Review: Redbreast 12 Year Old Single Pot Still Irish Whiskey
Redbreast 12 Year Old Single Pot Still Irish Whiskey is made from a mash of malted and unmalted barley which is sourced predominantly from farms within the Munster region surrounding the distillery. The spirit is triple distilled in copper pot stills and then aged a minimum of 12 years in a combination of once used bourbon and once used Oloroso Sherry barrels. The Master Blender at Midleton Distillery then blends the whiskey before bottling at 80 proof. At it’s peak single pot still Irish Whiskey accounted for 80% of the whiskey produced world wide. Today the Midelton Distillery is the only distillery producing single pot still Irish Whiskey. Redbreast takes its name from the Robin Redbreast which sings continuously through the dark Irish winters. It was originally produced by Gilbey’s with whiskey distilled by the John Jameson Distillery. Gilbeys stopped production in 1985 and sold the brand to Irish Distillers the following year. In 1991 Redbreast returned and it is one of several brands of single pot still whiskey crafted at the New Midleton Distillery. Some of the others include Green Spot, Yellow Spot, Midelton, and Power. Redbreast is the worlds best selling single pot still whiskey. So what is single pot still Irish Whiskey? There are basically four types of Irish Whiskey. Single Malt, a whiskey made from malted barley at a single distillery. Single Grain, a whiskey made from a single grain and distillery. Blended, a whiskey made from a combination of malt and grain not necessarily from the same distillery. Single Pot Still, a whiskey made from a blend of malted and unmalted barley in a copper pot still. Read more 
Review: Slane Irish Whiskey
Slane Irish Whiskey was released in 2017. The Slane Distillery is housed within the 250 year old horse stables on the Slane Castle estate. This small village is located on the north bank of the river Boyne. A $50 million project launched in 2015 by Brown- Forman to construct their own distillery continues. Currently both the malt and grain whiskey used to produce Slane Irish whiskey are sourced from an undisclosed distillery. The whiskey is aged in virgin, and seasoned casks raised by hand at the Brown-Forman cooperages, and Oloroso sherry casks from Jerez Spain. Brown-Forman produces Jack Daniels and Woodford Reserve, so I have no doubt most of these seasoned first refill barrels once aged those fine whiskeys. Read more
Review: Concannon Irish Whiskey
Concannon Irish Whiskey was released in 2012. It is a blended Irish whiskey made from soft pure spring water from the mountainside of Slieve na gCloc, and locally harvested spring malted barley. The grain whiskey portion is made from corn. Concannon Irish whiskey is distilled in small long necked copper pot stills. The spirit is first aged for 4 years in bourbon barrels and later aged for four months in barrels previously used to age Concannon Petite Sirah wine. Fourth generation Vintner John Concannon created Concannon Irish whiskey in collaboration with Cooley Distillers, as a special tribute to his great grandfather James Concannon. James sailed from Ireland to America in 1865 when he was 18. In 1874 James and his wife traveled from Maine and settled in the Livermore Valley of California where he founded Concannon Winery in 1883. The bottle I am reviewing was distilled at the Cooley Distillery. Since Beam acquired the distillery and renamed it Kilbeggan Distillery, they reduced the number of brands they produce Irish whiskey for. This resulted in several brands death, since there were so few distilleries producing Irish Whiskey. Concannan Irish Whiskey has survived but I don’t know the current source of their Irish whiskey. Read more
Review: West Cork Bourbon Cask Blended Irish Whiskey
West Cork Bourbon Cask Blended Irish Whiskey is made from a blend of 75% Grain Irish Whiskey and 25% Malt Irish Whiskey that are both aged in first fill bourbon casks. The West Cork Distillery was founded in 2003 by three close friends Denis McCarthy, Ger McCarthy, and John O’Connell in Union Hall West Cork Ireland. The whiskey is triple distilled in copper pot stills. The stills are only half filled in order to allow maximum copper-spirit interaction. Most of the mashing fermentation and distillation equipment was handcrafted on site by the team at West Cork Distillers. Read more
Review: Paddy Irish Whiskey
Paddy Irish Whiskey was first produced in 1779. It was originally made by Cork Distilleries and named Cork Distilling Company Old Irish Whiskey. In 1882 the Cork Distilleries hired Paddy Flaherty as a salesman. Paddy visited the pubs of Cork buying whiskey for customers. He had such a presence at these pubs the whiskey became better known as Paddy’s Irish Whiskey. In 1912 the distillery officially changed the name of it’s whiskey to Paddys Irish Whiskey. In 1966 Irish Distillers was formed when a merger took place between John Powers and Son, John Jameson and Son, and Cork Distilleries. In 1988 Irish Distillers joined Pernod Richard. The Paddys brand was acquired in May 2016 by Sazerac, the makers of Buffalo Trace Bourbon and Corazon Tequila. Sazerac also acquired the rights to Michael Collins Irish Whiskey in 2015, and plans on bringing that brand back to life. For now Paddys will still be produced at Irish Distillers in Midelton Ireland. Paddys is currently the worlds fourth best selling Irish Whiskey, no doubt helped with its decision in February 2010 to start shipping to the US. Paddy Irish Whiskey is a blended whiskey that is triple distilled and aged up to 7 years in oak barrels. Read more
Review: 2 Gingers Irish Whiskey
2 Gingers Irish Whiskey was launched in 2011 by Kieran Folliard the owner of 4 well known Irish pubs in Minnesota. Those pubs include The Local, The Liffey, Copper, and Kieran’s. For four years running The Local poured the largest volume of Jameson Irish Whiskey worldwide. One day Kieran decided to launch his own brand. 2 Gingers is named for Kieran’s red headed mom and aunt. It was contract distilled at the Kilbeggan Distillery. Jim Beam acquired the distillery shortly after launch and acquiring the 2 Gingers brand in 2012. 2 Gingers is made from 100% malted barley, and is twice distilled, and aged for four years in previously used bourbon barrels before bottling at 80 proof. Read more
Review: Bushmills Original Irish Whiskey
Bushmills Original Irish Whiskey is a blend of their triple distilled malt whiskey made from 100% malted barley, water drawn from Saint Columbs Rill, a tributary of the Bush River, and a lighter grain whiskey that has been aged for 5 years. The history of Bushmills dates back to April 1608 when King James 1 granted land owned and Governor of the town of Bushmills, Sir Thomas Phillips a license to distill. In the small town of Bushmills settled on the banks of the Bush River you will find the oldest working distillery in Ireland. This is where Bushmills Original Irish Whiskey is produced. Read more
Review: Teeling Small Batch Irish Whiskey
Teeling Small Batch Irish Whiskey is a blended Irish whiskey made from corn/grain and barley/malt whiskey. The whiskey is small batch distilled and aged separately for six years in previously used bourbon barrels. The whiskies are than married in a 3 to 1 ration of grain to malt whiskey for 6-9 months in rum barrels previously used to age Flor de Cana Rum in Nicaragua. The whiskey is bottled at 92 proof with no chill filtration. The Teeling name is one of the oldest and most respected Irish Whiskey family names, with a history dating back to 1782 when Walter Teeling set up a small craft distillery on Marrowbone Lane in the Liberties District of Dublin. In 1987 John Teeling founded the Cooley Distillery converting an old potato alcohol plant into a whiskey distillery. In January 2012 Jim Beam acquired the distillery. In 2015 Jack Teeling the former Director of Cooley along with his brother Stephen, opened the first new distillery in Dublin in over 125 years in the heart of The Golden Triangle. This is the historic distilling district of Dublin and a five iron shot away from the original Teeling Distillery. The grain and malt whiskey currently used to produce Teeling Small Batch Irish Whiskey is sourced from other Irish distilleries, while their own crafted whiskies age in bourbon barrels. Read more
Review: The Sexton Single Malt Irish Whiskey
The Sexton Single Malt Irish Whiskey is crafted at the Bushmills Distillery in Ireland. This is the worlds oldest whiskey distillery. It is made from 100% Irish malted barley and is triple distilled in copper pot stills. The spirit is aged for 4 years in a variety of first, second, and third use Oloroso Sherry casks. The whiskeys are then blended by Master Blender Alex Thomas, one of Irelands few female blenders, and filled in the six sided squat black bottled pictured here. The Sexton is imported by Proximo Spirits, the company behind over a dozen brands including Jose Cuevo, 1800, Bushmills, Three Olives, The Kraken Rum, Hangar 1, and Boodles Gin. Read more
Review: Jameson Original Irish Whiskey
Jameson Original Irish Whiskey is more commonly known as Jameson Irish Whiskey, but with 10 different varieties of Jameson currently produced, and more on the way, Jameson Original is now the official branding. This is the first of ten Irish Whiskey reviews I have scheduled for the next 9 weeks. With St. Patrick’s Day only 9 weeks away look for one every Monday until March 17th. Jameson currently has about 80% of the US Irish Whiskey market, so it was easy deciding who to start with. The 1780 on the bottle of Jameson refers to the year Bow Street Distillery in Dublin Ireland was built. In 1786 John Jameson, married Margaret Haig a cousin of the distilleries owner and he moved from Scotland to manage the distillery. In 1810 he took over ownership of the distillery. To say Irish Whiskey has been on a roller coaster ride of popularity is an understatement. At its peak near the end of the 19th century Irish Whiskey controlled 70% of the world wide whiskey market and there where 88 licensed distilleries selling 12 million cases a year. By the 1980’s that figure had been reduced to 200,000 cases with only four distilleries remaining open. Most of the blame for this goes to two events, The Irish War for Independence which started in 1919, and denied Irish Distillers access to export markets, and US Prohibition which ran from 1920-1933. Today Irish Whiskey is the worlds fastest growing spirit. There are now 18 operating distilleries with 16 more announced. Jameson Original Irish Whiskey is made from three ingredients, barley both malted and unmalted and grown within 100 miles of the distillery, non GMO maize grown in the South of France, and water sourced from the Dungourney River. Jameson is a blend of pot still and fine grain whiskeys. Both are triple distilled and aged for a minimum four years in previously used bourbon barrels and Spanish Sherry casks. Since the Midelton Distillery crafts both of these spirits, they control the production process from grain to glass. Master Blender Billy Leighton artfully blends the whiskeys before bottling at 80 proof. Read more