The Best Top-Shelf Irish Whiskeys You Should Know
For years, single malt scotch has been synonymous with luxury liquid. Scottish producers like The Macallan, Bowmore and Balvenie command thousands of dollars per bottle of exclusive expressions, and as a result, the top shelf of the bar has historically been reserved primarily for whisky from that part of the world. But it wasn’t always this way. “Until the 1920s, when you spoke of high-end whiskey you meant Irish whiskey,” Jay Bradley, founder of the Craft Irish Whiskey Company (the Irish, like Americans, spell the liquid with an ‘e’) told Observer. “We’re determined to restore that legacy.”
American consumers, for their part, seem committed to helping. The Irish whiskey category has been on fire in the United States as of late, and the lion’s share of that growth is driven by a desire to trade up from everyday bottles into the super-premium segment. Since 2003, the sale of Irish whiskey priced at over $30 per unit has climbed by a staggering 2,769 percent, according to the latest data from the Distilled Spirits Council, the leading industry trade group.
At its best, Irish whiskey can be more approachable and rounder than its Scottish counterparts. It can be more versatile, too: in addition to the single malts and blends inherent to both countries, the Irish also specialize in an earthier style of spirit known as Pot Still whiskey, which is unique to the Emerald Isle.
All this is to say, it’s time to reorganize that top shelf—that is, if you haven’t already. We’re here to help, with a list of five of the best high-end Irish whiskeys on the market today. Cheers to that. Or, as they say in Ireland: sláinte.