Ireland, by a mile. On Monday I proposed a whiskey apocalypse scenario in which you could only drink Irish or Canadian whiskey for the rest of your whiskey drinkin' days. I received answers on the blog and on Twitter, and Ireland was the clear winner with Canada receiving only a few measly votes (Note to Davin de Kergommeaux, you should have voted).
I used Canada and Ireland because, of the major whiskey producing nations, they are the underdogs. They both produce some good stuff but standouts are few and far between and few whiskey aficionados would put either nations' whiskeys at the top of their list. The oversized margin for Ireland may mean that they are closer to the hearts of whiskey lovers, but it may also reflect the fact that in the US, where most of my readership hails from, we don't get much in the way of good Canadian Whisky.
For my part, though, I cast my vote for Canada, and here's why.
Ireland's advantage is diversity. If you chose Ireland, you would have your pick of single malts (both peated and unpeated), blends, pure pot still and even single grain whiskey. What they have in variety, though, they lack in quality. Some of these whiskeys are good, but I'd say I have yet to be blown away by any Irish whiskey; Green Spot is probably my favorite. If I picked Ireland, I worry that I'd spend my days drinking Connemara and wishing it was Lagavulin.
Canada has less diversity. They have one single malt, which I really disliked, and a lot of blends, but recently, we have been seeing Canadian straight ryes that are quite good. Rye Whiskeys like WhistlePig and Masterson's are bold and flavorful, akin to American straight ryes. Now maybe this is cheating a bit because these are American style whiskeys bottled for American companies, but hey, it's my game and these are Canadian Whiskies so I say they count. I guess it comes down to the fact that I'd rather drink a small variety of very good whiskey than a wide variety of mediocre whiskey.
That was fun, I'll come up with some more reader polls for the future; maybe I'll even use the Blogger polling function to make it official. (Wales v. Sweden anyone?)
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9 comments:
Boy, I'd have to disagree. Right now I could probably go a lifetime drinking Redbreast CS. I've been seriously blown away by it. Opened a bottle to celebrate St. Patrick's day, and have had a little every night since.
That's the beauty of it, to each his or her own. I'll have a review of the Redbreast cask strength coming up soon.
Oh sku, have you tried Midleton Very Rare? It's an Irish to die for:
http://cooperedtot.blogspot.com/2012/03/king-of-irish-midleton-very-rare-2011.html
Hey Joshua, I've had the Midleton Rare, which didn't make that much of an impression on me, but not the very rare. Nice review by the way.
Why can't you just go with the flow, man? Embrace the inevitable...except for Lazer's winning the eventual apocalypse price wars!
Glad that's over.
I would say hell with it and make my own.
Give me the Irish...I can pollute it with my own 9% of whatever and call it Canadian!!
I agree about the Canadian ryes, though in my opinion they tend to be reviewed more highly than I'd give them myself. But until Canada has the stones to bottle them without the influence of more adventurous American distillers/bottlers, they ain't necessarily "Canadian" in the purest sense.
I just had the Redbreast cask strength at WhiskyFest Chicago on Friday, and it is all I could ever ask for in a whiskey. Will await your review.
The transatlantic throwdown was a hoot...thanks, Sku!
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