Chapter 3: Irish Whiskey

So I did have my lesson on Irish whiskey on Thursday night.

And I did promise to report on what I had, so here I am to report.

Now, I'm not reporting to you as any kind of Irish whiskey expert. Far from it. I'm reporting to you as someone who tried a lot of this stuff for the first time.

I tend to be more of a scotch drinker when it comes to the hard stuff. And I don't drink it everyday. I consider it a special occasion kind of drink. But then again, scotch is just a form of whiskey with a different name. So I wasn't out of my element here.

The night consisted of tasting 4 different Irish whiskeys, and smoking good cigars. The cigars that were handed out were called Cuban Stock. These were the darker full bodied Cuban Stock cigars in this case. I actually didn't smoke them, since I had brought along a nice Dominican Cohiba to enjoy. So I kept the Cuban Stock to take home for the humidor. I wasn't in the mood for a full bodied cigar on Thursday, and the Cohiba I picked was just the right flavor for me.

For the record... Cuban Stock is made by a company called Crown David. Interesting company in my book. You don't find them everywhere. They can only be found at certain cigar stores. I'm not sure why that is. The one I frequent occasionally near where I live sells a boatload of them, but that's the only store I see them in. I usually bypass them for other brands. They're not like Montecristos or Partagas which every cigar store seems to sell. I'm looking forward to actually trying one soon.

Anyway, let me get to the 4 brands we tried, and my thoughts on each.

The first whiskey of the night was Tullamore Dew. The gentleman who was giving us the whiskey lecture started telling us about it, and then gave us tips on how to truly taste the whiskey, such as examining the color, swirling it in the glass, smelling the bouquet, and adding a couple drops of water to really bring out the flavor. He suggested that we let the whiskey roll across our whole tongue to get the full flavors.

Well, I did all that, and then I drank making sure to get it all across my whole tongue as he said. Problem is, the front part of my tongue didn't like that idea. It started burning like crazy as if to say to me, "What the hell are you doing? Just drink the damn stuff!"

It turns out the Tullamore Dew was probably the least smooth whiskey of the 4. He started with the cheaper stuff. It was not the type of whiskey that was aged over 10 years. The best was yet to come.

Second was the Bushmills 10 Year Single Malt. Now we are upgrading. I was told that while the Tullamore went for about $20 a bottle, this stuff was just under $40 a bottle. First thing I noticed, as well as the guy next to me who took a sniff, was that this whiskey had a much stronger aroma. It was so strong, we both backed off the glass and went "Whoa!" at the same time. It wasn't a bad aroma, it was just so much stronger than the Tullamore. We figured this stuff might go down like rusty nails based on the smell alone.

Then we sipped... and it was so much smoother than the last one. That was a very pleasant surprise. To have that strong of an aroma yet go down nice and smooth, that's quite the success. Of course they say the longer a whiskey is aged, the smoother it gets. Thumbs up to the Bushmills.

Thirdly, we moved to the Jameson 12 Year Old. Conventional wisdom says this would be even smoother than the Bushmills 10 year old. But I agreed with the gentleman sitting next to me. We both thought the Bushmills was actually a bit smoother. But definitely a step up from the Tullamore. No question.

Lastly, it was the Redbreast 12 Year Old Pure Pot Still Whiskey. I figured the best was for last. This bottle apparently costs in the $45 per bottle range and was the most expensive of the whole night. Of the 4 whiskeys, it had the most bold and distinct pure whiskey flavor. No question.

But surprisingly, I thought the Bushmills 10 Year got the prize for being the smoothest. I enjoyed drinking that the most.

And if you want everyone else's opinion that night, lust look at the raffle they had. You got to buy tickets and put them into a pot for each of the 4 whiskeys to be given away. You got to put them into the pot matching the whiskey you wanted to win. By far, the least amount of tickets was in the Tullamore Dew pot. I think that said it all.

And how do you like this... the guy I was speaking with the whole night and sharing the thoughts on the whiskey with that I mentioned before... he won the grand prize of the night. That was a bottle of Midleton Very Rare Irish Whiskey. Whiskey that is so rare, each bottle has a serial number and is actually signed by the distiller. Regular price on that bottle... $140.

That stuff is so exclusive, there's an invitation inside the box that says if you bought the whiskey, you're invited to come to the distillery in Ireland to sign a special guest book dedicated to owners of the whiskey.

No, the trip isn't free. You gotta pay for the plane to Ireland. But that's still quite an invite.

And I was this close to winning it too. His winning ticket had 03 on it. Mine had 04.

Oh well, maybe I'll meet up with him again and he'll let me taste a glass. I do wonder what whiskey signed and numbered by the distiller tastes like.