Good Irish whiskeys

Hopefully easy to get, and not too pricey in your area: * Bushmills Black Bush (Oloroso Sherry casks) * Powers Gold Label (70% pot still / 30% grain) * Jameson Select Reserve * Red Breast 12 yr (but, this might be pushing the boundary on budget) * Teeling Small Batch Single Grain (finished in rum casks, not the best item on the list, but certainly unique for the line up)

Let us know which expressions you get for the tasting, and how it goes!

^^ ouch defeated by bad formatting...now clearer:

• Bushmills Black Bush (Oloroso Sherry casks)

• Powers Gold Label (70% pot still / 30% grain)

• Jameson Select Reserve

• Red Breast 12 yr (pot still / but, this might be pushing the boundary on budget)

• Teeling Small Batch Single Grain (finished in rum casks, not the best item on the list, but certainly unique for the line up)

I have very limited experience with Irish whiskey, but my memories of Writer's Tears is quite positive.

My recommendations are on my Irish Whiskey Desert Island List. From that list, Jameson Rarest Vintage Reserve is expensive. Bushmills 21 Madeira might be expensive too, depending on where you buy it. I would also add to that list two new recent Irish favourites: Teeling Single Grain (Cabernet Sauvignon finish) and Tullamore D.E.W. Phoenix. That Teeling Single Grain has a most excellent wine finish. The Tullamore DEW Phoenix is a very hearty and enjoyable 55% ABV Irish Blended Whiskey. Finding a 55% ABV Irish Blended Whiskey is NOT an easy thing to do.

Knappogue Castle! A non-colored, age-stated, independent bottling of Bushmills single malt. In the US at least, it's a budger blazer at $30.

You're in Finland? Do they stock Locke's 8 YO there? Jameson Crested Ten? I've only seen those in Ireland itself, but they're good.

And I second Nozinan's suggestion of Writers Tears, though they really should invest in an apostrophe.

@OlJas

Thanks for the correction.

@Rantavahti - if you're in the EU you might be able to get some cask strength Writers Tears from Finedrams.com (I think that's their address).

I'm not advertising, I just know I was able to find some there.

@Rantavahti The cheapest in my area, but still quite good is the Kilbeggan blend. From the same distillery, You have the Connemara Peated that presents a very different peated experience. They could be of interest.

I'm a peak freak and I'll say that Connemara is just OK. The NAS, especially is "just OK" at the best. If you haven't had a lot of peated whiskies, it'll do very well for you.

The Cask Strength is better and worth a look for peatophiles, but still it's a "just OK" version of a CS peat bomb.

My two (American) cents.

Rantavahti: nice idea. My initial list was similar to Frost's . If a possible theme is showcasing the variety in irish whiskey profiles, and assuming your level of "what is not too pricey" is higher than mine, might I suggest:

Bushmills 16yo Single Malt Redbreast 12yo Pure Pot Stilled Writers Tears blend, 70% pot still / 30% malt Irishman 70/Original Clan blend @ 70% malt / 30% pot still Connemara 12yo or NAS (peated) Powers Johns Lane or Tullamore Dew Phoenix for higher strength Jameson Select Reserve Black Barrel or Tyrconnell Madeira or Port Cask Finish for the finish Killbeggans, Pappys, or Powers Gold Label for general sipping blend.

If budget allows, Redbreast 15yo is a very good proxy for it's more expensive brethren, Redbreast 21yo. And it provides a much different flavor profile than it's younger sibling, Redbreast 12yo.

I was also defeated by bad formatting...trying again . . .: •Bushmills 16yo Single Malt •Redbreast 12yo Pure Pot Stilled •Writers Tears blend, 70% pot still / 30% malt • Irishman 70/Original Clan blend @ 70% malt / 30% pot still •Connemara 12yo or NAS (peated) •Powers Johns Lane or Tullamore Dew Phoenix for higher strength •Jameson Select Reserve Black Barrel, Bushmills Black Bush, or Tyrconnell Madeira or Port Cask Finish •Killbeggans, Pappys, or Powers Gold Label for general sipping blend •Teeling Small Batch Single Grain

Hopefully formatting took. If not, I give up.

@cherylnifer , you have to put blank lines between list items, or between paragraphs for that matter.

@cherylnifer, aka doublespace.

Thank you all for the input so far. There's lots of interesting drams listed here. Tullamore Dew Phoenix sounds like a perfect "dark horse" for a blind tasting (a positive upset like Black Bush or Irishman 70). Powers Gold Label might also be a positive upset...

We're in Finland but due to our alcohol taxing, not gonna buy the whisky locally. Usually we order from whiskysite.nl, I noticed that they do have Knappogue Castle and Locke 8yo for example. To name few of the whiskeys, that caught my interest in this thread. I should've posted this in the first place, but here are all the Irish whiskeys, I've tasted so far (probably going to leave all of them out): www.whiskyrant.com/category/irish/

And Writers Tears of course has caught my attention too, another possible "dark horse" candidate...

@OlJas I agree with you, Connemara is an ok dram for a peathead. I was simply saying that, as an Irish whiskey, it presents something different. It is yet as today the only whiskey that combine some yellow dried fruits with a light peat, that on a field of cereal.. Very different from Jameson or Bushmills for sure!

@Rantavahti, Be sure to feature more than one style of Irish Whiskey. Pot Still, Single Malt, Single Grain and Blended styles of Irish Whiskey....and possibly a peated version.

A comparison of Redbreast 12YO and Redbreast Cask Strength should make for interesting conversation of Pot Stiil whiskey. Powers John's Lane is a fine candidate also.

Bushmills 21 YO is a brilliant example of the Single Malt style with a wine finish. This is by far my favourite Irish and was my gateway single malt.

Middleton Very Rare and Writers Tears are solid examples of the blended style. My favourite is a stellar batch of Jamesons Gold; sadly I have not been able to find another that reaches the same heights. Any of the newer or exotic blends mentioned by @Victor would serve you well.

Single Grain: Teelings or Greenore, the older the better.

These are but a few.

There are many excellent recommendations put forth by Connosr members. You should have a wonderful session.

I can't wait to hear about it.

@Robert99 , yeah, Connemara's fine. The NAS used to be a great budget peater, but it's now up in price to the neighborhood of the usual suspects from Islay. Boo.

What Irish whiskey really needs is peated whiskey made with Irish peat. (Connemara is made with malt from Port Ellen Maltings, if I remember my Turf Mor history correctly.) Maybe one of the many new Irish distilleries will deliver on that.

Thanks again for all the contribution. We decided to proceed with a concept of 2 whiskies from 3 different ditilleries. Single malts and single pot stills are present but all the blends we left for another day (Writers Tears for example, sounds like a dram I want to try some day).

Connemara Peated Single Malt Connemara 12yo Bushmills 10yo Bushmills 21yo Green Spot Redbreast 15yo

It's nice that Bushmills 10yo has a reasonable price tag, so we were able to take few drams from the pricey category as well. Connemara Peated wasn't spoilt with price either at Whiskysite.

The Irish whiskey tasting was held last weekend. Results are here, I must say, the winner got a stunning overall score from 8 "judges" on.fb.me/1MEsnce

@Rantavahti, I'm not at all surprised by which whiskey received the high score at your tasting. I'm guessing Redbreast 15 YO might have been favoured by one or two of the six participants over Bushmills 21YO. Both are stunning examples of excellent Irish Whiskey.

Thank you for sharing and I look forward to reading more of your posts as they are always entertaining and educational....do you have a 'film title' for this session? lol ..really, do you?

Thanks @paddockjudge, you are absolutely right. Two guys were in favor of Redbreast 15, which is also stunning. But my oh my was 21yo good, amazing dram (as the amazing overall score indicates)! Can't wait to make my review about it. I gave 95 pts for it and 90 for Redbreast, and no whiskey received under 80 points from me, so Irish did have a strong presence in my book. I'm actually starting to fall in love for Bushmills, offering great variety and quality.

For the session? It would have to be a film full of raunchy jokes and dumb irony :) I actually found a reference for Bushmills 10yo already: whiskyrant.com/bushmills-10-year-old-review…

@Rantavahti, Bushmills 21 is no surprise choice for me. That one I posted as # 1 on my Irish Whiskey Desert Island List from Day 1, and @paddockjudge quickly concurred.

Try this one from Bushmills: Clontarf Single Malt. Absolutely the simplest single malt I have ever encountered. But good. Not too easy to find, though.

And don't forget Connemara Cask Strength. Righteous. So righteous that when my wife smells and tastes it she pictures herself in church surrounded by billows of Frankincense.

as @Victor stated; the Clontarf Single Malt is worth a try. Quite light and easy to drink. Also quite enjoyable..