Midleton: A Five-Star Visit, Part 1
For most people, Jameson defines Irish whiskey. It is an Irish brand as global and iconic as Guinness with 30 million bottles sold worldwide annually. As ubiquitous as it is, few people know much about the organization and operation responsible for Jameson, Red Breast, Powers, Paddy and Midleton Irish whiskeys. It also produces whiskeys for other brand owners such as Tullamore Dew and Green Spot, plus dozens of other brands of spirits.
Representatives from the Irish Whiskey Society, whisky writer and author Ian Buxton, Ian's wife Lindsay, and I recently toured Irish Distiller's Ltd. (IDL) Midleton Distillery in Co. Cork from where the world's supply of Jameson comes. It is difficult in words or in pictures to convey the impressive scale of the operation, from the four 60,00-litre capacity pot stills and multiple column stills, to the stories-high brewhouse, the rows of four-story high fermenting tanks and the three-dozen warehouses each containing about 33,000 casks of aging spirits and whiskey. As impressive as the plant are the IDL team who hosted us. Their affable expertise, drive for quality, professionalism and the simple passion for whiskey making and enjoyment stand out.
In With The (Very) Old. And The New.
The visit resulted from the testing of a 100+-year-old bottle of Jameson which my friend and Irish Whiskey Society colleague Leo Phelan acquired two years ago. And while the plant tour itself was amazing, perhaps even more memorable was the opening of that bottle of Jameson "Five Star" in the Master's Cottage at the distillery itself. More about that in Part 2.
Research indicates this Jameson "Five Star" was imported to America before Prohibition (1919). While the label resembles the U.S. label common into the 1960s, the five star designation is very unusual; most were three.
Whiskey aficionados would be impressed with the sheer scale of the distillery, even those who might casually dismiss the standard Jameson as a nice but common dram. Those same drinkers also bemoan what they perceive as a lack of new whiskeys from IDL. But it becomes clear when you tour the plant and talk to the IDL team that the increasing worldwide sales of Jameson are not only acting as a rising tide of success and awareness that's lifting the entire Irish whiskey category, it's driving IDL's development of new whiskeys. The new Red Breast-15-year-old and Powers 12-year-old are recent examples. And there any many more which seem to be in the works.
The Old And The New
Anybody who has visited the "Jameson Experience" and the Old Midleton Distillery may have seen the new Midleton Distillery just beyond the treeline with only the tops of industrial-looking buildings visible. A short walk or drive leads to the gates to the new distillery which, as a working spirits plant, is closed to the general public. The old plant is charming and includes touches such as the barley heads embossed on the sides of the mill wheel that recalls an era when aesthetics and utility weren't such strangers.
Bunches of barley heads along the mill wheel at the Old Midleton Distillery
You might expect something "modern" at the gates to the new, industrial-looking distillery -- plain and sturdy wrought iron or steel gates maybe. But this is an industry mindful of its heritage and you could see echoes of the older designs as you passed literally from past to present.
The vehicle and pedestrian gates into the new distillery represent stalks of two-row barley and the distilling process
The distillery buildings are the plain and functional structures you'd expect, but they hint of the scale of the operation that produces for a global market.
This stitched-together mosaic gives you an idea of the size of the brewhouse where the malted and unmalted barley are ground and mashed, then turned into the wort which is piped into the fermenting tanks to become "wash," essentially a strong beer to be piped over to stillhouse.
The 24 fermenting tanks, each about 35 feet/10 metres tall, are where the liquid wort from the porridge-like barley mash is fermented prior to distillation.
You can study the pictures -- stair rails. cars and the like -- to gauge the size of the structures. But no matter how much you can glean by looking, the pleasantly pervasive odor of a distillery is what captures you in person. Outside of these buildings you catch the unmistakable sweet smell of hot water and barley. But when you step next into the stillhouse, the heady aroma of alcohol dominates your senses.
Precautions are needed heading into the stillhouse, including the shutting down of all electronics to reduce the risk of electrical discharge in air rife with nearly pure alcohol. The only pictures I could take were from within the pressurized control room.
This mosaic shows most of the four 60,000-litre capacity copper pot stills. The reflections in the glass are from the people in the control room with me. A 6-foot/180 cm man standing next to one of the pot stills would nearly reach the height of the first joint or flange at the neck of the still. The necks reach up a good 20 feet/6 metres and then over another 15-20 feet/5-6 metres to the cooling tubes and receiver cans for the distillates.
The sight of the four copper pot stills and the three column stills off to the side -- plus the delicious, warm odor and humid feel of the airborne alcohol -- is breathtaking. A pair of wash stills are each filled or "charged" with 28,500 lites of wash from the fermenting tanks. The output from the two wash stills in turn charges the second still, or feint still, with the alcohol becoming even more pure. The final step in IDL's process is the spirits still, the output from which will be casked and sent onto the warehouses. In about 7 years it may be in the green bottle of Jameson you keep at home.
To the side of the main stills is a much smaller pot still used for making small-batch premium spirits such as Cork Crimson Gin or experimental whiskeys.
The small still for other spirits or small-batch experimental whiskeys
It's a short drive from the stillhouse and brewhouse over to the warehouse complex where the casks are stored for aging. Each of the three-dozen warehouses holds about 33,000 casks. The large majority of the casks are American bourbon casks stacked 7 layers high on pallets. The larger Sherry, Port or Madeira casks -- also called butts, pipes or drums, respectively -- are stacked three high.
Once Distillery Operations Manager Liam O'Leary opened the door to the warehouse it was a matter of seconds before the incredible smell of the whiskey evaporating from the casks reached our noses, virtually pulling us inside to experience its full impact. The odor from those casks is something that everyone who breathes it -- even Liam as a nearly a 40-year veteran of the distillery -- never tires of. It fills the senses. It is exquisite and nearly impossible to describe, not unlike an eye-popping view of a sunset over the mountains or sheer oceanside cliffs.
The odor is also called the "Angel's Share." And the angels must be well-pleased and well-stocked. Jameson Master Blender Billy Leighton told us that the approximate equivalent of 20,000 (yes, 20-THOUSAND) bottles of Jameson are lost to evaporation daily.
Inside the warehouse. Those are bourbon casks.
This shows the relative sizes of bourbon casks on the left and sherry and port casks (behind the sherry casks). The pitcher and other items atop the casks signal what's ahead.
After chatting about various aspects of the warehouses, casks and aging process, we proceeded to a group of casks standing apart at the other side of the warehouse. Liam walked up first to the smaller bourbon casks and proceeded to remove the bung while nosing glasses were produced from a nearby carton.
Liam removes the bung on the bourbon casks containing 19-year-old whiskey. The pointed stainless steel pipette atop the barrels to the left is called a "valinch." It's used like a large straw to extract whiskey from the cask through the bung hole then pour it into the glass pitcher.
Yours truly decanting 15-year-old cask-strength whiskey from the port pipe. You can't help but smile while doing this.
The color of cask-strength port-pipe whiskey fresh from the cask.
19-year-old bourbon cask whiskey. This was my favorite of the three.
Nine of us stood there at the casks, sampling three whiskeys -- a 19-year-old bourbon cask, a 12-year-old sherry cask and a 15-year-old port cask -- comparing notes and chatting as though we were in someone's living room, albeit a very large, high-ceilinged living room well stocked with 33,000 casks of aging spirits and whiskey. Quite extraordinary, really.
Just a few kindred spirits sharing a few drinks in an interesting location. More or less...
What's the craic?
The IDL team used an expression several times during the day which captured the visit and my broader impression of the operation: "Serious in the making, but not in the drinking." There is a sharp focus on the quality and efficiency of the whiskey-making process. There's also a rigorous planning process that necessarily projects 40 years ahead for such a product There's a worldwide marketing and sales organization that keeps in touch with multiple markets and changing consumer tastes. There are new whiskeys in the works and a positive outlook buoyed by the growth of the Jameson brand and the resurgence of an industry that nearly went extinct 30 years ago. In fact there are plans to double distilling capacity and triple warehouse capacity at Midleton.
But it's not all business. They continue to pay as much attention to what to me is what the whiskey is all about -- the sharing, conversation, fun, the craic. In the end it's not about tasting notes, rankings, the relative sophistication of your drinker's palate or anything else external. It's the simple enjoyment of the whiskey with new or old friends in whichever way works for you.
In part 2, I'll recount the extraordinary 10,000-mile, 110-year journey of a bottle of Jameson Five Star from Ireland to America and back and its opening with the successors to the people who made it so long before.
Representatives from the Irish Whiskey Society, whisky writer and author Ian Buxton, Ian's wife Lindsay, and I recently toured Irish Distiller's Ltd. (IDL) Midleton Distillery in Co. Cork from where the world's supply of Jameson comes. It is difficult in words or in pictures to convey the impressive scale of the operation, from the four 60,00-litre capacity pot stills and multiple column stills, to the stories-high brewhouse, the rows of four-story high fermenting tanks and the three-dozen warehouses each containing about 33,000 casks of aging spirits and whiskey. As impressive as the plant are the IDL team who hosted us. Their affable expertise, drive for quality, professionalism and the simple passion for whiskey making and enjoyment stand out.
In With The (Very) Old. And The New.
The visit resulted from the testing of a 100+-year-old bottle of Jameson which my friend and Irish Whiskey Society colleague Leo Phelan acquired two years ago. And while the plant tour itself was amazing, perhaps even more memorable was the opening of that bottle of Jameson "Five Star" in the Master's Cottage at the distillery itself. More about that in Part 2.
Research indicates this Jameson "Five Star" was imported to America before Prohibition (1919). While the label resembles the U.S. label common into the 1960s, the five star designation is very unusual; most were three.
Whiskey aficionados would be impressed with the sheer scale of the distillery, even those who might casually dismiss the standard Jameson as a nice but common dram. Those same drinkers also bemoan what they perceive as a lack of new whiskeys from IDL. But it becomes clear when you tour the plant and talk to the IDL team that the increasing worldwide sales of Jameson are not only acting as a rising tide of success and awareness that's lifting the entire Irish whiskey category, it's driving IDL's development of new whiskeys. The new Red Breast-15-year-old and Powers 12-year-old are recent examples. And there any many more which seem to be in the works.
The Old And The New
Anybody who has visited the "Jameson Experience" and the Old Midleton Distillery may have seen the new Midleton Distillery just beyond the treeline with only the tops of industrial-looking buildings visible. A short walk or drive leads to the gates to the new distillery which, as a working spirits plant, is closed to the general public. The old plant is charming and includes touches such as the barley heads embossed on the sides of the mill wheel that recalls an era when aesthetics and utility weren't such strangers.
Bunches of barley heads along the mill wheel at the Old Midleton Distillery
You might expect something "modern" at the gates to the new, industrial-looking distillery -- plain and sturdy wrought iron or steel gates maybe. But this is an industry mindful of its heritage and you could see echoes of the older designs as you passed literally from past to present.
The vehicle and pedestrian gates into the new distillery represent stalks of two-row barley and the distilling process
The distillery buildings are the plain and functional structures you'd expect, but they hint of the scale of the operation that produces for a global market.
This stitched-together mosaic gives you an idea of the size of the brewhouse where the malted and unmalted barley are ground and mashed, then turned into the wort which is piped into the fermenting tanks to become "wash," essentially a strong beer to be piped over to stillhouse.
The 24 fermenting tanks, each about 35 feet/10 metres tall, are where the liquid wort from the porridge-like barley mash is fermented prior to distillation.
You can study the pictures -- stair rails. cars and the like -- to gauge the size of the structures. But no matter how much you can glean by looking, the pleasantly pervasive odor of a distillery is what captures you in person. Outside of these buildings you catch the unmistakable sweet smell of hot water and barley. But when you step next into the stillhouse, the heady aroma of alcohol dominates your senses.
Precautions are needed heading into the stillhouse, including the shutting down of all electronics to reduce the risk of electrical discharge in air rife with nearly pure alcohol. The only pictures I could take were from within the pressurized control room.
This mosaic shows most of the four 60,000-litre capacity copper pot stills. The reflections in the glass are from the people in the control room with me. A 6-foot/180 cm man standing next to one of the pot stills would nearly reach the height of the first joint or flange at the neck of the still. The necks reach up a good 20 feet/6 metres and then over another 15-20 feet/5-6 metres to the cooling tubes and receiver cans for the distillates.
The sight of the four copper pot stills and the three column stills off to the side -- plus the delicious, warm odor and humid feel of the airborne alcohol -- is breathtaking. A pair of wash stills are each filled or "charged" with 28,500 lites of wash from the fermenting tanks. The output from the two wash stills in turn charges the second still, or feint still, with the alcohol becoming even more pure. The final step in IDL's process is the spirits still, the output from which will be casked and sent onto the warehouses. In about 7 years it may be in the green bottle of Jameson you keep at home.
To the side of the main stills is a much smaller pot still used for making small-batch premium spirits such as Cork Crimson Gin or experimental whiskeys.
The small still for other spirits or small-batch experimental whiskeys
It's a short drive from the stillhouse and brewhouse over to the warehouse complex where the casks are stored for aging. Each of the three-dozen warehouses holds about 33,000 casks. The large majority of the casks are American bourbon casks stacked 7 layers high on pallets. The larger Sherry, Port or Madeira casks -- also called butts, pipes or drums, respectively -- are stacked three high.
Once Distillery Operations Manager Liam O'Leary opened the door to the warehouse it was a matter of seconds before the incredible smell of the whiskey evaporating from the casks reached our noses, virtually pulling us inside to experience its full impact. The odor from those casks is something that everyone who breathes it -- even Liam as a nearly a 40-year veteran of the distillery -- never tires of. It fills the senses. It is exquisite and nearly impossible to describe, not unlike an eye-popping view of a sunset over the mountains or sheer oceanside cliffs.
The odor is also called the "Angel's Share." And the angels must be well-pleased and well-stocked. Jameson Master Blender Billy Leighton told us that the approximate equivalent of 20,000 (yes, 20-THOUSAND) bottles of Jameson are lost to evaporation daily.
Inside the warehouse. Those are bourbon casks.
This shows the relative sizes of bourbon casks on the left and sherry and port casks (behind the sherry casks). The pitcher and other items atop the casks signal what's ahead.
After chatting about various aspects of the warehouses, casks and aging process, we proceeded to a group of casks standing apart at the other side of the warehouse. Liam walked up first to the smaller bourbon casks and proceeded to remove the bung while nosing glasses were produced from a nearby carton.
Liam removes the bung on the bourbon casks containing 19-year-old whiskey. The pointed stainless steel pipette atop the barrels to the left is called a "valinch." It's used like a large straw to extract whiskey from the cask through the bung hole then pour it into the glass pitcher.
Yours truly decanting 15-year-old cask-strength whiskey from the port pipe. You can't help but smile while doing this.
The color of cask-strength port-pipe whiskey fresh from the cask.
19-year-old bourbon cask whiskey. This was my favorite of the three.
Nine of us stood there at the casks, sampling three whiskeys -- a 19-year-old bourbon cask, a 12-year-old sherry cask and a 15-year-old port cask -- comparing notes and chatting as though we were in someone's living room, albeit a very large, high-ceilinged living room well stocked with 33,000 casks of aging spirits and whiskey. Quite extraordinary, really.
Just a few kindred spirits sharing a few drinks in an interesting location. More or less...
What's the craic?
The IDL team used an expression several times during the day which captured the visit and my broader impression of the operation: "Serious in the making, but not in the drinking." There is a sharp focus on the quality and efficiency of the whiskey-making process. There's also a rigorous planning process that necessarily projects 40 years ahead for such a product There's a worldwide marketing and sales organization that keeps in touch with multiple markets and changing consumer tastes. There are new whiskeys in the works and a positive outlook buoyed by the growth of the Jameson brand and the resurgence of an industry that nearly went extinct 30 years ago. In fact there are plans to double distilling capacity and triple warehouse capacity at Midleton.
But it's not all business. They continue to pay as much attention to what to me is what the whiskey is all about -- the sharing, conversation, fun, the craic. In the end it's not about tasting notes, rankings, the relative sophistication of your drinker's palate or anything else external. It's the simple enjoyment of the whiskey with new or old friends in whichever way works for you.
In part 2, I'll recount the extraordinary 10,000-mile, 110-year journey of a bottle of Jameson Five Star from Ireland to America and back and its opening with the successors to the people who made it so long before.
Cool post! I'm very curious about how the flavor of Jameson has changed over the years. Allegedly Jameson was Joyce's favorite whiskey. You can sample what it really tasted like in his day. Wouldn't it be cool if Jameson fired up the old stills in Dublin for a limited run of heritage pure pot still with the old label?
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Enjoyed the read and looking forward to part II. In relation to Jameson in Joyce's time we were amazed at how IDL have retained the charistics ... I'ce Also tasted PPS powers and in all fairness todays Powers Gold label is not 100 miles away and definately from the same family which is impressive. IDL have done an amazing amazing job on their family whiskies.
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