every four months or so, the whiskey club meets and samples a variety of whiskey’s purchased by someone in the club who knows a lot more about whiskey than i do. this time around we were sampling irish whiskey which, as the name so aptly indicates, is distilled and aged in the island of ireland.

our collective taste buds agreed that the best to least best whiskeys were as follows:

Redbreast 12 Year Old, Single Pot Still Irish Whiskey
Knappogue Castle 16yo “Twin Wood”
Tullamore Dew 12 Year Old / Special Reserve
Bushmills 10 Year Old
Greenore 8 Year Old

i dropped the ball and didn’t take any tasting notes. i’ll have to fix that oversight the next time around. all were quite drinkable, but there is quite a difference between each brand in terms of smoothness, and flavors etc. perhaps the biggest surprise was the fact that the 16 year old knappogue didn’t win first place, but it came in a close second to the redbreast.

you’re not going to go wrong with any of them, but if you want a special treat, go with the redbreast 12 year old.