Walsh Whiskey Distillery Writers Tears Irish Whiskey
On this week’s audio podcast we welcome Bernard Walsh, founder of Walsh Whiskey Distillery and producer of multi awarded Writers Tears Irish Whiskey. A unique old Irish Pot still Whiskey with a supurb flavour and history.
Listen to Bernard Walsh at 35:40 minutes in the show.
Trending big time is Irish Whiskey!
19th and 20th century Ireland was a golden era both for Irish whiskey and for great Irish novelists and poets.
It’s perfect for our theme today, celebrating Valentines Day because Irish Whisky is for HIM and for HER! It is being enjoyed by both men and women. In fact, in 2014, women in the US represented 37% of whisky drinkers up from the 1990’s. Check out Women Who Whiskey!
Women Who Whiskey Toronto Chapter now accepting members.
About Irish Pot Still Whiskey
Single (or Pure) pot still whiskey is a type of whiskey traditionally made from a mixture of malted and unmalted barley distilled in a pot still. It is unique to Ireland. Not to be confused with blended whiskey, which is a mixture of column still unmalted grain whiskey and pot still single malt whiskey, “pure pot still” is a single whiskey made from a batch of Barley composed of both unmalted and malted barley that has been distilled in a pot still.
Pure Pot still came about in 1802 as a reaction to the introduction of Tax’s by the British on Irish Malt Whiskey. Irish Whiskey accounted for 90% of all the worlds exported whiskey and was seen as a cash cow by the British. By introducing this tax they hoped to “Cash in” on their neighbors good fortune. However in an effort to avoid taxes the Irish Distiller decided to use a higher percentage of unmalted barley (as opposed to Malted Barley) into the still. This resulted in a very different style of Whiskey and one which we have come to know as “Pure Pot Still Irish Whiskey”. This style of Whiskey became known as the Champagne of Irish Whiskey. The much sought after liquid was a favorite with Irish writers through the 19th and 20th century.
Although Pure Pot Still was once widespread in Ireland, a number of historical factors including the The Irish War of Independence, the Irish Civil War, and prohibition in the United States led to a drastic reduction in the number of Irish distilleries. With this reduction in Irish whiskeys available came the loss in recognition abroad of the pure pot still style itself. The majority of the surviving distilleries began to produce blends and single malts to the detriment of the Pure Pot Still.
Writers Tears is leading the charge to recreate some of the great whiskies of 100 years ago. Writers Tears is a Vatting of Pure Pot Still and Single Malt (proportions are a closely guarded secret). The resulting whiskey is one of Ireland’s highest rated whiskies in the Whisky Bible…
“This whisky evokes the type enjoyed at the time of Yeats and Joyce a century ago in Dublin. A blend of pot still malted and unmalted barley, triple distilled and matured in American bourbon casks, it’s smooth with bourbon notes on a bed of malt. It slips down with ease; a honeyed vanilla-tinged fruit and kick of ginger linger hauntingly”. Margaret Swaine, The National Post
