Triple-Distilled Irish Whiskey at the Jameson Experience, Midleton, Ireland

Traveling is the greatest opportunity to learn. My favorite quote on travel is by Saint Augustine, who said, “The world is a book, and those who do not travel read only one page.” Here’s what we learned when we traveled to southern Ireland: Irish Whiskey is distilled three times; Scotch Whiskey is distilled twice; American Whiskey is distilled only once. I feel much, much smarter.

My love of Jameson Whiskey started the day Lori and I were married. The story goes like this: young bridegroom nervously awaits his appointed time in the church rectory. The pastor–an Irish priest, mind you–comes home from a walk. “You must be the groom,” he observes. Young Chuck nods. “Ah, you look like you could use a little whiskey to calm the nerves.” It was a glass of Jameson with a splash of Coke. Lori could smell it on my breath when she met me at the top of the aisle. It must have done us good: we’ll soon be celebrating our 29th anniversary. If (as the slogan goes) Guinness for Strength, then perhaps Jameson for Love.

The Jameson Experience, Midleton Ireland

Wall of Jameson Memorabilia

Many people online poo-poo the Jameson distillery tour as not actually a tour of the distillery. But of course, many people are idiots. The “Jameson Experience” is an excellent tour of the old Jameson distillery, which is in the shadow of the new distillery, currently cranking out the world’s supply of this (triple-distilled!) Irish elixir. Having been on this tour–led by an incredibly bubbly young Irish lass named Collette–I can imagine that it is a world more interesting to see the old way of doing things with wood and stone and steam engines and copper stills than the new way with stainless steel and electricity. I’d still like to see a working distillery, but the Jameson Experience is well worth the price of admission.

Which, by the way, includes samples. And for a lucky few volunteers a comparison taste-test between the three principle varieties we learned all about (Irish versus Scotch versus American). Unfortunately this intrepid travel blogger was also the designated driver, so my taste-testing was limited to the single, small (but very tasty) sample. But here’s the adjectives I picked up from the small group of lucky few (who, by some odd, Chuck-excluding coincidence included all 3 of the rest of our party, i.e. Lori, Susan, and Randy):

Irish (Jameson): mellow, smooth.
Scotch (can’t remember which one): earthy, harsh.
American (Jack Daniels): sweet, rich.

I am, of course, only listing the adjectives unique to each variety. In common to all three were, “Ackk”, and “Burns!!”, and “Holy crap, batman”. I guess some whiskey drinkers just aren’t as refined as others.