveiled annually through 2025. The final bottling will coincide with the 200th anniversary of Midleton Distillery, closing the circle with a quiet ceremony.
The price places Chapter One among rare company. In 2005, a bottle from Galway’s Allman’s Distillery at Nun’s Island, distilled in 1815, fetched $146,000 at auction. Elsewhere in the rarefied upper tier of whisky collecting sit Isabella’s Islay, valued at $6.2 million; Aisla T’Orte’s 105-Year-Old Master of Malt at $1.4 million; the 64-Year-Old Macallan at $460,000; Springbank 1919 at $78,000; and Glenfiddich 1937 at $71,000. Against this backdrop, Chapter One feels less extravagant than inevitable.
The presentation is as thoughtful as the liquid itself. The display box, designed by Irish craftsman John Galvin, incorporates 200-year-old wood reclaimed from ancient whiskey vats. Each bottle rests within a Waterford Crystal decanter—an object that acknowledges the gravity of what it holds.
Today, the Old Midleton Distillery serves as an Irish whiskey museum. Standing outside is a 31,618-gallon pot still—the largest ever constructed. By the mid-1960s, however, Irish whiskey found itself at a crossroads. Prohibition, political upheaval, and the dominance of blended Scotch had reduced the industry to just three producers: John Power & Son, John Jameson & Son, and the Cork Distilleries Company, which owned Old Midleton. In 1966, they merged to form Irish Distillers, later acquired by Pernod Ricard, consolidating production at a new facility built adjacent to the original site.
The rare peated whiskeys of the Silent Distillery Collection were crafted by Master Distiller Emeritus Barry Crockett alongside fellow distiller Brian Nation. Crockett, the son of a distiller and himself born on the grounds of Old Midleton, understands the emotional weight of the release.
“Chapter One was among the very last whiskeys distilled through the largest pot still ever built,” he has said. “It’s the ultimate heirloom—a memento of the dedication to precise malt preparation, brewing, and distillation skills passed down through generations at Midleton.”
Whether one chooses to taste it or simply contemplate it, Chapter One is not merely a whiskey. It is time, held still.
