Jameson Distiller’s Batch Upgrades Its Core Irish Whiskey

Welcome to Taste Test, where every week our critic Jonah Flicker explores the most buzzworthy and interesting whiskeys in the world. Check back each Sunday for his latest whiskey review.

You don’t have to be a whiskey expert to recognize the name Jameson. After all, it’s the best-selling Irish whiskey in the world (and one of the most popular whiskeys in the world, full stop). Walk into any bar, and you’re going to find people drinking Jameson neat, on the rocks, or as a shot paired with a cold beer (my fave). But there’s much more to this historic brand than the core blended Irish whiskey that it’s best known for, as evidenced by the excellent new Distiller’s Batch which simultaneously brings Jameson back to its roots and expands its range.

Regular Jameson is, as mentioned before, a blended whiskey. Specifically, it’s a blend of grain whiskey and single pot still whiskey that is produced at the Midleton Distillery just outside of Cork, both of which are aged for a minimum of three years in bourbon barrels and sherry butts. While Jameson is by far the highest volume whiskey produced at Midleton, the distillery also makes excellent whiskey under other names like Redbreast, Powers, Green Spot (and all the other Spots), and Midleton Very Rare.

The latter component in the Jameson blend is arguably the most Irish style of Irish whiskey. “Single pot still” means that it’s made at one distillery on a pot still using a mashbill that includes both malted and unmalted barley, and sometimes a small amount of other grains (compare that to single malt, which is made from 100 percent malted barley). The result is usually a fruity and oily whiskey that is a wonderful sipper when produced and matured using the right methods.

Clearly, the team at Midleton, led by master distiller Kevin O’Gorman, knows what those right methods are. The new Distiller’s Batch, which was previously available in Ireland and the U.K. under the name Jameson Single Pot Still, is indeed a single pot still Irish whiskey and not a blend. It was renamed Distiller’s Batch and just released in America, and I’m glad it’s arrived here. The whiskey was aged in a total of five different types of casks: ex-bourbon, Oloroso sherry, and virgin Irish, European, and American oak. That’s a lot of virgin oak in the mix, which adds an intensity of flavor compared to used barrels, and each type of wood is meant to bring different notes to the palate. Overall, this is a relatively complex maturation process, but O’Gorman and his team have gotten it right here and it does not go overboard.

This whiskey is still recognizably Jameson, but Distiller’s Batch is much more complex than the core blend, something that you immediately pick up as you sip. There are classic notes of vanilla, spice, and fruit, but the palate diverges into rich notes of dark and milk chocolate, some nutmeg and cinnamon, honey sticks, maple, and ripe stone fruit, all undercut by a bit of tannic oak and a creamy mouthfeel. The brand doesn’t say how long the whiskey spent in those five cask types (by law, it’s at least three years), but the whiskey drinks well aged and not thin or immature.

I’m no whiskey snob; I like classic Jameson, although the time and the place have got to be just right (a dive bar will do just fine). But I like this new whiskey even more, and I will gladly keep this bottle on my home bar to sip neat or use in a cocktail. Distiller’s Batch isn’t reinventing the wheel—it’s showcasing a very traditional style of Irish whiskey that has been thoughtfully distilled and matured. I think this new release will help to bring people further into the Irish whiskey fold who maybe have only tried regular Jameson, and given the current state of the whiskey industry that’s a smart move.

Score: 88

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