Tuesday 27 November 2007
Weekly (ish) Whiskey Miscellany
Just one item for the miscellany this week: a collection of drinks recipes, all based on Irish whiskey. I've never tried it but whiskey and apple juice sounds like a good match. Counts as one of your five-a-day too, I'm sure!
Wednesday 21 November 2007
Christmas 2007 Gift Guide
If you are not a whiskey drinker yourself but you are buying for someone who is, read on for a few of my suggestions. All of these whiskeys are listed in the Celtic Whiskey Shop's new Christmas catalogue. Prices are from that catalogue too so adjust accordingly for other countries.
For the serious Irish whiskey drinker
For the serious Irish whiskey drinker (budget)
Irish for the Scotch drinker
Some people apparently like peat in their whiskey though I personally thought it was an advance when kilns left the turf fires behind. For those with a taste for the bog the choice is clear.
Scotch for the Irish drinker
For the sake of balance, and in case you find yourself somewhere with a good range of Scotch but lacking in Irish, here's one suggestion.
Whiskey for non-whiskey drinkers
Lots of people find neat whiskey off-putting so if you want to force the stuff down a few throats at Christmas you are going to have to disguise it somehow.
There is a fashion at the moment for "wood finishing". This means that the whiskey will be transferred towards the end of maturation to a barrel that previously contained some other spirit or fortified wine. Many regard this as a gimmick but it does produce remarkably flavourful results. So it might make for an easier entrée to the world of whiskey.
For the serious Irish whiskey drinker
- Redbreast 15 Year Old (€90). I've said plenty about this whiskey already. As the catalogue says, this could be the last release of this whiskey ever so buy it now. Just magnificent.
- Tyrconnell 15 Year Old Single Cask (€85). No fashionable wood finish or chill filtering, not vatted from multiple casks for commercial consistency, and bottled at 46% in a simple, clear glass bottle. This is just whiskey. It's also the best from Cooley (Ireland's only independent distillery) to date.
I can vouch for the character of the 14yo version and I expect another year has only intensified the flavour.
For the serious Irish whiskey drinker (budget)
- Greenore 8 Year Old (€37). What makes this interesting to the whiskey enthusiast is that it is a rare example of a pure grain whiskey. We typically think of grain whiskey as a dilutant, introduced to make a harsh drink palatable to a wider market. But Greenore demonstrates how much grain whiskey brings to the party.
Not only does it have more taste at the point of distillation than is generally admitted, it must also be aged in wood for just as long as the pot still variety. Thus it reveals much about the maturing process that is masked by a stronger pot still whiskey.
Greenore is a gentle drink but perfectly pleasant on its own. It also comes in a very striking, gift-friendly bottle. - Green Spot (€40). A pure pot still whiskey that is almost impossible to obtain outside Ireland. Green Spot is produced for Mitchell & Son, the old Dublin wine merchants (you can find their shop on Kildare Street). It belongs to a class of whiskey that once typified the Irish style but is now sadly almost gone (the Redbreast mentioned above is also pure pot still style).
Irish for the Scotch drinker
Some people apparently like peat in their whiskey though I personally thought it was an advance when kilns left the turf fires behind. For those with a taste for the bog the choice is clear.
- Connemara 15 Year Old Single Malt (€100). I've only heard good things said about Connemara but, y'know, don't buy it for me.
Scotch for the Irish drinker
For the sake of balance, and in case you find yourself somewhere with a good range of Scotch but lacking in Irish, here's one suggestion.
- Auchentoshan Three Wood (€50). Distilled three times, matured in three different types of cask and no peat. I have to admit, I like this one. There are some great flavours including one very sweet note right at the back of the throat.
Whiskey for non-whiskey drinkers
Lots of people find neat whiskey off-putting so if you want to force the stuff down a few throats at Christmas you are going to have to disguise it somehow.
There is a fashion at the moment for "wood finishing". This means that the whiskey will be transferred towards the end of maturation to a barrel that previously contained some other spirit or fortified wine. Many regard this as a gimmick but it does produce remarkably flavourful results. So it might make for an easier entrée to the world of whiskey.
- Tyrconnell 10 Year Old Wood Finishes (€70-€75). You can choose from madeira, sherry and port finishes. It's a matter of taste but I preferred the port. According to the Celtic Whiskey Shop catalogue, Jim Murray nominated the madeira finish as his Whiskey of the Year. I suspect that was partly for technical achievement since a madeira finish is the hardest to do well.
- Bushmills do something kind of similar. Instead of finishing in a different barrel, however, the whiskey is aged from the beginning in a single rum, sherry or bourbon cask. Be aware though that these are cask strength bottlings, i.e. 53.7%-56.5%. Don't ask a whiskey novice to down that without a little water. I'd probably go for rum cask in this case since that's the least whiskey-like of the three agings.
Thursday 15 November 2007
Weekly Whiskey Miscellany
To 'E' or not to 'E'
I've been avoiding writing about the two common spellings of whiskey/whisky. The topic has already been flogged to death on the internet. But Kevin Erskine of The Scotch Blog (mandatory reading) can always inject a little entertainment into the most jaded of arguments.
If you want to follow the discussion, start here, then go here, here and finally here.
Of course I had to make this choice myself so I've gone with whiskey/whiskeys for Irish and whisky/whiskies for Scotch (and as appropriate for US, Canadian, Japanese, etc.). I'm sure I'll get it wrong on occasion though.
Jameson Rarest Vintage Reserve
The word on the street is that this new bottling from Irish Distillers will cost €400 a pop, rather than the €250 reported at the time of the launch. It is already appearing in Jameson advertising alongside 12yo "Special Reserve", "Gold Reserve" and 18yo "Limited Reserve".
See this earlier post for more on this whiskey.
I've been avoiding writing about the two common spellings of whiskey/whisky. The topic has already been flogged to death on the internet. But Kevin Erskine of The Scotch Blog (mandatory reading) can always inject a little entertainment into the most jaded of arguments.
If you want to follow the discussion, start here, then go here, here and finally here.
Of course I had to make this choice myself so I've gone with whiskey/whiskeys for Irish and whisky/whiskies for Scotch (and as appropriate for US, Canadian, Japanese, etc.). I'm sure I'll get it wrong on occasion though.
Jameson Rarest Vintage Reserve
The word on the street is that this new bottling from Irish Distillers will cost €400 a pop, rather than the €250 reported at the time of the launch. It is already appearing in Jameson advertising alongside 12yo "Special Reserve", "Gold Reserve" and 18yo "Limited Reserve".
See this earlier post for more on this whiskey.
Tuesday 13 November 2007
Tullamore Dew
It would make a good quiz question in Ireland: what is the most popular Irish whiskey, globally, after Jameson? Not many would guess the right answer: Tullamore Dew.
It's a very familiar brand in Ireland and there is an abiding cultural memory of the slogan that was once printed on every bottle and in advertising - Give Every Man His Dew.
But these days the whiskey is just not promoted in Ireland. Nor is it widely available in bars; I have looked for it for some months now, unsuccessfully. It's many years since I've tried it, and that was abroad.
So who is buying it? Well, Tullamore Dew is the number one Irish whiskey in Germany, Sweden, Denmark and the Czech Republic. It is the number one whiskey (Irish or Scotch) in Bulgaria and Latvia. C&C, the brand owners, are looking to the new whiskey markets of countries like Ukraine and Russia for continued growth. It's also widely stocked in Duty Free shops.
We've all seen the super cool Jameson ads which don't allude in any way to the product's Irish origins. Want to see how Tullamore Dew is promoted? Thanks to YouTube you can. The marketing manager of C&C conceded in a newspaper article recently that the imagery "might not be entirely applicable" in the Irish market. Hmm, I'm sensing thatched roofs and donkeys laden with turf.
Actually it's not that bad at all. The tag line is Rough Country, Smooth Whiskey.
The story of Tullamore Dew is a fascinating one and it really illustrates the forces that shaped the whiskey industry in Ireland. It goes back to the founding of a distillery in Tullamore, Co. Offaly, in 1829 but I'm going to jump over the first hundred years here and take up the story in the twentieth century.
Like other Irish distilleries, Tullamore suffered hugely from events in the first half of the 1900s: Prohibition in the US, a trade war with the UK after Irish independence, global recession in the 1930s and World War II.
Rather smartly, Tullamore sensed changing preferences in its export markets and introduced the first blended Irish whiskey in 1947. It was too late to save the distillery however and production ceased in the 1950s. They continued to sell the Tullamore Dew whiskey until stocks ran out. The valuable brand was sold to John Power and Son, one of the great Dublin distillers, in 1964.
Only a couple of years later, Powers merged with Jameson and Cork Distillers to form United Distillers of Ireland. This subsequently became Irish Distillers and moved all whiskey production to a new distillery in Midleton, Co. Cork, shutting down all of the original distilleries.
After acquiring full control of Bushmills, Co. Antrim, in 1978, Irish Distillers had a 100% monopoly on Irish whiskey production (this lasted until 1987 and the founding of the independent Cooley distillery)
Tullamore Dew was now one of several major brands made at the facility in Midleton.
In 1988, Allied Lyons and Grand Metropolitan, two British drinks companies, made a joint takeover bid for Irish Distillers. Irish Distillers rejected the bid and invited a counter-offer by French giant, Pernod-Ricard. A bitter battle ensued that went all the way to the Irish Supreme Court. In the end Pernod-Ricard triumphed.
Irish Distillers remains part of the Pernod-Ricard stable today. But Tullamore Dew is now owned by C&C. How did that happen?
Allied Lyons remained interested in the Irish whiskey market and, through its Irish subsidiary, soft drinks company C&C, looked into various options. They seriously considered starting a new distillery from scratch. They also considered buying Cooley. Ultimately, however, they were not willing to put the necessary time into maturing new stocks of whiskey or in building a strong brand from the ground up.
So, after a few years had elapsed and the heat of battle had died down, Allied Lyons approached Pernod-Ricard and proposed a straight swap. In December 1993, this was agreed. Allied Lyons gave Pernod-Ricard Royal Canadian Whiskey and a few million pounds. Pernod-Ricard gave C&C the Tullamore Dew brand and a long-term contract agreeing to continue its manufacture at the Irish Distillers plant in Midleton.
At the time, C&C planned to target the US, British and Irish markets. As mentioned above, however, this is not how it turned out. They also anticipated the introduction of single malt and "deluxe" whiskeys with the Tullamore label but that didn't happen either.
The business story doesn't end there. In 1999, C&C gained independence from Allied Domecq (as Allied Lyons became after a merger) in a management buyout, taking Tullamore Dew with it. In a nice twist, Pernod-Ricard subsequently acquired Allied Domecq in 2005, though of course they did not recover Tullamore Dew.
And that brings us to today. Via all of these machinations, one of the strongest Irish whiskey brands escaped from Irish Distillers' grasp and remains independent. And yet, confusingly, it is still made by Irish Distillers.
Although Tullamore Dew is a success story for C&C, they have been flogging off chunks of their business for some years now to focus their efforts on cider. This strategy was vindicated in 2006 when cider sales took off in the UK. A bad summer in 2007 and stiffer competition from Bulmers cider in Britain reversed some of those gains, however.
The Sunday Business Post speculated some time back that the UK Bulmers brand might come on the market as its owner, Scottish & Newcastle, fends off a takeover attempt. C&C would have to consider snapping it up, thus restoring its position in the UK cider market.
To do that, it would need funds. Could Tullamore Dew be in play once again?
Buying an established whiskey brand would be an excellent way to start a new distillery. Production could be gradually transferred to the new distillery and then the brand extended in order to introduce new, premium whiskeys. Cooley's great difficulty has always been establishing its own brands without the might of a multinational drinks company behind them. The buyer of Tullamore Dew would start from a very strong market position.
Tullamore Dew would be a great catch for Cooley itself. It would also be very fitting since Cooley bought some of the assets of the defunct Tullamore distillery and, indeed, has recently begun to distil whiskey in one of its old pot stills, now installed at Kilbeggan.
I doubt Cooley could afford Tullamore Dew, however. The most logical buyer would be Irish Distillers with its deep pockets and involvement in the manufacture of Tullamore Dew. We'll see.
It's a very familiar brand in Ireland and there is an abiding cultural memory of the slogan that was once printed on every bottle and in advertising - Give Every Man His Dew.
But these days the whiskey is just not promoted in Ireland. Nor is it widely available in bars; I have looked for it for some months now, unsuccessfully. It's many years since I've tried it, and that was abroad.
So who is buying it? Well, Tullamore Dew is the number one Irish whiskey in Germany, Sweden, Denmark and the Czech Republic. It is the number one whiskey (Irish or Scotch) in Bulgaria and Latvia. C&C, the brand owners, are looking to the new whiskey markets of countries like Ukraine and Russia for continued growth. It's also widely stocked in Duty Free shops.
We've all seen the super cool Jameson ads which don't allude in any way to the product's Irish origins. Want to see how Tullamore Dew is promoted? Thanks to YouTube you can. The marketing manager of C&C conceded in a newspaper article recently that the imagery "might not be entirely applicable" in the Irish market. Hmm, I'm sensing thatched roofs and donkeys laden with turf.
Actually it's not that bad at all. The tag line is Rough Country, Smooth Whiskey.
The story of Tullamore Dew is a fascinating one and it really illustrates the forces that shaped the whiskey industry in Ireland. It goes back to the founding of a distillery in Tullamore, Co. Offaly, in 1829 but I'm going to jump over the first hundred years here and take up the story in the twentieth century.
Like other Irish distilleries, Tullamore suffered hugely from events in the first half of the 1900s: Prohibition in the US, a trade war with the UK after Irish independence, global recession in the 1930s and World War II.
Rather smartly, Tullamore sensed changing preferences in its export markets and introduced the first blended Irish whiskey in 1947. It was too late to save the distillery however and production ceased in the 1950s. They continued to sell the Tullamore Dew whiskey until stocks ran out. The valuable brand was sold to John Power and Son, one of the great Dublin distillers, in 1964.
Only a couple of years later, Powers merged with Jameson and Cork Distillers to form United Distillers of Ireland. This subsequently became Irish Distillers and moved all whiskey production to a new distillery in Midleton, Co. Cork, shutting down all of the original distilleries.
After acquiring full control of Bushmills, Co. Antrim, in 1978, Irish Distillers had a 100% monopoly on Irish whiskey production (this lasted until 1987 and the founding of the independent Cooley distillery)
Tullamore Dew was now one of several major brands made at the facility in Midleton.
In 1988, Allied Lyons and Grand Metropolitan, two British drinks companies, made a joint takeover bid for Irish Distillers. Irish Distillers rejected the bid and invited a counter-offer by French giant, Pernod-Ricard. A bitter battle ensued that went all the way to the Irish Supreme Court. In the end Pernod-Ricard triumphed.
Irish Distillers remains part of the Pernod-Ricard stable today. But Tullamore Dew is now owned by C&C. How did that happen?
Allied Lyons remained interested in the Irish whiskey market and, through its Irish subsidiary, soft drinks company C&C, looked into various options. They seriously considered starting a new distillery from scratch. They also considered buying Cooley. Ultimately, however, they were not willing to put the necessary time into maturing new stocks of whiskey or in building a strong brand from the ground up.
So, after a few years had elapsed and the heat of battle had died down, Allied Lyons approached Pernod-Ricard and proposed a straight swap. In December 1993, this was agreed. Allied Lyons gave Pernod-Ricard Royal Canadian Whiskey and a few million pounds. Pernod-Ricard gave C&C the Tullamore Dew brand and a long-term contract agreeing to continue its manufacture at the Irish Distillers plant in Midleton.
At the time, C&C planned to target the US, British and Irish markets. As mentioned above, however, this is not how it turned out. They also anticipated the introduction of single malt and "deluxe" whiskeys with the Tullamore label but that didn't happen either.
The business story doesn't end there. In 1999, C&C gained independence from Allied Domecq (as Allied Lyons became after a merger) in a management buyout, taking Tullamore Dew with it. In a nice twist, Pernod-Ricard subsequently acquired Allied Domecq in 2005, though of course they did not recover Tullamore Dew.
And that brings us to today. Via all of these machinations, one of the strongest Irish whiskey brands escaped from Irish Distillers' grasp and remains independent. And yet, confusingly, it is still made by Irish Distillers.
Although Tullamore Dew is a success story for C&C, they have been flogging off chunks of their business for some years now to focus their efforts on cider. This strategy was vindicated in 2006 when cider sales took off in the UK. A bad summer in 2007 and stiffer competition from Bulmers cider in Britain reversed some of those gains, however.
The Sunday Business Post speculated some time back that the UK Bulmers brand might come on the market as its owner, Scottish & Newcastle, fends off a takeover attempt. C&C would have to consider snapping it up, thus restoring its position in the UK cider market.
To do that, it would need funds. Could Tullamore Dew be in play once again?
Buying an established whiskey brand would be an excellent way to start a new distillery. Production could be gradually transferred to the new distillery and then the brand extended in order to introduce new, premium whiskeys. Cooley's great difficulty has always been establishing its own brands without the might of a multinational drinks company behind them. The buyer of Tullamore Dew would start from a very strong market position.
Tullamore Dew would be a great catch for Cooley itself. It would also be very fitting since Cooley bought some of the assets of the defunct Tullamore distillery and, indeed, has recently begun to distil whiskey in one of its old pot stills, now installed at Kilbeggan.
I doubt Cooley could afford Tullamore Dew, however. The most logical buyer would be Irish Distillers with its deep pockets and involvement in the manufacture of Tullamore Dew. We'll see.
Monday 12 November 2007
Help a good cause, win a case of Irish whiskey
As if drinking Irish whiskey wasn't already a noble pastime, there is now a chance to place your taste for fine spirits in the service of a very deserving cause.
4Basra, a fund-raising venture that purchases medicines and medical supplies for a maternity and children's hospital in Basra, is offering a chance to win a case of Tyrconnell Single Malt with every donation.
The case (six bottles) was kindly donated by Dr John Teeling and Stephen Teeling, of Cooley Whiskey and David Horgan, of Petrel Resources.
To enter, go to the 4Basra site and click on the "Make A Donation" button. That will take you to PayPal where you can relieve your credit card of an amount at your own discretion. Your acknowledgement will confirm you have been entered for the draw.
Good luck!
4Basra, a fund-raising venture that purchases medicines and medical supplies for a maternity and children's hospital in Basra, is offering a chance to win a case of Tyrconnell Single Malt with every donation.
The case (six bottles) was kindly donated by Dr John Teeling and Stephen Teeling, of Cooley Whiskey and David Horgan, of Petrel Resources.
To enter, go to the 4Basra site and click on the "Make A Donation" button. That will take you to PayPal where you can relieve your credit card of an amount at your own discretion. Your acknowledgement will confirm you have been entered for the draw.
Good luck!
Wednesday 7 November 2007
Irish whiskey list preview
Here's a sneak preview of something I've been working on. It's an early draft of a list of Irish whiskeys. It's very far from complete so don't tell me what's missing yet.
What is interesting is that this is an interactive table. You can sort it any way you like by clicking on the column headings. One click will sort the table in ascending order, the next click will sort it in descending order.
So you will be able to explore the variety of Irish whiskey available in various ways. For example, you could gather together all of the pure pot still whiskeys or all of the whiskeys produced by a particular distillery.
I might add another column or two and I certainly need to add a lot more rows. I'll mention the table again when it's ready for an official launch and I'll also put a permanent link to it in the navigation menu.
What is interesting is that this is an interactive table. You can sort it any way you like by clicking on the column headings. One click will sort the table in ascending order, the next click will sort it in descending order.
So you will be able to explore the variety of Irish whiskey available in various ways. For example, you could gather together all of the pure pot still whiskeys or all of the whiskeys produced by a particular distillery.
I might add another column or two and I certainly need to add a lot more rows. I'll mention the table again when it's ready for an official launch and I'll also put a permanent link to it in the navigation menu.
Thursday 1 November 2007
Redbreast 15yr old again and a whiskey festival for Dublin?
I was recently lamenting the disappearance of Redbreast 15 year old from the whiskey shops but a comment to that post (source unknown, though I can make a good guess) reveals that another 400 bottles are due for imminent release. I'll have to get my name on a bottle or two of that.
I also wrote an observation on the conspicuous lack of whiskey festivals around these parts. That attracted a comment too, presumably from the same source, telling me that a festival is slated for Dublin in August 2008.
Thank you, mysterious commenter, for all the great news! OK, now I'm wishing for the Minister for Finance to remove excise duty from spirits in the forthcoming budget...
I also wrote an observation on the conspicuous lack of whiskey festivals around these parts. That attracted a comment too, presumably from the same source, telling me that a festival is slated for Dublin in August 2008.
Thank you, mysterious commenter, for all the great news! OK, now I'm wishing for the Minister for Finance to remove excise duty from spirits in the forthcoming budget...
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