It’s been too long since I have spent a meaningful amount of time poking around the Irish whiskey scene. Last I looked, it wasn’t just all about Midleton, Bushmills and Cooley. Small outfits were popping up much like the American craft boom, although not quite at our pace. The most prominent of these new distilleries includes the Teeling Whiskey Company’s new joint in Dublin, and we are certainly excited for what’s in store for the Emerald Isle in the coming years. Jason Delby, while writing about Jameson Gold on his blog, noted that Irish whiskey “makes no demands of you.” This means that while the challenging, face bludgeoning flavors of Islay or the oak explosions of bourbon take a large market share of your senses, yet Irish whiskey for the most part imparts an agreeable elegance. And because this lyrical waxing is puzzling even to me, I will move on to a more grounded level of Jameson Gold’s make up.

Jameson Gold Reserve is a triple distilled blend of pot still and grain whiskies, three of them, actually, distilled at New Midleton Distillery. One of these whiskies is aged in ex-bourbon, the other in oloroso sherry butts, but the third is aged (or more realistically “finished”) in virgin oak. Virgin oak maturation is not common in Irish whisky or its close, personal cousin Scotch whisky, so I don’t really have a comparison in mind. And because we don’t know how much virgin oak is used in this blend, there is no real way to judge the success of this makeup. Probably for the best. Just taste it. This no age stated blend is priced over $70.00 and is bottled at 40% ABV. On to it…

SWC Review

Nose- Canned peach syrup. Honey. Roasted almonds and black tea. With time vanilla gets big with toffee. Dessert dram.

Taste- Toasted cereal, lightly charred oak. Peachy.

Finish- Medium. Warm and pleasant peach pie and toasted crust. Weird salty brine. Lingering.

Comment- Nothing terribly exciting. A simple collection of sweet flavors that is certainly drinkable, but might be our least favorite non-standard Jameson. Not worth the price.

SWC Rating- 77/100

Agree? Disagree? Let us know in the comments section below.

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