In 1984 the price of a pint of plain was IR£1.16, the average weekly wage was IR£163, and the country was marooned in the economic doldrums with chronic high unemployment especially bad in Cork. In 1983, Dunlop’s closed for good; a year later, Ford’s followed.
There were myriad other closures of smaller businesses but losing two of the city’s most iconic employers added an almost apocalyptic finality to Leeside’s dire situation. Then, east of the city, in the now world-renowned Midleton Distillery, Irish Distillers launched the very first Midleton Very Rare (MVR) whiskey, retailing at IR£40 a bottle — public reaction combined equal parts disbelief and outrage. It was as if Marie Antoinette herself had decided to get into the whiskey game.
Earlier this year, the 40th vintage of MVR was unveiled, an annual event now celebrated by whiskey lovers the world over. MVR is always an exclusive, limited release but to acknowledge this special anniversary, along with the 40th vintage, a further blend of Midleton Distillery’s single pot still and single grain whiskeys with ages spanning four decades, was finished in a ruby port cask, yielding just 550 bottles in total for a very special ‘Ruby’ anniversary edition. Each of 540 bottles, retailing at €20,000, comes in a bespoke Waterford Crystal handcrafted decanter.
Crowning this exclusive offering was a single unique bottle, especially created by legendary Leeside jewellers Keane’s, adding to the Waterford Crystal d.
