A Wee Nip for St. Pat's

Blarney! Is it March already? It seems as though I was just carving turkeys and popping Champagne. No matter, March is the month of my two favorite holidays: St. Patrick’s Day and the Ides of March. The latter, not generally considered worthy of celebration, is fun to observe for precisely that reason. "Beware the Ides of March," my friends and I will whisper to each other, ominously. And then we’ll all meet up for the customary Caesar salad and traditional fireside reading of "Julius Caesar." By the end of the play, pooped, we all just go home early. Come to think of it, the Ides of March is never really all that fun. But that’s okay, because this year we’ll be fresh for St. Patrick’s Day, which falls on March 17th. I have to confess, though, that as much I love this holiday, my green- beer- drinking days are over. I used to love the thought of green beer, bringing with me to bars a small vial of green food coloring to repigment my own and anyone else’s draught beer. Then, I decided to grow up and enjoy Guinness like everyone else. But eventually that too wore thin. Now, I’ve taken to savoring one of the world’s great — and greatly under appreciated — spirits, Irish whiskey. As Scotch and small-batch Bourbon were enjoying halcyon days at the marketplace a few years ago, Irish whiskey somehow got left at home. We saw single malts proliferate on store shelves in numbers matched only by reality shows on network television. With its glens, crags and ichs, Scotch putatively became the connoisseur’s beverage of choice. In contrast, I read once that over half the Irish whiskey consumed in this country is taken with sugar, coffee and whipped cream. Delicious as it may be, Irish Coffee is no way to pay respect to a beverage that may have in fact originated in Ireland. The word "whiskey" comes from the Celtic phrase "uisce beathadh" (pronounced ish-ke be-ha), which means "water of life." Being of Scottish descent more so than Irish, I’m well aware of the differences between the two similar cultures, and they all seem to favor that little green isle. They have the "luck of the Irish," while the Scots have rarely seemed to have any luck. The Irish are known for great writers like Joyce, Yeats and Beckett. The Scots are known for wearing kilts. Our country is scattered with thousands of great Irish pubs, but very few, if any, Scottish ones. Why that is, I have no idea. So, to set the record straight, let’s catalogue the differences between the whiskeys. First of all, spelling: Hibernians prefer "whiskey" with an "e," Scots prefer it without (whisky). Both products are made from malted barley, but the Scots dry their malt over open peat fires, giving it that smoky and rugged earthiness we have come to know. Conversely, the Irish dry their barley in enclosed kilns and use both the malted and unmalted varieties. Then, in both styles, the barley is mashed and fermented with added yeast to convert the sugars into alcohol. The resulting beery mash is then distilled, which evaporates and reconstitutes the liquid, to remove impurities and concentrate the alcohol. This is another point of difference, as Irish whiskey is generally triple distilled, while Scots’ whisky is distilled only twice. Then both spirits are aged in any manner of oak barrels for no less than three years, but often much, much longer. The results of these different processes are apparent in the drinks. Irish whiskies have more of an unmediated malted barley taste, as they don’t assume the smokiness of peat. The added distillation of the Irish spirit also leads to a smoother, subtler, and more refined drink that the Scots would no doubt call "more boring." There’s room on my shelf for both. Sometimes I’m not in the mood for a mouthful of highland turf and prefer something more velvety and light. Bushmills’ Black Bush, a blended whiskey that goes down with unparalleled ease, is a good bet. Bushmills advertises that it’s aged in three woods, meaning barrels originally used to house sherry, bourbon, and port. Each wood lends it own rich flavor to create a mélange of toffee, caramel, and chocolate aromas. For something different, the Knappogue Castle 1992 is a single malt (made from only the malt at one distillery) single vintage whiskey, which offers more floral and grassy brightness than the Black Bush. And I have long had a soft spot for ubiquitous Jameson’s. While not a particularly complex whiskey, it’s reliably smooth and tasty. I drink Irish whiskey in the same way I drink Scotch, which is with a brief splash of water to open it up and diffuse the aromas and flavors. But, naturally, have it any way you like. And, though I’m sure I’ll be enjoying Irish whiskey on March 17 while giddily spinning around some dark hole of a bar to the gravelly howl of Shane MacGowan, I may sneak a wee dram a couple of days earlier and see if the water of life can inject some life into the Ides of March.