Sherry Casks Galore

Considering Cork is the city where Viagra is produced, it might not come as a big surprise that Jameson Whiskey is the other major export from this area. After a full day yesterday with Kevin O'Gorman at the distillery, I had a good chance to try some exceptionally good whiskies.

As with all big brands (ie Glenfiddich, GlenGrant), they are rarely what ticks the boxes for the extreme malt-talibans. Same with the regular Jameson I guess.
But, it takes no more than to go to the 12yo expression to realise that something intersting is going on. Then hit the Gold Reserve which is roughly 10yo but with added casks of virgin oak, and another dimension opens up.
If those two wouldn't convince you to give Jameson a chance, why not try the 18 yo or the exceptional JRVR. Truly fantastic whiskies there.

But nothing could beat the feeling of entering warehouse 26, and opening a sherry butt with Kevin and sampling the 1993-vintage malt on location. Magic, my friends. Pure magic.

And, interestingly, for a plant with the capacity and size of Midleton, I was pleasantly surprised to find that they do more or less everything on site.
No shipping off new-make to some anonymous warehouse, not to be seen again by the distillery's own force until it returns bottled 10 or so years later.
Rather a case of storing whiskey on site, with a small panel nosing and tasting to get all the right casks in place for special bottlings or older issues.

Now, that's the type of distillery I love (specially as the malt-taliban I would consider myself to be...)