Irish Whiskey: The Definitive Beginner Buying Guide

Hello everybody and welcome to the Whiskey Dictionary, where I do the research to try to teach you a little something about what you're drinking. So, in celebration of this whole month being about Irish whiskey, this seemed like a perfect video to make. Something to really get you into Irish whiskey, if maybe it's something you've just avoided. So what I want to do here is talk about some fairly inexpensive, although ultimately we get up to about $40, I want to talk about where you should begin if you have never tried Irish whiskey or if you've only tried a couple, like say Jameson for example. So if you're looking for something to buy for a party, for St. Patrick's Day, or just looking to expound upon your own knowledge, then by all means stay tuned and let's check out all of these whiskeys together. So, the first place I want to start is with Jameson Irish whiskey. Now this should be a fairly obvious choice. You see this everywhere in every bar. You'll see it all over the place and bringing it will never be a bad choice. Worst case, you can always make a Boilermaker with it or, you know, you can sip it on the rocks, you can mix it, you can do anything with this stuff. But, personally, I actually like this stuff neat. I think it tastes pretty good. So, next I want to move on to Tullamore Dew. Now Tullamore Dew is light and sweet and in general it's kind of filled with a little citrus. Now, your guests or yourself might enjoy this one on the rocks if it's a little bit more than what they're used to. So, still totally very approachable for a beginner. Next, I want to go to Powers Irish Whiskey. Now, this one is a little bit different. It's going to be a little bit rougher than a Jameson Irish whiskey for a few different reasons. But, in general, although it's rougher, it's more complex. So it's a good stepping stone after you've moved away from Jameson. Next, and this one I just have to laugh at a little bit. So, this one is Sexton. And the reason I picked this one is because the bottle looks cool. Now, obviously, the whiskey itself tastes good. Otherwise, I wouldn't recommend it. But, if you show up somewhere with this bottle, it's going to attract some attention. It's a cool looking bottle. So, that being said, you know, art of bottles and art of what's in the barrel are both really cool parts of whiskey. So, don't, you know, put it off just because it looks cool. Anyway, let's move on to the next one. This one is Bushmills Black Bush. Now, the reason I picked this one is twofold. Number one, Bushmills makes some good stuff. But they have a lot of different selections. So, the reason I picked the black one is because it also introduces the complexity that comes with sherry casts. So, this will potentially be something new for you. And I think it's a good thing to try. So, moving along, we're going to move to Teeling Whiskey Small Batch. This is picked. I picked this one because it spends some time in rum casks. And because of that, it might be something that you're more familiar with. A lot of people come from a lot of different areas when they're getting into whiskey. They might come from vodka or gin or rum or anything. A lot of times beer, too. In this case, if you've had rum and you go to a whiskey that has some rum notes to it, it might be a little bit more familiar to you. So, you'll have to decide personally if this is something that you think that you should go for. Next, I want to bring up Jameson one more time because it's Jameson. And go with the Jameson Black Bottle. Now, this is one that I personally really enjoyed. And I was surprised at how good it was. I actually had this pretty early on in my whiskey journey. So, it's got a little bit of a special place to me. But that was exactly the scenario that you're trying to replicate here. So, I think this is a great place to go. So, Jameson's Black Barrel. Next is, I think I'm going to say this right, Klontarf. Now, I actually did look up the pronunciation. So, I think it's okay. So, Klontarf 1014. Now, this bottle is one of the cool ones. I love any bottle that has a cool story to it. So, it might be worth your time to look this up, especially if you're going to bring it to a party because then you can talk about it. But, in general, this is named after a battle of Irish versus Vikings. Where the Irish actually won. And 1014 is the year that it happened. So, other than the fact that this whiskey itself tastes a little fruity. So, it's easily approachable. A whiskey with a good story is always a good choice. All right. Next, there's two more on this list. The next one is Greenspot. And this is where we start kind of getting a little bit away from beginner whiskeys. But a beginner can still totally appreciate a good whiskey. So, Greenspot has a lot of little notes to it. And it's complex. So, you can pick out a lot of little things. You've got peppermint. It's sweet. It's creamy. It's just delicious. And in fairness, if you were to bring a bottle of Greenspot and just introduce a newbie to it, I think that they would probably still like it. Lastly, let's talk about Redbreast 12 specifically. So, Redbreast as a brand has several different offerings. The 12 is the intro to that. It's got a lot of fruity notes. So, once again, it's very approachable. You'll notice a theme here. In general, fruit is a good way to go if you're trying to introduce somebody because it's going to be sweet, which everybody, most people love. And fruit is something that they know the flavor of. So, they're going to be excited that they can pick out all of these flavors. Or you. I keep saying they. I'm thinking that you're bringing this to a party or something. But in general, this could totally be for you as well. And in fact, I hope it is. So, anyway, Redbreast has some notes of different fruits, including melon, which is one that doesn't show up a whole lot. It does get a little bit pricey. Once again, it's a little bit above $40 or right about $40. So, keep that in mind when you're buying this. Now, in the past, doing all of these little intro lists, I've gotten a lot of comments about the prices not being what people see in their area. Duh. So, I tried to at least be consistent and I grabbed all the prices from Total Wine. So, you may actually be able to get a lot of these for cheaper if you're going to a local store. But some of these might not even be available in your area. So, when you're looking for these, keep that in mind. Outside of that, I hope this list is very helpful for you. And what I would love to see in the comments is tell me where you started with Irish whiskey. Tell me if I missed anything obvious. In general, I think I nailed them all. But if you started somewhere and you really think something's a good suggestion, put it in the comments and it'll naturally rise to the top. I'll keep a thing in the description as well of more commonly suggested bottles. So, I hope this has been helpful to you and I hope you have a great rest of your Irish month. Have a great rest of your day. If you want to help support the channel so I can review all the whiskey you love, check out my Patreon. It's easy to sign up, easy to contribute, and rewards start as low as a dollar a month. You can get t-shirts, custom Glencairn glasses, or even come on a live stream. Follow the link in the description to get started.