johnalison
Well-Known Member
According to something I saw a few years ago, Ireland dominated the whisky/whiskey business until a couple of hundred years ago when a new form of still was invented that would produce the drink much more efficiently. As the story goes, the Irish rejected the idea because it affected the quality, so it was taken up by the Scots who made a killing by flooding the market with much cheaper blended whisky. It is really only in the last forty years or so that malt whisky has come to the fore, while Irish has for a long time been a niche product in the UK generally. I buy Irish occasionally, but although I quite enjoy it, it does have a slightly odd character which is not really what I am looking for.Very few Irish whiskeys are peated, but I agree that there's a different flavour to them, not sure why - maybe just different practices in terms of brewing, distillation etc?
My FiL used to drink Famous Grouse. At that time, in the ‘70s, I think it was probably a lot better and had a higher malt content than other brands that were better known at the time.

