IRISH WHISKEY

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Buy Single Malt, Single Grain & Pot Still Irish Whiskey

The origins of Irish whiskey are less than clear, but it’s likely that the secrets of distilling reached Scotland via Ireland. Once considered a superior product to Scotch whisky, by the 17th century Irish whiskey was gaining a reputation around the globe and at the peak there were over 1,000 distilleries in Ireland!

However, the reluctance of most Irish distillers to send their whiskey illegally via bootleggers to the United States during Prohibition promptly ended the boom. The late 1930s-1960s were dark times for Irish whiskey production, with the number of Irish distilleries reduced to only 5 by the mid 1950s. In order to survive, the remaining distillers (Jameson, Powers, Bushmills and the Cork Distilleries Company) merged to form Irish Distillers Ltd.

But it’s definitely not all doom and gloom for Irish whisky… The good news is that since the late 1980s, the Irish whisky industry has undergone a renaissance with some huge investment, exciting, newly-opened distilleries and more to come on the near horizon!

It seems the world is falling back in love with the distinctly delicious taste of Irish whisky. At the 2020 International Wine and Spirit Competition, Redbreast 12 Year Old scored a remarkable 98 points to take home the competition’s highest award as “best whisk(e)y in the world”. At the Beverage Testing Institute (BTI), Jameson Bow Street 18 Years Cask Strength and Redbreast 21 Year Old both received prestigious platinum medals.

The common styles of Irish Whisky are single malt (often triple distilled), single grain and single pot still, the latter of which is made with a mash of both unmalted and malted barley (usually at a ratio of around 60:40) and produced in pot stills at a single distillery.