Visitors (especially paying ones) have a right to be informed accurately. But, their significance should not be downplayed.
These were small fictions, sweet little lies used to add romance to the notion of Irish whiskey and uniqueness to Tullamore’s products over and above those of their competitors. I’m sure colleagues more learned than I would doubtless be able to add several more to this list. Granted, the amalgamation of all three styles of Irish whiskey is far from common, but Tullamore is * not* the only example – you don’t have to look far to find a bottle of Paddy’s produced at Jameson’s Midleton Distillery - another triple blended whiskey. It’s a surprisingly neat analogy, but one which once again came delivered with another entirely unnecessary untruth: “Tullamore is the only Irish whiskey that’s triple blended”. From the triangle-shaped spirit safe to triple distillation and onto the combination of malt, grain and pot distillate types – triple blending. Later, our group was ‘educated’ in all things three-sided – which turns out to be a running thread at Tullamore. Upon correction (with brief explanation as to why his statement was sweepingly inaccurate), he settled on the equally as erroneous: “OK, well, all Highland whisky is peated”. Despite his friendly demeanour and charming manner (he really was a desperately nice chap), there was simply no way I was going to let this level of utter misinformation pass. Ten minutes into my tour at Tullamore and my face probably looked something similar to this:Īfter the first of several relatively informative videos, our guide kicked off the barley section of the tour with the opening gambit of: “The main difference between Irish whiskey and Scottish whisky is that all Scottish whisky is peated”. It also provides me with a barometer as to how distilleries are educating and informing their visitors. As a writer, it allows me a break from the in-depth and the technical – an aid to focussing my mind on the wider implications of distilling (which I find are generally much more interesting and nuanced than ten-a-penny tasting notes). These guys probably don’t want or need the level of technical information that us enthusiasts yearn for – but, for the preservation of whisky’s integrity, they too deserve an honest and accurate account.Įvery once in a while I sign myself up for a basic distillery tour – rudimentals, fundamentals, barley, water & yeast. Visit any larger (or better known) distillery and you’ll immediately see that most of its visitors are simply day-trippers who have added a basic distillery tour into their busy holiday schedules. It can, and it should be, about a whole lot more than an end of tour tasting table. Along with practical information, there’s a host of culturally relevant knowledge that grounds the significance of whisky and distilling into both a location’s past, as well as its possible future. The educational benefits of distillery tourism go far beyond solely pandering to die-hard malt fans. Bottle Name: Tullamore Dew 18 year old ABV: 41.3%
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