Irish Whiskey Brands
By Steve Kirwan
In the late 1800s, at the height of Irish whiskey popularity, there were 30 distilleries in Ireland. The destruction of the French brandy and Cognac vineyards skyrocketed Scotch whisky into the most popular liquor in the world. As Scotch’s popularity grew, Irish whiskey’s declined. A century later, only three distilleries had survived.
The early 1990s saw increased experimentation with Scotch expressions, which then ignited a resurgence in Irish whiskey interest and caused an explosion in new distilleries and Irish whiskey brands and styles. Leading the pack (by a wide margin), Jameson represents nearly 70% of worldwide Irish whiskey sales. They have one of the broadest ranges of consistently high-quality expressions and are also very affordable.
- Jameson: Owned by Irish Distillers (a division of the Pernod Ricard liquor dynasty). They make at least 10 different expressions, the most popular being the standard blended Jameson Irish Whiskey.
- Jameson Blended Irish Whiskey
- Jameson Caskmates Blend (IPA and Stout casks)
- Jameson Black Barrel (Charred casks)
- Jameson 12 Year Reserve (Sherry casks, discontinued)
*** If you can find it, it was SUPERB! - Jameson 18
- Jameson 18 Bow Street (Cask Strength)
- Jameson Distillery Edition
- Jameson Crested
- Jameson Master Distiller Series
(The Blender’s Dog, The Cooper’s Croze, The Distiller’s Safe)
- Other discontinued expressions may be available
- Old Bushmills: Dates back to 1608
- Bushmills Original (blended)
- Bushmills Black Bush (Bourbon/Oloroso sherry casks)
- Bushmills Red Bush (First-fill bourbon casks)
- Bushmills 10 Single Malt
- Bushmills 16 Single Malt
- Bushmills 21 Single Malt
- Bushmills 1608 (Discontinued, superb if you can find it)
- Tullamore D.E.W.
- Powers
- Midleton
- Method and Madness
- Mitchell and Sons (Green Spot, Yellow Spot, Red Spot)
- Redbreast (12 and 15)
- Teeling
- Proper Twelve
- The Dead Rabbit
- Writers’ Tears
- West Cork
- Connemara
- Hyde
- Knappogue Castle
- Quiet Man
- Celtic Cask
- Slane
- The Irishman
- Knockmore
- Kavanagh
- Many more…