JAMESON IRISH WHISKEY
As the blessed holiday that is known as St. Patrick’s Day is upon us, I thought I’d look into what whiskeys may be imbibed from Ireland as opposed to the green colored beer. Face it, it has been awhile since college, you don’t have to drink green beer anymore! And if you are like me, you find that drinking beer, especially in the cooler months, leaves me feeling full way too soon. So drinking whiskey is the obvious answer!
I took off to the liquor store to gather some research material, Irish whiskey, since all I have here is Bushmills and I’ve written about the Malt 10 in relation to the Woodford Reserve Bourbon casks that the Malt 10 matures in. I will comment on the Bushmills Black Bush product this week also (a fine whiskey but very different than the Malt 10).
I asked the ABC employee” what are people purchasing for St. Patty’s day?” “Jameson.” This really didn’t surprise me. I think I first tried Jameson on an airplane because they were out of gin. Not sure, but I did find something that I really liked, called Jameson Irish Whiskey. Common whiskeys are often overlooked these days with all of the premium brands of whiskeys coming about. I have to admit, it’s hard to get motivated to write about an everyday whiskey when you are just days away from tasting some of the rarest Scotch whisky known to man in a few days in Vegas. But in my encouragement to learn more and more about whiskey and wanting to share that with all who are curious I think we should not overlook the pioneer brands.
So after a brief discussion of Irish whiskey and the benefits of Bikram Yoga, I brought home some Jameson and a few other things I will be writing on for this week. All Irish!
As far as mixing Irish whiskey, you will have to figure that out on your own since the possibilities are endless. I am an advocate of drinking whiskey as the master distiller imagined it, by itself, perhaps with a little water or on ice. Period.
Nose: The vanilla “notes” were like trumpet notes. They were very pleasant but hard to get past, I think I picked up some of the cask (wood) smell but not sure.
Palate: Very simply, what you smell is what you taste. This is a GOOD thing! Although I like to be surprised occasionally, I liked the fact that there was no curveball coming at me on this whiskey. It was very soft and smooth. I can imagine eating cashews or walnuts with this with a big grin on my face.
Oh, sorry, slightly amber in color, it’s very light, more of a yellow.
I added some VOSS water, just a dab, to it to see what would happen. Not much actually. What did happen is that the whiskey hitting my palate now oozed a creaminess that I enjoyed immensely and was not very present before. I can imagine smoking a creamy Diamond Crown Cigar with this one and an even bigger grin on my face.
Jameson touts its product as more refined than Scotch whisky and American Whiskey, it probably is. Being triple distilled really helps, only Woodford Reserve is triple distilled that I know of. I will write later on the differences of single, double and triple distillation because I find it interesting.
So, all that to say, feel confident in buying Jameson Irish Whiskey for this St. Patty’s day celebration and for your whiskey cabinet. I think you will find a new friend.
Cheers!
theScotchlife 