What whisk(e)y are we drinking? (Part 2)

Both very nice drops, I don't think you'd be disappointed with either (though I hate telling other people to spend money 🤣)

Both lovely whiskies. The Paddy's Share is definitely a step above the Jameson/paddy/powers/Bushmills tier. A good bit above. You can tell there's a lot more pot still in the mix and it's got a good mouthfeel. The Jameson Pot still is gorgeous. Creamy, kinda like vanilla fudge. Not overly sweet and a nice spiciness too!

At this time of year a bottle like the dundalgan wouldnt go to waste in my house. I presume its West cork distillers and ive never had a bad whiskey with their name on it. They aint premium but dont try to be either.

Like the Puca bottle last year (the stout & run one was tasty) if its drinkable on its own then drink it and if not then its ideal for hot whiskeys with some lemon, honey, brown sugar, clove or orange zest.

I dont think you can go wrong trying a bottle like that to be honest.

If the survival of a distillery depends on selling all of its inaugural release quickly, then it is probably doomed, anyway.

In terms of whiskey produced by a distillery, say, over a 5 year period, its limited inaugural release would be a tiny, tiny percentage of production. Perhaps it's not a great omen for the distillery if their inaugural release doesn't sell well, but, in reality, it probably doesn't really matter in the long run, provided they can produce product at a price that will sell.

I just think you are putting far too much emphasis on one limited release in a distillery's lifetime.

The Jameson edged it but they were both great. It's the whiskey vault on YouTube

Sound from the Burren lads tho they'll deliver for free if you buy that.

West Cork changed from Cooley sourced whiskey to their own distilled product and it’s all still a bit immature .Hopefully the good stuff will start appearing in coming years .But any of theirs I’ve tasted in last four or five years is not great apart from bog standard stuff.There was a time( the Dha Chasca Sherry casked heyday of €34 Cooley sourced ) I would have gone mad for the ‘idea’ of their five pack of ‘minis’ .But one of my first pandemic splurges was one of their Cask Strengths and a Sherry influenced and they were both VERY disappointing.

I think they do a Lidl /Aldi ale cask at not much over €25 and like the Jamesons Cask Mates it’s sweet and basic but drinkable

Paddy’s Share bears no relationship taste wise to Paddy and I heartily recommend it .High malt content , not as ‘hot’ as 47abv% suggests and nice Sherry(?) influence .I’d buy any bottle of it I could find under€35 but there are more rivals to consider if it gets dearer (eg a Tyrconnell at €35 might get the nod over it at €40 .That Tesco Finest Irish Malt seems to have been discontinued .It was nice too at €35 )

Just for fun I set myself a challenge once of trying to blind identify the four main Irish whiskies and came to the following conclusions .Feel free to disagree / add your thoughts/ mock etc

Bushmills ( white -why is the red label so forgotten ?! It sounds a bit ‘weird’ …why have they not killed it off ? Is it actually ok ?) Best of the four main Irish whiskies ? A bit ‘variable’ sometimes more or less Smokey ? More malt than the rest

Powers .The most ‘pot-stilly’ , peppery bite , grand drinker .If in the right mood even better than Bush

Paddy . The most ‘grainy’ , pepperminty , prob my least favourite

Jamesons .Bit of a ‘middle of the road ‘/Jack of All Trades , for those who aren’t ‘in the know’ /Rihanna fans ?!:-)

Theres an old RTÉ radio interview where a master distiller could identify mixes of the main four !

When did you last taste Paddy?

Fair enough. I just think that Paddy is often dissed by people who probably haven't tasted it since they were teenagers (if at all) and are just repeating the much held notion that Paddy is rubbish, perpetrated by the fact that for a couple of generations, Paddy was the cheapest whisky available in Ireland.

Obviously, you weren't doing that

Personally, I think it's fine, no better or worse than Jameson.

Honestly, it's much better than people think (unless you've tasted it properly and don't like it).

Paddy is a better with both red lemonade and in a hot whiskey than Jameson was a hill my grandfather was willing to die on, and we lived 7 minutes from the Jameson "distillery".

He was right too.

How many bottles do people have open at any one time? I have 6 opened.

But would open more but any harm having them open for a while? Will take me a while to empty them all.