Tag: Irish whiskey

Life, the Universe and Everything

~ Meg ~ 32 Comments

Week 42 in the Year of Drinking Adventurously – supposed to be hopped cider and whiskey.

I have no real excuse for not following the adventure this week beyond sheer laziness. I could have found some of the recommended hopped ciders and I might have been able to scrounge up an artisan American whiskey. But this week was a bit of a killer. I realize that it probably seems like I’ve been on perpetual vacation for better parts of the last month. And it’s true that I haven’t been home for a good part of that time, so finally work and life and everything caught up to me. I feel like I’m finally seeing light at the end of the tunnel after this weekend. I actually got to read (for pleasure) for a good part of the day on Sunday – something I’ve been neglecting.

I do have a potent potable to talk about, and it is whiskey, just not an artisanal American one. It’s my favorite Irish whiskey: Yellow Spot Single Pot Still whiskey from Mitchell and Sons Distillery in Dublin. I have yet to find it here in the USA. Bostonians and New Yorkers, keep your eyes open for it.

Here’s the story with the Yellow Spot:

The Mitchell family began selling wines and fortified wines on Grafton Street in Dublin in 1805. When they got into the whiskey business, they marked the barrels with a ‘spot’ of colored paint to differentiate the ages of the whiskeys within. What makes a single pot still style? A pot still is like a huge kettle where the batch is boiled, the vapors rise, are collected and cooled to produce the whiskey. Since the pot has to be cleaned after each use, only one batch of whiskey is produced from the single pot. Most whiskeys are distilled in column stills which can be used over and over to create large batches of product.

So in the tradition of the original ‘yellow spot’ barrels, this whiskey has been matured for no less than 12 years in a combination of American bourbon, Spanish sherry and Spanish Malaga casks. And drawing on the Mitchell family history of purveying fortified wines, the final maturation takes place in the Spanish Malaga casks, giving the whiskey an exotic sweetness. Listen to the description of the tasting notes from the bottle:

Nose: Mown hay, cracked black pepper, red bell peppers, nutmeg, clove oil and green tea. Sweet honey and peaches from the Malaga casks.

Taste: Honey sweetness with pot still spices. Flavors of fresh coffee, creamy milk chocolate and creme brûlée. Notes of red apple and toasted oak.

Finish: Sophisticated and complex. Sweetness throughout, with a mix of red grape and dry barley upon exit.

That is quite a melange of flavors! Trust me, though, none of them are so pronounced so as to overpower. This is a truly marvelous whisky. And for nearly $100 a bottle it should be.

Hopefully, Lula can tell you about hopped cider this week. Don’t forget to go see her!

You all figured out the significance of the title of this post, right?

Sláinte! Uisce Beatha na Éireann

~ Meg ~ 35 Comments

Week 11 in the Year Of Drinking Adventurously!  Irish Whiskey. (I hope I got my Irish translation right!)

That’s me waving to you from the cliffs of Dun Aengus on Innis More, one of The Aran Islands off the West Coast of Ireland. I’ve been to Ireland three times and I’m sure we’ll go again.  I’m trying to figure out how to move there permanently, that’s how much I love it.

So Irish Whiskey… It’s a permanent fixture in my liquor cabinet.  Most  of the time I have a bottle of regular old Jameson’s in my stash.

 Sometimes I splurge and buy the Red Breast, which is a “single pot still” style.  A pot still is like a huge kettle where the batch is boiled, the vapors rise, are collected and cooled to produce the whiskey.   Since the pot has to be cleaned after each use, only one batch of whiskey is produced  from the single pot.

My imbibition of Irish whiskey generally involves a glass and some ice.  Sometimes not even the ice.  Occasionally not even the glass!  (Just kidding!)  However, I have a fun, terribly-named, politically incorrect cocktail for you to try.  Actually, I’m not sure this qualifies as a cocktail.  If you go to Ireland, do not ask for this drink.  You will be deported.  And for Paddy’s sake, don’t tell anyone you learned it from me or they’ll never let me back in.

The Irish Car Bomb:  (Don’t say I didn’t warn you…)

Fill a shot glass with a half shot each, Jameson’s Irish whiskey and Bailey’s Irish Cream
Drop the shot glass into a pint glass of Guinness and watch it “explode”
Chug the whole thing in one fell swoop so you don’t lose a drop!
Enjoy responsibly!  Oh wait, too late for that…

When we travel to Ireland, it’s primarily for my husband’s work.  His company has a facility in Galway.  I get to tag along, but that means that for most of the time, I’m off traipsing around by myself.  That’s not a recipe for disaster, no.  The girl who fancies herself a writer wandering around the gorgeous countryside, listening to fairy tales and visiting the pubs on her own?  Not to mention the lovely men people and some of the best whiskey on the planet.  What could possibly go wrong?

There are pubs that cater to the foreign visitors and there are those that are more for the locals.  In Galway, I like to go to this place called Garavan’s – definitely more of a local hangout than a tourist place – where they pretend to want your business but they really don’t.  And they haven’t forgiven England for… well, everything.  Even stuff that’s not their fault.

So anyway, it’s dark inside, the tables are all close together with little stools crowded around.  They still have a small room at the front where ladies used to have to sit separately from the main part of the pub.  I think sometimes the bartender wants me to go have a seat in there.  But then I can’t see the hurling match on TV.  And ask him lots of questions while he tries to ignore me.

Garavan’s has a collection of 125 different whiskeys and a whiskey tasting menu.  The last time I was there I tried the Irish writer’s collection – a sampler of 5 different whiskeys from a few of Ireland’s most famous writers like James Joyce, Oscar Wilde and William Butler Yeats.  I forget what all I tried.  But I definitely remember that the one I liked best was The Yellow Spot 12-year-old single pot still whiskey.  And I remember something about the Women’s Rugby World Cup – Ireland versus England.  And that they turned the TV off during “God Save the Queen.”  Things got ugly when Ireland started to lose.  And I made the mistake of asking for an Irish Car Bomb…

Go visit Lula and see if she found the pot o’ gold at the end of the rainbow!