Jameson Irish Whiskey Review:

"A man who stole my whiskey used the defense that no one could

 resist a bottle of Jameson. I had no choice but to testify on his behalf." 

- Jameson whiskey ad, found on a NYC Subway

By the 1800s Jameson was the most popular spirit beverage in the world next to Rum. Today it is still the most popular Irish whiskey in the world. Produced at Middleton distillery, one of the four distilleries in Ireland, over 14 million liters of this stuff is produced every year.  Yes, I said four distilleries. For the supposed birthplace of whiskey it is a sad story. At the beginning of the 20^th century there were over 60, but as the story is for much of the spirits world, prohibition in the US and the temperance movement, along with the war of independence in Ireland, put the “kibosh,” as Ralfy says, on most of the distilleries in Ireland. Fortunately things are turning around in the world of whiskey in general – Killbeggan, the forth distillery in Ireland, only just reopened in 2007.

Ironically Jameson was founded by a Scotsman and the one bar which consumes the largest portion of the stuff is some Irish pub in Minneapolis (over 22 bottles a day in 2008!) – though I think the Buena Vista Café in San Francisco also comes close. Anyway, I have heard from other seasoned reviewers that 6-8 years ago Jameson was lacking when it came to expressing a true pot still taste. Since then I’ve heard it’s improved. I can’t really judge it on the past, but to give away the punch line, I do agree that this is much better than I would have expected, being that it is generally used for mixing with Coka-Cola. Whether it expresses a true pot still taste is highly debatable.

Today only the museum remains in Dublin where the old Jameson Distillery used to sit on Bow Street. There are no existing documentary records to prove it, but it is generally believed that John Jameson founded it right around 1780. John, being already part of the Haig Whiskey dynasty, was well positioned to start his venture. In fact his son married the daughter of Robert Stein, the man who invented continuous distillation. By 1902 the company became public and due to the family’s desire for a quality product, they began to mature their whiskey earlier than was the usual tradition. At the time whiskey was generally stored for short periods in the cask and drank fairly young (Maybe not quite unlike the practices of many micro-distilleries today?). Also to note, Jameson is known as one of the pioneers of aging products in sherry casks. So coming to the modern day, in 1966 Jameson, along with Powers and Cork Distillery, came together to form IDG (Pernod Ricard), thus moving production to its current home in Middleton in 1975. So enough history: how 'bout the whiskey?  

Jameson Irish Whiskey Review:

                                    

Price: Around $24.99 (give or take) for a 750ml bottle.

Packaging/Labeling: Hasn’t changed much – mass produced but ascetically it works fine.

Alcoholic Content: 80 Proof, 40% ABV. 

Color: Dark caramel – e150e. 

Nose: Light malt and fruity arrival. Green notes with dried rosemary leaves. Baked bread and oak. The nose is actually nicer/more pleasant than I would have expected but it does not have much going on – and I am not speaking of the fact that it is triple distilled, I take that into consideration.

Tasting: Light malt with much more caramel on the front and mid palette. Turns green with a bit of grainy sweetness. A drop of water does help round things out, yet it doesn’t wow the senses.

Conclusion: This is not bad, as some malt snobs would suggest, but it isn’t something I would consider a great purchase – unless you're wanting to drink half the bottle during a wild evening or mixing it with soda – mixing this does work well. Will this ever be a basic staple or would it be what I think of as my heart grows warm and fuzzy while I read Oscar Wilde? No. For a true example of triple-distilled Irish whiskey I will suggest Redbreast 12 or Bushmills Black Bush – you can never go wrong with either.

Bushmills Original Blended Irish Whiskey Review:

“So long as the presence of death lurks with anyone who goes through the simple act of swallowing, I will make mine whiskey.” – W.C. Fields

Blogging takes time. I have realized as of late what a commitment it is to constantly post and keep things going and just judging by my posting history the last few months I haven't been doing very well. As I always have said, I don't take this too seriously. Yet I do want to remain consistent to keep posting, because each new post I add is part of my learning process as a whiskey novice. So hang in there and don't forget about me, because I haven't forgotten about you. Lets get to it, shall we?

From the most northerly distillery in Ireland, the Old Bushmills Distillery, owned and operated by Diageo, this particular Bushmills is the basic 1608 blended whiskey. No doubt one of the standard Irish whiskey's, with the Distillery attracting 110,000 visitors per year, Bushmills is tends to be more mellow then its counterparts across the way in Scotland. Honestly I hadn't sampled the standard 1608 Bushmills until recently. I have been a long fan of the Blackbush for quite some time and since I had already reviewed some of the lesser popular Irish whiskey’s I thought it was about time I review its predecessor.

Bushmills Original Blended Irish Whiskey Review:

Price: Around $24.99 for a 750ml bottle.

Packaging/Labeling: Very much a branded product, Bushmills does claim to have originated in 1608, yet this was when Bushmills was granted to the license for distillation. The distillery started producing much later.

Alcohol Content: 80 Proof, 40% ABV. 

Color: Carmel, yet the e150e is not overly used.

Nose: Creamy green apple, vanilla – almost a chardonnay. The nose is actually quite wonderful with this underlying tone which mimics a bourbon, with its oak-ness and vanilla. Here mellow means subtle complexity rather than lack of a nose.

Tasting: Comes on much more dry then I would have expected. With a gentle fudgness which has some wood and spice. There is a gentle, though not wobbly, balance here. 

Conclusion: Arrives, developes and finishes all in the same manor. This is one of those whiskey’s that is an enjoyable dram if you want to spend a small amount at the local bar. Easy introduction to Irish whiskey yet good enough to not snob away from.

An Emblematic Pure Pot Still Irish Whiskey: Redbreast 12 Year Old Whiskey Review:

“Redbreast is the secret restaurant tucked away in the back of the strip mall that only a handful of people know about. The atmosphere is great and the food divine, but no one is sure that they should tell other people about it because either it’ll become too crowded (and thus will be impossible to get a table) or the increased production by the staff in the back will affect the overall quality of the place.” – Kate Hopkins in 99 Drams of Whiskey

I’m always amazed with Redbreast 12 year old. The simple fact is that over time our palates change; we can’t do anything about it. We begin to gravitate towards certain brands and move away from others. At least this is how it has been for me. Currently I have been drinking more bourbon than anything else, so when the time came to retaste Redbreast 12 I was a bit worried how I would take it. Would it stand the test of time, holding the place on the shelf as the “whiskey which started it all” for me? The answer is yes. Passing with flying colors I actually enjoyed this more than ever.

Awarded the 2011 “Irish Whiskey of the Year” award and given a 96 rating by Malt Advocate, Redbreast 12 is a whiskey which truly shines. But before I go on, what is Irish whiskey anyway? How does it set itself apart from its Scottish brethren to the east? Generally, for starters, Irish whiskey is triple distilled and Scotch whisky is distilled twice. But the character which develops from both processes can vary significantly, so one can only talk of twice/triple distilled with a grain of salt. The more significant factor in distinguishing Irish whiskey and Scotch whisky is the fact that Irish whiskey (traditionally) was pure pot still whiskey. The pure pot still process is one of producing whiskey in copper pot stills from malted and unmalted barley. In the olden days pure pot still whiskey was simply called Irish whiskey – now that has changed over the years since the larger distilleries (Jamison’s and Bushmills) have come along and made things nice and smooth for everyone, partially taking away the pot still process, and thus taking away some of the complexity. But Jameson, Power’s, Midleton Very Rare, and other Irish whiskey brands do contain portions of pot still whiskey, providing tasters with a unique Irish experience. 

Redbreast 12 is a complete (100%) pure pot still whiskey. And apart from Greenspot, it is the only pure pot still whiskey widely available in the United States. Produced at the New Midleton Distillery by the Irish Distillers, Redbreast has a 12 year version and, only recently released in the United States, a 15 year old version. But from what I have heard Redbreast 12, with its more traditional pot still notes, outmatches the 15.   

Redbreast 12 Year Old Review:

Price: Around 39.99 for a 750ml bottle.

Packaging/Labeling: Beautiful green bottle with a lovely cap cover. The label almost borders on cheesy with the perforated edges, but that is only a small complaint.

***Packaging/Labeling Update: Not a huge deal, but Redbreast just changed its label (at least within the last few months) which uses a similar design but higher quality material. Much more ascetically pleasing.

Alcohol Content: 40% alcohol by volume, 80 proof.

Color: Pale Gold.

Nose: Young and green. Creamy and silky notes. Strong notes of bitter honey and bitter brown sugar. Not heavy jack fruit as I've seen in 100 malted barley whiskey. Some of the character borders on rye.

Tasting: This is a polished whiskey with loads of complexity. There is a green bitterness with a sweet disposition. The sweetness matches golden raisins which is then superseded by a salty spiciness. Nougat and strains of cookie dough. Brazilian nuts, Kiwi fruit and vain of tobacco-ed oak and ginger. The spice is extremely long lasting which develops into a liquorish creaminess left on the finish.

Conclusion: I was surprised by some fairly popular blogs labeling this whiskey as Speyside in nature, which honestly makes little sense, not to mention the same blogs going onto say that Redbreast was not on par with the complex rich Speyside single malts... What?! Not only is this trying to compare apples and oranges, yes, fruit none-the-less, but it simply goes against what many are saying and it goes against the extremely different processes that make up Irish and Scotch spirits. It needs to be understand that this is an extremely unique whiskey, which holds a different style and character of its own. As classic an Irish whiskey one can buy, this is a very highly recommended whiskey because of its complexity - just don't put this in a cocktail, it deserves its own glass.

Bushmills Black Bush Whiskey Review:

A 10 Year Old Single Malt: 

"Whiskey is by far the most popular of 

all remedies that won't cure a cold." - Jerry Vale 

My first encounter with Bushmills Black Bush was a pleasant one. My parents had come up to Portland, OR to visit my wife and I. On one of the days, while the girls spent a day in NW Portland, my dad and I indubitably went to have a cigar at El Gaucho’s cigar bar. Only recently, at the time, had I begun to investigate whiskey in a more thorough manner, and on that day I just sort of went out on a limb. So many choices filled the menu I held in my hands and I wasn’t really familiar with any of them. With the waiter’s eyes peering down at me in my sunken leather chair I nervously blurted out, “I’ll take the Black Bush please.” Fortunately I made the right choice. 

And as time passed I somehow managed, unintentionally, to keep choosing Irish whiskeys, Redbreast 12 Year Old being the first whiskey I really took to. Only now, as I keep coming back to Black Bush, do I realize how lucky I had been with many of my first tasting. Now I don’t think it is necessary, much less recommend, for one to start exploring whiskey by choosing ultra-premium bottles at the get go, but to avoid being “unlucky” I would suggest starting off by getting recommendations (personally or through reviews) from someone who knows whiskey. Though sampling Jack Daniel’s Old Number 7, for example, can be beneficial, it is not going to get you very far, nor is it worth shedding blood, sweat, and tears over. I suggest starting with a good quality mid-range whiskey from which you can then develop a bench mark, and then from there you can compare preceding whiskey.

Bushmills Black Bush Irish Whiskey Review:

Price: Around $29.99 for a 750ml bottle.

Packaging/Label: There is something about Bushmills iconic square bottle with a small stubby neck at the top and the 1608 at the bottom that I just love. It feels great in the hand and you have a lot of control in pouring. The Black Bush label seems to change more often than needed, it currently works nicely with the name and color of the whiskey.


                               

Alcohol Content: 40% alcohol by volume, 80 proof.

Color: The name says it all, a dark Carmel color which is partially due to the sherry cask it is aged in. Nevertheless there is certainly caramel color in this (E150a), but not very much.

Nose: Strong floral character which is reminiscent of most Irish whiskeys, but Black Bush has a much larger range with notes of fruitcake, raisin, pear and green apple.

Tasting: Really great tasting whiskey. On the introduction the flavors round out very nicely on the palette. Reminds me of a flourless chocolate cake, or some kind of light chocolate mousse with an overriding fruitiness and nuttiness – the idea of fruitcake still stands strong as it was in the nose. The spiciness comes on very substantially on the mid-palette, but in a gentle way, not a knock in the face and it develops into a slightly salted buttery and earthy note which transform into a crisp oak finish - wonderfully complex.

On Adding Water: I would highly suggest not adding water to this. Irish whiskeys, especially when bottled at 80 proof, are quite fine flavored, fine natured whiskeys and they tend to drown quickly with the addition of water.

Conclusion: This is a great Bushmills, and a great representative for an Irish whiskey in general. Defiantly for sipping neat, no water, and I wouldn’t suggest using this in a cocktail.