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By the way Mike - I think the best Irish whiskeys generally available are Powers, Powers 12 yr old, Jameson 12 yrs old, Redbreast, Greenspot...
Those not as widely available are Jameson 15 pure pot still, Midleton 25, Midleton 1973, Knappogue Castle 1951...
much appreicated. last night eating out, i had a blended bushmill, and a blended jameson. that is all the place had. I am having fun trying these out. I have always had bourbon and this is an interesting experience for me. thanks asgain.Will also try some lowland scotch.
I enjoy a glass of Redbreast myself every now and again. I can't say why exactly, but I much prefer the Irish whiskey over Scotch.
I like Irish, American/bourbon and Scotch. I don't know much about Canadian or Japanese, but would love to try them.
My favorate is probably Irish. Generally, it is a thing of real beauty.
I used to dislike bourbon, mainly because I drank the wrong ones, but now I really really enjoy it, while still being very inexperienced.
Some other details:
Currently, there are three operating distilleries in Ireland; Bushmills is in Northern Ireland, while Midleton and Cooley are in the Irish Republic.
Irish Distillers (now part of Pernod Ricard) owns Bushmills and Midleton, while Cooley is independent. For a while, they had a complete monopoly on Irish whiskey production, until Cooley came along.
I've had three Irish whiskeys: Black Bush (Bushmills), Redbreast (Midleton), and Connemara (Cooley). All of them were excellent pours. While BB is a blended whiskey, I can definitely taste some of the pot-still tang that I found in Redbreast. http://www.straightbourbon.com/forum...lins/drink.gif
Connemara is a single malt, and, unusual for Irish whiskey, it is made from peated malt. If you like peaty Scotches (e.g. Ardbeg, Laphroaig, Lagavulin), I'm sure you'll enjoy Connemara. The peat isn't as intense as the Islay Scotches, but it's still quite evident. http://www.straightbourbon.com/forum...emlins/yum.gif
I have a bottle of Connemara cask strength (60%) waiting to be opened; the standard bottling (I think it's 46%, but I'm not sure now) is what I've had in the past.
I also get a pot still taste off the Blackbush, even though it does not contain any pure pot still whiskey. Maybe it's the triple distillation that does this, but I don't detect it in scotch triple distilled malts, such as the Rosebank.
Blackbush contains 80% Bushmills malt and 20% Midleton grain. It's much better than their 10 year old single malt, in my opinion.
I recently had the Connemara cask strength. I got it in a mini on the way to New York in duty free. It was really excellent. I want more...
The key to Black Bush, in addition to its high percentage of malt whisky, is its sherry cask finish.
There was actually a fourth one that got off the ground in the summer of 2003, in Coola Mills just outside of historic Kilbeggan in central Ireland.Quote:
Currently, there are three operating distilleries in Ireland;
Alas, recent developments doesn´t seem to bode well for the future. The site which held their homepage has been suspended and apparently, the person in charge of operations presently doesn´t reply to letters or e-mail.
It would be said if the project would turn out to be stillborn as their most promising ambition was to produce a true pot-still whiskey. Don´t get me wrong, I love Green spot, Redbreast and Jameson 15 yo but they´re all from the same distillery and it would have been interesting indeed to get to compare them with a product of different origin.
Any one else who have heard something that´s in a more positive vein about this distillery?
Yes, I noticed the website disappeared too. I wonder what happened.
There was also a plan to open a distillery in Donegal. Rionnan Walsh was the orgainser. It was to be called Clooghill, or something similar. I have heard nothing of this recently either.
Look up www.celticmalts.com
Speaking of Paddy, I recently located a tax-stamped bottle. Imported by "Austin Nichols" of all companies....hmmmmm....