Rating 94
Style
Whiskey
Classification Single Malt
Produced In Ireland
ABV 59.9%
Availability Limited
Price $146.00 
Reviewed By
Reviewed 2025-03-12

High N' Wicked 'Rose Tattoo' Single Malt Irish Whiskey Review

The 10th expression in High N’ Wicked’s Limited Singular Series, this non-age-statement release employs ex-Amarone casks for a finishing period of eight months as its USP. Typically, where heady red- and fortified-red-wine-finished releases are concerned, the impact can end up brash, and oftentimes clumsy. 

But if you were to blind taste us on this whiskey, red wine wouldn’t crop up in our first five guesses for finishing cask, such is the attractive and approachable orchard and stone fruit profile on the nose. We’d likely be similarly stumped by the 59.9 percent ABV — its cask-strength heat barely registering during each sniff.

If the nose is all about what this whiskey is not — or what it doesn’t appear to be — the palate shifts back into place in a way that everything makes sense but simultaneously defies expectations. We’d be lying, for example, if we said we didn’t enjoy it much more with a liberal splash of water, nor that the Amarone red wine influence didn’t become much more prominent and apparent. But at this point, it’s an achievement to be celebrated, and a dram to geekily tinker with, adjusting ABV to taste and appreciating its ever richer depth of flavors and complex texture.

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94
POINTS
High N' Wicked 'Rose Tattoo' Single Malt Irish Whiskey
The 10th expression in High N’ Wicked’s Limited Singular Series, this non-age-statement release employs ex-Amarone casks for a finishing period of eight months as its USP. Typically, where heady red- and fortified-red-wine-finished releases are concerned, the impact can end up brash, and oftentimes clumsy.  But if you were to blind taste us on this whiskey, red wine wouldn’t crop up in our first five guesses for finishing cask, such is the attractive and approachable orchard and stone fruit profile on the nose. We’d likely be similarly stumped by the 59.9 percent ABV — its cask-strength heat barely registering during each sniff. If the nose is all about what this whiskey is not — or what it doesn’t appear to be — the palate shifts back into place in a way that everything makes sense but simultaneously defies expectations. We’d be lying, for example, if we said we didn’t enjoy it much more with a liberal splash of water, nor that the Amarone red wine influence didn’t become much more prominent and apparent. But at this point, it’s an achievement to be celebrated, and a dram to geekily tinker with, adjusting ABV to taste and appreciating its ever richer depth of flavors and complex texture.

Reviewed On: 03-12-2025
94
POINTS
High N' Wicked 'Rose Tattoo' Single Malt Irish Whiskey
The 10th expression in High N’ Wicked’s Limited Singular Series, this non-age-statement release employs ex-Amarone casks for a finishing period of eight months as its USP. Typically, where heady red- and fortified-red-wine-finished releases are concerned, the impact can end up brash, and oftentimes clumsy.  But if you were to blind taste us on this whiskey, red wine wouldn’t crop up in our first five guesses for finishing cask, such is the attractive and approachable orchard and stone fruit profile on the nose. We’d likely be similarly stumped by the 59.9 percent ABV — its cask-strength heat barely registering during each sniff. If the nose is all about what this whiskey is not — or what it doesn’t appear to be — the palate shifts back into place in a way that everything makes sense but simultaneously defies expectations. We’d be lying, for example, if we said we didn’t enjoy it much more with a liberal splash of water, nor that the Amarone red wine influence didn’t become much more prominent and apparent. But at this point, it’s an achievement to be celebrated, and a dram to geekily tinker with, adjusting ABV to taste and appreciating its ever richer depth of flavors and complex texture.

Reviewed On: 03-12-2025