January 27, 2017 (Dublin, Ireland)

John likes Jameson’s whiskey, so I thought it would be a treat to visit the old Jameson’s whiskey distillery. They don’t make whiskey here anymore, so it would have been more symbolic than actual. But they were closed for renovations, so we settled on visiting Teeling’s Whiskey Distillery instead, and this is an active distillery, so we were excited to visit.

Teeling Distillery is located right in Dublin, so we didn’t have to travel outside of the city. It is a fairly recent distillery, opened in 2015, so they had to start the whiskey distilling process at another distillery in order to start selling their whiskey prior to the 3-year aging mark.

 

 

 

The price to do the tour, and it comes with 3 different types of whiskey tasting, is 20 Euros. While we were waiting for our tour to be called, we got to linger around the museum/waiting area. This included a whiskey history timeline in Ireland and other artifacts leftover from the city’s golden age of whiskey distilling:

 

 

At it’s peak, Dublin was the leader in whiskey production with 28 distilleries. But due to prohibition in the U.S., which was a huge importer of Irish whiskey, and World War 1, which stymied the exporting of whiskey, that led to the demise of the industry in this city. And it has never recovered.

 

 

Then we were called for our tour.

We started with a brief history of the Teeling Distillery.

And now for the fun part, touring the place where they produce the whiskey… show me the Whiskey!

The tank where they grind down the grains:

 

 

 

Photo of the tank where they ferment the whiskey:

 

 

Another Barrel where they also ferment the whiskey:

 

 

 

Teeling has 3 main stills to distill the whiskey in. They are named after the daughters of one of the founders (the other founder is his brother) and they range in size .

 

 

 

Afterwards, they are placed in wooden barrels, a lot of times purchasing used-up Bourbon barrels from the U.S. to age the whiskey. Whiskey needs to be aged for at least 3 years and one day in Ireland. Apparently they wanted to beat the Scotts with their whiskey and by aging it 3 years and one day, their whiskey would be aged longer than Scottish whisky which must be aged for 3 years.

 

 

Then we got to move on to our tasting. Here’s a photo of Grant and John trying not to look miserable, we are all hungover on this day and whiskey tasting was probably the last thing we should have been doing, but it was already preplanned. When your kidneys hurt from partying too much, whiskey tasting is not recommended.

 

 

 

That being said, the whiskey was pretty good. It had a very clean taste to it, and not at all peaty, or smokey.  Grant and I liked the second sample the best.

Although Grant and I have visited two other whiskey tastings, all with an explanation of the whiskey making process, this is where we really learned to drink whiskey.

1) You are to sniff the whiskey with either nostril, one to another, but not both at the same time. This gives you a sense of the flavor.

2) Take a sip and hold the whiskey on your tongue for a few seconds.

3) Then swallow it and breath out. This allows the alcohol vapors to escape without giving you a burning sensation at the back of the throat. In other words, if you feel a burning sensation at the back of your throat, you are drinking it wrong.

This was really good, as I didn’t like whiskey because of this burning. But when our guide explained how to drink it, it makes it much more enjoyable.

 

 

 

 

All in all, we had a good time and I recommend touring this place if you are interested in seeing the whiskey making process. I compare this place to The Whisky Experience in Edinburgh, Scotland (lovingly called “Malt Disney”), which is more exciting because they feature a ride as a tour about the whiskey making process but Teeling Distillery is more authentic; it’s an actual distillery.

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