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Jameson ( or ) is a blended
Irish whiskey Irish whiskey ( ga, Fuisce or ''uisce beatha'') is whiskey made on the island of Ireland. The word 'whiskey' (or whisky) comes from the Irish , meaning ''water of life''. Irish whiskey was once the most popular spirit in the world, though a lo ...
produced by the Irish Distillers subsidiary of
Pernod Ricard Pernod Ricard () is a French company best known for its anise-flavoured pastis apéritifs Pernod Anise and Ricard Pastis (often referred to simply as ''Pernod'' or '' Ricard''). The world’s second-largest wine and spirits seller, it also pr ...
. Originally one of the six main
Dublin Dublin (; , or ) is the capital and largest city of Ireland. On a bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the province of Leinster, bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, a part of the Wicklow Mountains range. At the 2016 ...
Whiskeys at the Jameson Distillery Bow St., Jameson is now distilled at the New Midleton Distillery in
County Cork County Cork ( ga, Contae Chorcaí) is the largest and the southernmost county of Ireland, named after the city of Cork, the state's second-largest city. It is in the province of Munster and the Southern Region. Its largest market towns ar ...
. It is by far the best-selling Irish whiskey in the world; in 2019, annual sales passed 8 million cases. It has been sold internationally since the early 19th century, and is available to buy in over 130 countries.


Company history


John Jameson and his family

John Jameson (1740 – 1823) was originally a lawyer from
Alloa Alloa (Received Pronunciation ; educated Scottish pronunciation /ˈaloʊa/; gd, Alamhagh, possibly meaning "rock plain") is a town in Clackmannanshire in the Central Lowlands of Scotland. It is on the north bank of the Forth at the spot where ...
in
Scotland Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to th ...
before he founded his
eponym An eponym is a person, a place, or a thing after whom or which someone or something is, or is believed to be, named. The adjectives which are derived from the word eponym include ''eponymous'' and ''eponymic''. Usage of the word The term ''epon ...
ous distillery in Dublin in 1780. Previous to founding the distillery, he married Margaret Haig (1753–1815) in 1768. She was the eldest daughter of John Haig, the famous whisky distiller in Scotland. John and Margaret had a family of 16 children, eight sons and eight daughters. Portraits of the couple by Sir Henry Raeburn are on display in the
National Gallery of Ireland The National Gallery of Ireland ( ga, Gailearaí Náisiúnta na hÉireann) houses the national collection of Irish and European art. It is located in the centre of Dublin with one entrance on Merrion Square, beside Leinster House, and another o ...
. John Jameson joined the Convivial Lodge No. 202, of the Dublin Freemasons on 24 June 1774 and in 1780, Irish whiskey distillation began at
Bow Street Bow Street is a thoroughfare in Covent Garden, Westminster, London. It connects Long Acre, Russell Street and Wellington Street, and is part of a route from St Giles to Waterloo Bridge. The street was developed in 1633 by Francis Russell ...
. In 1805, he was joined by his son John Jameson II who took over the family business that year, and for the next 41 years, John Jameson II built up the business before handing over to his son John Jameson the 3rd in 1851. In 1901, the Company was formally incorporated as John Jameson and Son Ltd. Four of John Jameson's sons followed his footsteps in distilling in Ireland, John Jameson II (1773 – 1851) at Bow Street, William and James Jameson at Marrowbone Lane in Dublin (where they partnered their Stein relations, calling their business Jameson and Stein, before settling on William Jameson & Co.). The fourth of Jameson's sons, Andrew, who had a small distillery at Enniscorthy, Co. Wexford, was the grandfather of
Guglielmo Marconi Guglielmo Giovanni Maria Marconi, 1st Marquis of Marconi (; 25 April 187420 July 1937) was an Italian inventor and electrical engineer, known for his creation of a practical radio wave-based wireless telegraph system. This led to Marconi b ...
, inventor of wireless telegraphy. Marconi's mother was Annie Jameson, Andrew's daughter. John Jameson's eldest son, Robert, took over his father's legal business in Alloa. The Jamesons became the most important distilling family in Ireland, despite rivalry between the Bow Street and Marrowbone Lane distilleries.


19th century and turbulent times

By the turn of the 19th century, it was the second largest producer in Ireland and one of the largest in the world, producing 1,000,000 gallons annually. Dublin at the time was the centre of world whiskey production. It was the second most popular spirit in the world after rum and internationally Jameson had by 1805 become the world's number one whiskey. Today, Jameson is the world's third largest single-distillery whiskey. Historical events, for a time, set the company back. The
temperance movement The temperance movement is a social movement promoting temperance or complete abstinence from consumption of alcoholic beverages. Participants in the movement typically criticize alcohol intoxication or promote teetotalism, and its leaders emph ...
in Ireland had an enormous impact domestically but the two key events that affected Jameson were the
Irish War of Independence The Irish War of Independence () or Anglo-Irish War was a guerrilla war fought in Ireland from 1919 to 1921 between the Irish Republican Army (1919–1922), Irish Republican Army (IRA, the army of the Irish Republic) and United Kingdom of Gre ...
and subsequent trade war with the British which denied Jameson the export markets of the
Commonwealth A commonwealth is a traditional English term for a political community founded for the common good. Historically, it has been synonymous with " republic". The noun "commonwealth", meaning "public welfare, general good or advantage", dates from th ...
, and shortly thereafter, the introduction of prohibition in the United States. While Scottish brands could still be legally shipped to Canada (from where they could be easily smuggled across the Canada–US border) Jameson was excluded from its biggest market for many years. The introduction of
column still A column still, also called a continuous still, patent still or Coffey still is a variety of still consisting of two columns. Column stills can produce rectified spirit (95% ABV). Description The first column (called the analyzer) in a column ...
s by the Scottish blenders in the mid-19th-century enabled increased production that the Irish, still making labour-intensive single pot still whiskey, could not compete with. There was a legal enquiry somewhere in 1908 to deal with the trade definition of whiskey. The Scottish producers won within some jurisdictions, and blends became recognised in the law of that jurisdiction as whiskey. The Irish in general, and Jameson in particular, continued with the traditional pot still production process for many years.


Creation of the Irish Distillers Group

In 1966 John Jameson merged with Cork Distillers and John Powers to form the Irish Distillers Group. In 1976, the Dublin whiskey distilleries of Jameson in Bow Street and in John's Lane were closed following the opening of a New Midleton Distillery by Irish Distillers outside Cork. The Midleton Distillery now produces much of the Irish whiskey sold in Ireland under the Jameson, Midleton, Powers, Redbreast, Spot and Paddy labels. The new facility adjoins the Old Midleton Distillery, the original home of the Paddy label, which is now home to the Jameson Experience Visitor Centre and the Irish Whiskey Academy. The Jameson brand was acquired by the French drinks conglomerate
Pernod Ricard Pernod Ricard () is a French company best known for its anise-flavoured pastis apéritifs Pernod Anise and Ricard Pastis (often referred to simply as ''Pernod'' or '' Ricard''). The world’s second-largest wine and spirits seller, it also pr ...
in 1988 when it bought Irish Distillers. The old Jameson Distillery in Bow Street near Smithfield in Dublin now serves as a museum which offers tours and tastings. The distillery, which is historical in nature and no longer produces whiskey on site, went through a $12.6 million renovation that was concluded in March 2016, and is now a focal part of Ireland's strategy to raise the number of whiskey tourists, which stood at 600,000 in 2017. Bow Street also now has a fully functioning Maturation Warehouse within its walls since the 2016 renovation. It is here that Jameson 18 Bow Street is finished before being bottled at Cask Strength.


Sales

Sales volume passed 8 million cases in 2019, a new high for the brand, and including sales of 940,000 cases in December alone. It had previously passed 1 million cases in 1996, and 3 million in 2010. In 2008 The Local, an Irish pub in
Minneapolis Minneapolis () is the largest city in Minnesota, United States, and the county seat of Hennepin County. The city is abundant in water, with list of lakes in Minneapolis, thirteen lakes, wetlands, the Mississippi River, creeks and waterfalls. ...
, sold 671 cases of Jameson (22 bottles a day), making it the largest server of Jameson's in the world – a title it maintained for four consecutive years.


Production process

Jameson is produced from a blend of grain whiskey and single pot still whiskey, which uses a mixture of
malt Malt is germinated cereal grain that has been dried in a process known as " malting". The grain is made to germinate by soaking in water and is then halted from germinating further by drying with hot air. Malted grain is used to make beer, ...
ed and unmalted or "green" Irish
barley Barley (''Hordeum vulgare''), a member of the grass family, is a major cereal grain grown in temperate climates globally. It was one of the first cultivated grains, particularly in Eurasia as early as 10,000 years ago. Globally 70% of barley ...
, all sourced from within a fifty-mile radius around the distillery in Cork. The barley is dried in a closed
kiln A kiln is a thermally insulated chamber, a type of oven, that produces temperatures sufficient to complete some process, such as hardening, drying, or chemical changes. Kilns have been used for millennia to turn objects made from clay int ...
fired by natural gas (formerly
anthracite Anthracite, also known as hard coal, and black coal, is a hard, compact variety of coal that has a submetallic luster. It has the highest carbon content, the fewest impurities, and the highest energy density of all types of coal and is the hig ...
coal). This is in contrast to the traditional method used in some Scotch whisky distilleries, which fire the kiln with peat, adding a distinctive peat flavour.


Awards

Jameson products – in particular its 18-Year and its Rarest Reserve – have rated very highly at international spirit ratings competitions. The 18-Year received a series of gold and double gold medals at the San Francisco World Spirits Competition between 2005 and 2010. The Rarest Reserve has won gold and double gold medals there as well. Rarest Reserve is rated as one of the Top 20 whiskies in the world by Proof66. In 2018 Jameson 18-Year-Old Bow Street won Best Irish Blended Whiskey RRP of €60/$72 or more at the Irish Whiskey Awards.


Personal

John Jameson was also the great grandfather of inventor
Guglielmo Marconi Guglielmo Giovanni Maria Marconi, 1st Marquis of Marconi (; 25 April 187420 July 1937) was an Italian inventor and electrical engineer, known for his creation of a practical radio wave-based wireless telegraph system. This led to Marconi b ...
.


See also

* Irish whiskey brands *
Scotch whisky Scotch whisky (; sco, Scots whisky/whiskie, whusk(e)y; often simply called whisky or Scotch) is malt whisky or grain whisky (or a blend of the two), made in Scotland. All Scotch whisky was originally made from malted barley. Commercial dist ...
*


References


External links

* {{Coord, 53, 20, 54.15, N, 6, 16, 35.61, W, region:IE_type:landmark, display=title Irish alcoholic drinks Irish brands Irish whiskey Pernod Ricard brands