Okay, okay. Let’s get some of the trivial matters out of the way. Whiskey is how Irish like it, whereas whisky is a Scottish spelling.
As a rule of thumb, whisky-producing countries that don’t have an ‘e’ in their names name their spirits without an ‘e’—Scotland, Japan, Taiwan (don’t tell that to Mainland), Australia, Canada, etc. On the other hand, countries that do have an ‘e’ in their names call it whiskey. As for the plural form, whiskey is whiskeys and whisky is whiskies.
Scotland may lay claim to being the largest exporter of water of life, and hey, even the driver of UK’s food and drinks export. Scotch brings in US$5.3 billion a year. So much so that one might think Scots discovered whisky, but oh no, Irish did and they have the written historical record to prove it.
To Jameson, ingredients are absolute key to making great whiskeys. Which is why the distillery sits on the banks of Dungourney river, whose water gives life to the whiskey, along with barley sourced from within 100 miles of Jameson’s distillery in Midleton and maize from a farmer in south of France.
Unlike Scotch, Jameson adheres to the Irish whiskey tradition. Scots set fire to the peat to dry the barley and hence the characteristic smokiness, but Jameson does not. Instead, it uses hot clean air in its malting process.
But that’s not all, it also uses a combination of malted and unmalted barley. So on the nose, Jameson emits a light floral fragrance, peppered with spicy wood and sweet notes.
Further setting itself apart, Jameson is triple distilled. During the distillation of the wash, the alcohol and flavourful congeners will vaporise and travel up to the wash still. The lighter alcohol eventually is collected in the condenser, while some heavier congeners fall back into the wash below. Repeat the process two more times, the concentration of the alcohol is higher and purer.
Coupled that with a maturation of a minimum of four years in seasoned sherry oak and bourbon oak casks, you get the silky smooth Jameson Original. One that strikes a perfect balance of spicy, nutty and vanilla notes with hints of sweet sherry and exceptional smoothness.