In praise of a good whiskey - one with an 'e'

We’re sorry, this feature is currently unavailable. We’re working to restore it. Please try again later.

Advertisement

This was published 10 years ago

In praise of a good whiskey - one with an 'e'

By Frank O'Shea
The Irish, who know about these things, have a saying: 'Never steal another man's wife or water another man's whiskey.'

The Irish, who know about these things, have a saying: 'Never steal another man's wife or water another man's whiskey.'

In the 19th century, Capuchin friar Father Theobald Mathew began a temperance campaign in Ireland. In the years that followed, as many as 5 million people took the pledge. Thousands of bankrupt distillers and publicans emigrated, many to America where they continued to ply their trade, as their descendants did during Prohibition and still do today.

In those days, much of the drinking took place in shebeens and the favourite beverage was the home-distilled brew known as poteen, guaranteed to produce speedy oblivion.

Towards the end of the century the Irish clergy renewed its attack on drinking in general and poteen in particular. Pulpits thundered with dire warnings of hell-fire. Poteen-making became a reserved sin, requiring the amateur distiller to go to the bishop for absolution, and while many made their own assessment of eternity the poteen trade suffered badly.

The Jesuit-run Pioneer Total Abstinence Association flourished - most schools had a branch - and even to this day you will see the heart-shaped Pioneer pin sported proudly by country politicians, ambitious athletes and young curates.

You can still get poteen in Ireland. The tradition lives on in remote parts, but truth to tell the habit is dying out. The taste is too raw for today's palate and there is always the fear of unhygienically made or improperly matured product. Actually the first run, called the singlings, is reputed to do great things when used as a rub-down on greyhounds and there are many stories of track records tumbling to such massaged speedsters.

But perhaps the main reason for the decline in illegal distilling is that poteen has become too dear. A bottle of the stuff today will cost you the equivalent of about $30. A bottle of Irish whiskey can be bought for only a few dollars more. With that extra contribution to government revenue you are buying the best whiskey in the world.

The Scots have the inside track on whisky, which goes to show that quality will always be a poor second to clever marketing and bad spelling.

Scotch whisky is to Irish whiskey what fast food is to haute cuisine: bland, uninteresting, lacking flavour or character. The Scots make a blend of different whiskies so that Americans, who know no better, can have something into which to pour ginger ale.

The concoction is called a highball and is designed to give enough courage to fly drones over some Arab country where people are not allowed to drink alcohol. All whiskey, with or without the ''e'', is made from barley. The barley is allowed to form shoots, called malts, about four centimetres long, which are then dried. In Ireland, this is always done in closed kilns; in Scotland it is done over burning peat, which accounts for the characteristic smoky flavour of single malt Scotches. (Even in my most virulent fits of xenophobia, I cannot find it in myself to say anything bad about Scotch single malts, especially the Islays.)

Advertisement

With ordinary Scotch, however, the step is omitted and the barley is made into a mash without going through the malting and smoking stages, a considerable saving of time and expense. The Scotch you buy is a blend of malted and unmalted whiskies. It took a number of court cases and a parliamentary commission to decide that such a mixture was entitled to call itself whisky, even without the ''e''.

There is another difference between Irish and Scotch whiskies. All Irish whiskey is distilled three times. The art of the distiller is to isolate and remove from the alcohol the esters and other impurities responsible for hangovers. Three sequential distillations do this, which is why you do not get a hangover with Irish whiskey. Trust me. Whatever the nationality, the distilled spirit, clear and colourless, is now put into oak casks and stored in warehouses for some years, to allow maturation.

All Irish whiskey is, by law, matured for at least three years, but in practice, the time in the vat is more than double this, with the premium brands given 10 or 12 years to develop their flavour and characteristic colouring. You should never use a mixer with whiskey. A little water, if you must, but don't let someone else add it for you.

The Irish, who know about these things, have a saying: ''Never steal another man's wife or water another man's whiskey.'' Whiskey should be drunk for its smooth taste and because it is one of the good things in life, one of the few pleasures which is neither illegal, unfriendly to the environment nor - in moderation - harmful to health.

Anyway that's what I think.

Frank O'Shea is a Canberra writer.

Most Viewed in National

Loading