Whisky Focus - Jameson Black Barrel Cask Strength Broke Down And Reviewed

I recently had the pleasure once again of visiting Irish Distillers Irish whiskey cathedral, Midleton Distillery, down in County Cork, Ireland, where today they produce their rather impressive range of Irish whiskey's including Redbreast, Spot, Midleton, Method and Madness, Powers, Paddy and of course Jameson and it is Jameson Irish whiskey, the worlds best selling Irish whisky, which I am focusing on here.

To be more precise it is Jameson Black Barrel Irish Blended whiskey expression which I am focusing on here. It is a triple-distilled Irish Blended whiskey that pays tribute to the cooper’s method of charring barrels for a second time. Charring is a traditional method for invigorating barrels and boosting the interaction of spirit and oak, although today at Midleton double-charred barrels are used by choice rather than through necessity.

Jameson Black Barrel uses a blend of ‘small batch’ grain and traditional pot still Irish Whiskey, which is distilled just once a year at the Midleton distillery in Cork, it is matured in a combination of American oak, sherry casks and double-charred bourbon barrels.

During my flying visit I was given a quick break down in the classroom at the Irish Whiskey Academy by Tommy Byrne on the production of the Irish single pot still whiskey and Irish grain whiskey they produce at Midleton.

This was followed by a warehouse tasting in the ethanol aroma (angels share) filled warehouse 29A with Midleton Blender Deirdre O'Carroll and just to share with you some of the statistics Deirdre shared with me about Irish Distillers warehouses, they have approximately 1.75 million barrels maturing in their warehouses, each warehouse holds 16,800 barrels which is separated into 20 bays and each bay holds 840 barrels. With this amount of spirit quietly maturing in the Midleton warehouses you can imagine the angels share is big, in fact Deirdre estimated the angels are taking around 76,366 bottles per year at Midleton.

Every barrel in each individual bay will be of the same cask type, i.e. first fill bourbon and each will contain distillate distilled at the same time and it will be the same type of distillate i.e. pot still distillate, of which they produce three types at Midleton, light, medium and heavy pot still distillate.

The observant amongst you will have noticed that Midleton stores their barrels vertically in their warehouses as opposed to most distilleries in Scotland who would store their maturing whisky barrels horizontally. This makes no difference to the maturation itself, it is simply Midleton's storage method. However the storage orientation does have to be considered when Midleton takes delivery of their barrels for maturation, on arrival they would have already had a second charring which is a key contributor to the Black Barrels style, but as well as checking the quality and integrity of the barrel on arrival Midleton Master Cooper Ger Buckley and his team have to replace the bung on the side of each barrel and add a new bung to the top of the barrel before filling. Each barrel at Midleton can be filled up to three times and they are all top filled six barrels at a time, they are very efficient at Midleton, well they have to be as their enormous 80,000 litre capacity pot stills produces enough distillate to fill a warehouse every 2 months and as I said above each warehouse holds 16,800 barrels.

Before this visit I was already a fan of the Jameson Black Barrel expression and have been since the day I first tasted it so I was thrilled to fill my own bottle straight from the cask at the distillery to take away with me along with a sample of  3 of the main contributing component whiskies which goes into creating the Jameson Black Barrel expression, these were a Double Charred American Oak Barrel 2014 Pot Still Irish Whiskey, a Spanish Oak 1st Fill Sherry Butt 2011 Pot Still Irish Whiskey and a 1st Fill American Oak Bourbon Barrel matured 2014 Small Batch Grain Irish whiskey.

If you look below I have sampled and reviewed each of the the three component whiskey samples as well as the standard 40% ABV Jameson Black Barrel and the cask strength Black Barrel which I filled myself at the distillery.

During my whirlwind visit to Midleton I also had the chance to taste the new higher strength Jameson 18 Year Old which was presented to me by Master Distiller Kevin O'Gorman as well as having the pleasure of meeting no other than Irish comedian, actor and writer Aisling Bea who is spearheading Jameson's 'Widens the Circle' campaign and all with a good helping of Aisling's quick wit.

Jameson Black Barrel Cask Strength Broke Down And Review:
 

• Jameson Black Barrel Cask Strength Broke Down And Reviewedd
   
• Jameson 18 Year Old Review
   
• Women and Irish Whiskey - Aisling Bea Widens the Circle
   
• Jameson Irish Whiskey Cocktails And How To Make Them

You will find the current Irish Distillers whiskey portfolio including the current Jameson whiskey range available from specialist online whisky retailers such as The Whisky Exchange, The Whisky Shop, Hard To Find Whisky and Master of Malt
 

• UK Shops
   
• USA Shops
   
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