Some time ago I started a thread on Irish single malts and mentioned an article I had read in Single Malt Magazine listing the 10 best Irish single malts. As luck would have it, someone asked the names of the "ten best" and I couldn't find the article or the link on the website. Well, better late than never, I found the xerox of the article I had carefully saved 6 years ago. Who says the luck of the Irish is all a myth. Unfortunately, I do not have the name of the author of the article, but here are the top 10 in alpha order: 1. Bushmills 16 yr. "Three Wood"single malt 2. Bushmills 12 yr. Distillery Reserve 3. Bushmills 12 yr. "1608" 4. Green Spot 5. Jameson Gold 6. Jameson 15 yr. Pure Pot Still Millennium 7. Knappogue Castle 1951 8. Middleton Very Rare 9. Powers 10. Redbreast In my goal of tasting all 10 during a week in the Emerald Isle, I managed 2,5,8,9,10. A friendly publican (after asking me how I had heard of some of these) told me he doubted I would be able to find them all, as some are rather rare.
Redbreast is not sold in the US (at least it was not in 2001) so the article recommends that you pick this one up at a duty free shop at an Irish airport.
I did as the article suggested, and, as I mentioned in my original post on Irish single malts, I discovered a new appreciation of whiskey spelled with an "e"!
Posts: 698 | Location: Connecticut | Registered: September 06, 2002
Good list. Some are very rare. I have never seen Green Spot in a pub here. Some higher end hotels/restaurants might have it. Here's quite a good list of Irish whiskeys, blends and single malts available now.
In the last few years there are a lot more distilleries making single malts here. A lot using bourbon or sherry casks for flavour. I'm a Powers Gold Label/Special reserve man myself. I can't remember ever seeing a Power's single malt. Happy Patricks day. Weather's crap here, they just cancelled the fireworks for tonight, so pub for me later, maybe a Partagas D4.
"If it was raining soup, the Irish would go out with forks." Brendan Behan
Posts: 1166 | Location: Dublin | Registered: November 29, 2006
I've tried a couple of those and personally I don't like the ones aged in sherry casks. I drink Bushmill's on a fairly regular basis as it is my favorite. They must have started selling Redbreast in the U.S. recently as I buy a bottle on occasion to change things up.
