The Essential Guide to Irish Whiskey
Billy Abbott and The Whisky Exchange extol the myriad virtues of Irish Whiskey
Interview by Will Halbert
Whiskey is woven into the very fabric of the Emerald Isle, with a tradition almost as long and proud as that of St. Patrick himself. So we’re told, anyway. In truth, Irish whiskey has always been something of a blind spot for us here at EJ towers. But hey, we’re as honest in our ignorance as we are active in our learning. Especially when said learning is assisted by The Whisky Exchange’s resident malt maestro, Billy Abbott, and comes with the possibility of an educational libation or two. All in the pursuit of knowledge, you understand. Take it away, Billy.
First off, I wonder if you could settle an office argument for us. What came first, Scottish whisky or Irish whiskey?
That all depends on what you mean by whisk(e)y. Both the Scottish and Irish have been distilling back before records began, but back then it wasn’t really whisk(e)y as we know it – a rough spirit normally drunk unaged and dosed with herbs.
When it comes to first recorded mentions, the Irish have the Annals of Clonmacnoise pointing back to 1405: ‘A.D. 1405. Richard Magrannell Chieftain of Moyntyreolas died at Christmas by taking a surfeit of aqua vitae. Mine author sayeth that it was not aqua vitae to him but aqua mortis’; and the Scots have the Exchequer rolls of 1494: ‘…eight bolls of malt to Friar John Cor wherewith to make aqua vitae’. I suspect it was about the same time, and in the end, it doesn’t really matter – Scottish and Irish spirits have their own character these days and that’s much more important than who made the first grain spirit.
Irish whiskey has slowly but surely risen in popularity over the last decade or so, but this wasn’t always the case. Can you give us a brief rundown of Irish whiskey’s tumultuous past?
At the end of the 19th century, Irish whiskey was riding high, but from there, things went very much downhill. It was a turbulent time for the world, and the Irish whiskey was hit with one thing after another. World War I, the War of Independence, trade embargoes by the British, US Prohibition, The Great Depression, and so on. By the 1960s, there were only a handful of Irish Distilleries left, and three of the largest – Cork Distilleries, Jameson and Powers – merged to form Irish Distillers in an attempt to outlast the continued drop in sales. By the 1980s, the only distilleries left in Ireland were Irish Distillers’ Midleton and Bushmills in the north. Things started to turn around that time, with the founding of Cooley and Jameson picking up steam again around the world, and these days there are tens of distilleries in operation, with more on the horizon.
Behind the obvious questions of provenance, what distinguishes Irish whiskey from its Scottish and American brethren?
At its heart, it’s most similar to Scotch whisky, using similar pot and column stills, and focusing on similar raw materials. However, there are a few things that set a lot of Irish whiskeys apart. Firstly, most Irish whiskey distilled in pot stills is triple distilled rather than double distilled as it generally is in Scotland. There are notable exceptions on both sides of the Irish sea, but this extra distillation gives Irish whiskey some extra delicacy and finesse as opposed to Scotch whisky’s weightiness and fuller flavour. I also find that Irish whiskey is often fruitier in character than lots of Scottish whisky – in some especially extreme examples, they end up tasting almost like gummy bears. And, last but far from least, there is one style of whisky that you don’t find in Scotland: the confusingly named pot still.
We see a lot of talk of pot stills in conversations around Irish whisky. Could you give us a quick, idiot’s guide? How does it affect the final liquid?
Pot still is an annoying term. While there is a lot of whiskey made in pot stills, pot still whiskey is something a bit different. Ireland has three broad different styles of whisky: malt (made using 100% malted barley in a pot still), grain (made using other grains and/or in a column still) and pot still. Pot still whiskey is made using a mix of malted and unmalted barley, as well as potentially other grains. It came about after the British starting taxing malted – the Irish distillers started mixing unmalted barley and other grain in with the malt to save money on tax, and in doing so created a native Irish style of whiskey. The mix of grain leads to a spicier style of spirit and, for me at least, it can be even fruitier than Irish malt or grain.
Until recently, the only producer still making pot still was Midleton, which kept things going after the industry downturn in the 1960s. However, some of the older new distilleries now also have pot still that has hit the magic three-year-old barrier and can now be called whiskey – keep an eye out for Dingle, Teeling and Drumshanbo, with many more still maturing their pot-still spirit ready for launch soon.
Until fairly recently, Irish whiskey has been synonymous with just one or two prominent distillers. Can you give us a few tips on the best bottles to beef out the collection a bit?
Bushmills and the Irish Distillers whiskeys were literally all there was for decades. But with the launch of Cooley by the Teeling family in the late 1980s, a new wave was launched. Keep an eye out for: Dingle, who have been around for ages but only produce a very small amount of whiskey; Teeling, the distillery founded after the family sold Cooley to Jim Beam; Slane, founded in the grounds of the castle famed for its huge concerts; Waterford, known for its obsession with grain and its terroir; Tullamore, reviving an old and much-loved brand with a new distillery; JJ Corry, ageing and bottling carefully selected whiskies from distilleries all over Ireland; and Drumshanbo from the Shed Distillery, focusing on single pot still whiskey.
Give it another 12 months, and I’ll have another list to share – there’s a new whiskey launching almost every month.
Check out The Whisky Exchange’s selection of Irish Whiskeys here.
