Irish Whiskey

Normally I would be having a drink while writing this because that feels fitting.  But today, for maybe the 100th time I'm actually trying to watch what I eat and lose some weight and I figured maybe this wasn't the best day to actually have a glass of whiskey.  I want to talk about Irish whiskey.  The Irish claim to have invented whiskey, the word whiskey in itself being an anglicized version of the Gaelic uisce.  Some will argue that the Scots did it first, but from what I've seen and read, it seems the Irish did it first.  Either way, in my opinion the Irish make some of the best whiskey. With brands like Jameson, Bushmills, and Tullamore Dew, the Irish make my one of my favorite blended whiskies.  A blended whiskey for those who don't know means that multiple different whiskies and grain alcohols are blended to make the desired whiskey having a desired flavoring and coloring.  In Ireland this often means blending a single malt whiskey made in a pot still with a grain whiskey.  A lot of countries make blended whiskies including Scotland and the United States, but for me nobody makes a better blended whiskey than the Irish and among the Irish on any given day it would be a toss up for me between a bottle of Jameson and a bottle of Tullamore Dew.  I should also say, of the types of whiskey that I drink, I have least amount of experience with Irish whiskey and that is something that I'm hoping to really expand on as I continue to write this.

Right now in my closet I have three different bottles of Irish whiskey.

Jameson Distillery Reserve

The first is a bottle of 12 year old Jameson Distillery Reserve I bought in Dublin in 2010 at the Old Jameson Distillery, one of only two places you can actually buy it.   The whiskey is a blend of pot-still and neutral grain spirits aged in both sherry and bourbon barrels for 12 years to give.
While in Dublin I tried a dram of it and it was wonderful.  It was smooth and flavorful and at the time was the best whiskey that I had ever tasted it.  I much prefer it to Jameson 18 year, which is twice the price and in my opinion sacrifices flavor for smoothness.  Unfortunately I only bought one bottle when I was there and as a result I have been hesitant to open it until I go back and am able to get more, though that's probably not a good reason, but thankfully, whiskey doesn't go bad.  At some point in time I will likely open it and enjoy,  but I'd like to share it with someone else who can really appreciate it and my main whiskey drinking friend doesn't like Irish whiskey because he thinks there's to much of the tails (fusel alcohols) in there and that's unappealing to him.  I personally don't agree, and when I want something smoother than bourbon and cheaper than good single malt, I'll reach for a bottle of Irish whiskey.

Tullamore dew 12 Year Old Special Reserve

I also have a bottle of 12 year old Tullamore Dew.  It effectively is the same build as the Jameson Distillery Reserve.  As far as Irish Whiskey goes Tullamore Dew won me over purely on commercial appeal.  By that I mean I literally decided to buy a bottle of Tullamore Dew because of a commercial.  My girlfriend, who majored in marketing in college, would either be really proud of me or really ashamed of me if she knew, which now she probably will be.  If you haven't watched it, you should before reading this, just go and search for Tullamore Dew Parting Glass and it should be the first one that appears.  If you don't want to right now, that's fine though.  In the commercial four irishmen are sitting on a wall in pouring rain in a graveyard with glasses and a bottle of Tullamore dew singing a traditional song called The Parting Glass of which I am particularly fond thanks to the Irish wonder that is Glen Hansard.  The men look particularly forlorn and one of them gives a toast to his brother which sounds initially like a funeral toast, toasting to his lost brother.  Except that's not what's happening.  Church bells sound, one of the men looks around and smiles and the camera turns showing a beautiful woman in a white gown.  If you read this and haven't watched it, please do, and while you are at it watch Tullamore Dew's other commercials because they are wonderful.  The other men cheer and the man who turns goes to join his new bride.  I'm already known for being particularly sentimental, but that commercial really gets me and because of that commercial alone I bought my first bottle of Tullamore Dew, a 12 year old special reserve.  I don't know if I like it more than Jameson as I am not as good at remembering flavors as I wish I was (it's something I intend upon working on a lot more now as I work on this), but it is definitely something I could see becoming a staple of my liquor collection, and eventually, when I've worked my way through most of what I have I'd like to try some of the other Tullamore Dew's that are out there.

Writer's Tears

The last bottle I have is Writer's Tears.  It is a blend of pot still and single malt whiskies that are aged in bourbon casks.  If I'm being honest I actually only bought this because I was spending a lot of time on Reddit looking at different whiskies people were mentioning and the name intrigued me.  Unfortunately I was not able to find a bottle anywhere first.  I even spoke with someone I knew who runs a liquor store and he wasn't sure if he was going to be able to get it.  Eventually I was able to find a few bottles in New York City, one for myself and one for my friend who doesn't like Irish whiskey.  Giving him that bottle is how I found out that he doesn't like Irish whiskey.  I've only had a little bit of since I bought it, from the night I gave it to him, so I can't really comment much on it.  Maybe once I finish that bottle of Tullamore Dew, I'll finally get around to opening one of my bottles and have more to say on the subject.





For now though I think that's a good stopping point for now.  I don't know as much about Irish whiskey as I'd like to, but from what I've had it's my go to blended whiskey and what I want when I want plenty of flavor with less of the burn that bourbon gives me.  As I keep going with this I'll have to try more and more Irish whiskey and really sit down and compare them to see what the difference is between them and what makes some of the ones I haven't gotten around to special.