“With Irish whiskey, you can drink it neat, on the rocks, with water, in ginger ale, as a shot it’s easy.” “There are so many rules about Scotch,” he said. whiskey, why that was, and he attributed the renaissance of Irish whiskey to its accessibility. brand ambassador for Ireland’s Tullamore D.E.W. While Scottish whisky still captures 60% of the market, sales of Irish whiskey are noticeably on the rise. Most of the remaining Irish distilleries soon closed or merged, and while the quality of Irish whiskey never diminished, its level of output never recovered.īut an interesting thing happened last year – in 2011, for the first time in decades, Irish whiskey outsold single malt Scotch in the United States. markets reopened in 1933, but by then the world was on the cusp of war, and the effects of World War II nearly destroyed the Irish whiskey industry entirely. And worse, bootleg knockoffs of Irish whiskey that proliferated in the States during that period tainted the spirit’s reputation. Emerging from that struggle, Irish distillers discovered they had lost their biggest customer, the United States, on account of Prohibition. First, Ireland’s War of Independence ravaged its export business during 1919–1921.

Quicker production meant a bigger market share for the Scots, and that was even before a series of calamities struck the Irish whiskey industry. The seeds of that disparity were planted in the late 19th century, when the Scottish embraced cheaper, more efficient methods for distilling whisky while the Irish insisted on a more traditional approach that took more time but yielded more flavor. Ninety million cases of Scottish whisky get shipped to all corners of the globe every year, while Ireland ships a relatively modest 5 million cases. If Ireland can claim victory in the argument over who invented whiskey, though, Scotland is the undisputed champion of modern-day distribution. As my bloodlines trace to both Ireland and Scotland, I don’t have too much of an opinion on the matter, but I admit more evidence points to the Emerald Isle. After a few sips, a warmth unique to whiskey slowly spreads, up from your belly, across your limbs, and down through your extremities.Ī fierce, centuries-long debate continues to rage between the Irish and the Scots as to who is responsible for first distilling this mysterious spirit. Its oaky, smoky essence permeates every corner of your mouth, and a small flame burns in the back of your throat when you finally swallow it. And you don’t just quaff it down you sit with it. Your lips tingle as you take the first sip. That potent liquid no longer gives you the shivers, but it’s a full-body experience just the same. And by the time someone pours you a rich, velvety, 21-year-old single malt whiskey, you’ve fallen deeply, hopelessly in love. Gradually, despite your earlier misgivings, you develop an appreciation. And your third.īut what begins as repulsion grows to a challenge – can you drink it without cringing? It then becomes a badge of honor when you can order a glass of whiskey on the rocks and down the whole thing by yourself. How does anyone drink this, I wondered.īecause yes, your first sip of whiskey burns. As I lifted the glass, I felt a strange presence tickling my nose hairs, and my upper lip twisted upward into an involuntary snarl.

I remember my first sip of whiskey, if you can even call it a sip I don’t honestly recall whether it made it past my lips.

The heavenly quality of even the oldest, smoothest single malt would be wasted on the palate of the uninitiated. At the same time, whiskey is very much an acquired taste. In that respect, it is an everyman’s drink. It is a status symbol at $70 a glass in an elegant lounge. It is a supporting player in a sugary cocktail. It is a dark brown liquid in a dusty bottle in a dirty saloon in the old West. Whiskey conjures sharply conflicting images. But by the time it’s poured into a glass, years or perhaps decades later, it may be the very pinnacle of complexity. When first poured into a wooden cask, its components are eminently simple – water and a mash of grains.

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