Jameson Distillery

When we were in Dublin two years ago, we went on the Guinness beer tour. My husband had previously done that tour and the Jameson Irish whiskey tour. Since I’d not done the Jameson tour and our visitors expressed an interest, off we went. I will say, it was far more interesting and personal than the Guinness tour, and I don’t like whiskey, at all.

The tour begins with a short film about the history of the Jameson company. What follows is a guided tour through the old distillery (operations have since moved to Cork). The first room shows the storage of barley. Apparently there was a problem with mice, but fortunately they had a cat, Smitty. Smitty caught approximately 20 mice a day and when he died, the workers had him stuffed. Introducing Smitty.

The following steps include malting, mashing, fermentation, distillation, maturation, and a few others I’m certainly forgetting. Interesting to note, Irish whiskey is distilled three times as opposed to once as is done in Scotland and the U.S.

I don't remember how old this millstone is, but rubbing it is suppose to bring ten years of good luck.







Whiskey at different stages in the aging process. It's difficult to see from the pictures, but the change in colour and amount of evaporation is impressive.

Toward the end of the tour, another short film is shown which gives examples on how whiskey is consumed throughout the world.
Examples:
Ireland- mixed with cranberry juice, Paris- straight, Moscow- mixed with apple juice, New York- mixed with coke

The tour wraps up as you are led into a bar in which you have the option of cranberry juice with whiskey, straight whiskey, or whiskey with coke. I chose cranberry juice with whiskey.

The gift shop at Jameson is spacious with a lot of inventory, including the availability of a whiskey which has been aged for 12 years and only available for purchase at Jameson. One of our visitors bought a bottle and for an extra 10 euro, you can have your name printed on the label. I suppose 55 euro is a good deal for a bottle of whiskey compared to this one..

Yes, 50,000 euro for a bottle of whiskey.

If you happen to be in Dublin and looking for a fun way to spend a few hours, I highly recommend the Jameson Distillery, even if you aren’t a whiskey fan.