[Leica] OT: Thoughts on Irish whiskeys

[marcsmall at comcast.net (Marc James Small)]

At 04:37 PM 3/24/2007, Adam Bridge wrote:
 >My son does love a good glass of Irish whiskey and I want to buy a
 >good bottle (here in California) to celebrate his return to
 >silly-vilian life.
 >
 >I don't drink it very much, mostly because I never think to try it,
 >and I'm looking for recommendations for while I offer him. I was
 >thinking I'd get him two or three bottles of rather different whiskeys
 >so he can make up his mind about what he might enjoy. I think the
 >Jameson Midleton is a bit beyond what I wanted to spend - by a factor
 >of three or so.

I'm of Highland descent, so I do not waste money unnecessarily.

Michael Collins was a military genius:  he won 
the Irish Civil War through a unique guerrilla 
war-- he only blew up his enemies and went out of 
his way to avoid the sort of broad-based 
slaughter which has marked the IRA since its 
illegitimate offspring went Marxist in 1933 or 
the sort of thing we have observed with pain 
since then by Communist and Fascist and Radical 
and Islamic terrorists.  The "Big Fellow" never 
arranged a killing which threatened non-involved 
civilians:  his targets were British intelligence 
groups such as the Cairo Gang and the like.  It 
was a surgical operation run by an accountant and 
run with a great deal of professional ability.

Photographers on the List might note that his 
death-site at Beul na mBlath is REALLY hard to 
find as Collins' adherents run the Irish Post 
Office but Dev's followers publish the maps.  I 
found it, back in 2001, and it is a most 
unphotogenic site though worth recording just as a matter of record.

In any event, Collins was a drinker by choice and 
generally ran heavy drinkers out of the IRB and 
the IRA.  His own drink of choice was just 
Jameson's.  That and no more, though he once 
hosted the head of the Dublin Special Branch of 
the RIC to a Guinness in a pub, several weeks 
after the Big Fellow had been escorted into 
Dublin Castle to remove all of his personal data 
from their files, including pictures.

Irish Whiskeys and Scottish Whiskies are totally 
different animals and both insist on an approach 
with care attitude.  Scotch has a peaty flavor 
absent from most Irish distillates due to a 
different method of production and for historical 
reasons which are rather far from our current topic, though fascinating.

I was REALLY into single-malts three decades ago 
but the SNOB appeal has driven them to 
unreasonable levels:  this is rather like Johnny 
Walker Black -- it tastes the same as Johnny 
Walker Red but it costs 30% more, so why pay for 
it unless you are trying to impress someone, and 
I'm not out to impress anyone.  Lagavulin is a 
rare breed but it costs more here, even at the 
local Class VI store at Fort Lee, more for a 
fifth than does a half-gallon of Johnny Walker Red.

An acquaintance of mine as a lad in Boston had a 
duty every Friday night to set up a card game for 
his grandfather, a refugee to the US from the 
Irish "Time of Troubles".  One Friday, he showed 
up to set up the game, complete with the 
half-gallon of Jameson's, and his grandfather 
looked at him with joy and glee and said, "throw 
the cap away, lad:  we'll not be needing it this 
night as the Old Bastard is dead!" Eamon de 
Valera, aka "Dev", the man responsible for the 
death of Collins, had died in 1973, groaning to 
his death that he would be blamed for the death 
of Collins while still cheaply denying Collins a 
proper acknowledgement:  he truly was the Old 
Bastard.  He did visit the German Embassy in 
Dublin on 2 MAY 1945 to state the grief of the 
Irish state for the death of the head of the 
German State, Adolph Hitler. Dev is, 
unfortunately, probably best remembered for that.

"Throw the cap away, lad", and that is a great epitaph to Collins.

Buy a half-gallon of Jameson's and explain the 
historical significance.  Avoid these SNOB brands 
or, if you want, invest a thousand dollars (aka, 
EUR 375 or ?1.75) in a taste-test and see if they 
can see a difference.  The Irish and the Bourbon 
distillers have invented some sort of equivalence of "single-malts".

It is bunk and it is a matter of snobbery.  Avoid 
this. Stick to basic Jameson's and basic Johnny 
Walker Red and force the distillers to quit this 
bunkum.  You lads can CLAIM to taste a difference 
but, in the end, you can only spot the difference 
between an Irish and a Scotch and a Canadian and a Bourbon distillate.

I also used to be into French Reds until the SNOB 
factor ruined that one, as well.  Understand that 
SNOB stands for "sine nobilitate", "without 
nobility", and indicated the urgencies of the 
lower middle-class folks coming into Oxford and 
Cambridge and Durham in the High Middle Ages to 
outdo those of an aristocratic background by 
out-snobbing those already there.  Guys, back 
off.  Drink basic Scotch and Irish drinks.  Avoid 
what others tell you are "great" drinks.  Do your 
own taste-test.  There is no question that some 
single-malts are really distinct, and Ted and I 
agree on Lagavulin for that!, but  for the 
average drink for the evening, I'd go for a 
half-gallon of Jameson's in the memory of the man 
who made modern Ireland, Michael Collins.

Marc


msmall@aya.yale.edu
Cha robh b?s fir gun ghr?s fir!