Irish whiskey spiking in popularity Spirits

Bartender Phil Mauro takes a sip of a Derry Derby at Rye in San Francisco's Tenderloin district Tuesday March 6th, 2012 Bartender Phil Mauro takes a sip of a Derry Derby at Rye in San Francisco's Tenderloin district Tuesday March 6th, 2012 Photo: Michael Short, Special To The Chronicle Photo: Michael Short, Special To The Chronicle Image 1 of / 9 Caption Close Irish whiskey spiking in popularity 1 / 9 Back to Gallery

When Swig opened near Union Square in 2003, its Irish owners carried every brand of Irish whiskey available in the United States. All five of them.

Nine years later, not only do they carry 32 Irish whiskeys, but their customers are also drinking a lot more of them.

"We've seen a very dramatic increase in the consumption of Irish whiskey," says owner Brian Sheehy. "A lot of the crossover has come from blended scotches, and instead of people asking for well whiskey on the rocks, they're calling their brand."

The phenomenon is by no means limited to Swig. Irish whiskey is the fastest-growing spirit category in the United States, with a 23.6 percent increase in volume sales in 2011 alone, according to the Distilled Spirits Council. It now outsells single-malt scotch.

Sheehy cites several reasons, including a wider range of whiskeys and better marketing by the two big players - Jameson and Bushmills. Just a handful of distilleries make whiskey in Ireland, compared with at least 100 in Scotland.

"Jameson just sells," says bartender Phillip Mauro of Rye in San Francisco's Tenderloin. "It's definitely super smooth. It has kind of a sweetness. People just go into cruise control ordering it."

Mauro compared its popularity to Bacardi in the 1980s, and, more recently, Maker's Mark.

A resurgent spirit

It has been quite some time since Irish whiskey enjoyed this popularity. In the early 1800s it was the dominant European whiskey. Scottish distillers would export their wares to Ireland and have it stamped as Irish before selling it back at home for a higher price.

But when an Irishman invented column distillation, which produces a lighter and less character-rich but more economical spirit, his countrymen were reluctant to adapt the new technology. The Scots took to it instead, blending their heartier pot-still whiskies with a column-distilled spirit, creating a lighter, cheaper whiskey.

Other factors led to the decline of Irish whiskey, including war, Irish independence and the loss of the English market, and Prohibition and the loss of the U.S. market.

The Irish whiskey industry nearly went extinct in the early 1900s, with so many distilleries failing that the remaining ones banded together into a single company.

Even today, the Irish labels are produced at just 3 1/2 distilleries.

Jameson, which accounts for seven of every 10 bottles of Irish whiskey sold in the U.S., is made at the Midleton distillery in Cork from a blend of column-distilled and "pure pot still" whiskey - the latter involving a blend of malted and unmalted barley that came about as a way to avoid an Irish tax on malted barley.

Midleton, owned by spirits giant Pernod Ricard, also produces such brands as John Powers, Midleton, Paddy and Redbreast, the last being a pure pot still whiskey rather than a blend.

In Northern Ireland lies the Bushmills distillery, maker of the No. 2 selling brand in the United States. The distillery produces Bushmills Original and Black Bush blended whiskeys, plus several single malts. There's also Tullamore Dew, a blend of column-distilled grain whiskey and pure pot still whiskey from Midleton with single malt from Bushmills.

Ireland's third distillery, Cooley, is north of Dublin. It boasted of being Ireland's only independent distillery, but was recently purchased by Jim Beam.

Cooley operates both column and pot stills, plus the small distillery Kilbeggan. While the blended Kilbeggan label is mostly produced at Cooley, its namesake distillery produces a single-malt Kilbeggan Distillery Reserve. Cooley also makes the peated, smoky single-malt Connemara, the Tyrconnell single-malt and Greenore, Ireland's only single-grain whiskey, aged in ex-bourbon casks.

Takes well to drinks

Because most Irish whiskey is blended, triple-distilled and not smoky, it is light and accessible to the newer whiskey drinker, and a favorite of bartenders. Jameson asserts that 60 percent of its whiskey is consumed neat, in shots or on the rocks.

Sheehy says he not only sees blended-Scotch drinkers switching to Jameson, but he also sees Jack Daniel's-and-Coke fans graduating to Jameson and ginger ale. But as with Scotch, there's an evolution of taste.

Mauro sees some Jameson drinkers switching to other Irish whiskeys: "I think they've exhausted their Jameson intake and they're ready to move on."

Creating an opening

This new fandom has created the chance for smaller labels to expand their offerings.

Pernod Ricard is fashioning a cask-strength Redbreast and pure pot still versions of Midleton and Powers. And in January, Cooley unveiled Concannon Irish Whiskey, made in partnership with Livermore Valley's Concannon Vineyard.

It is a blend of column-distilled grain whiskey, pot-distilled single-malt whiskey aged in ex-bourbon barrels, and some of that same malt aged four more months in Concannon's Petite Sirah casks.

Unlike most other spirit companies, Irish whiskey producers don't seem to be chasing the interest in high-end cocktails. It is rare to see the whiskeys used in mixed drinks beyond Jameson and ginger ale.

Mauro created the Derry Derby cocktail at Rye as a special when the bar had an excess of Paddy whiskey, but he doesn't get requests for Irish whiskey cocktails often.

That said, Irish whiskey has lately been seen in bars of all sorts as half of the pickle-back: a shot of whiskey (usually Jameson) followed by a chaser of pickle brine. Some bars and restaurants now offer house-made pickle juice, the brine left from the artisan pickling going on in the kitchens.

The pickle-back may end up being a drink fad, but by all accounts Irish whiskey seems to be heading into its second golden age.

This story has been corrected since it appeared in print.