Wakey Whiskey: Jameson Caskmates Stout Edition Irish Whiskey

By Eric Ducote

Good morning Tiger fans!  If I was a superstitious fan I'd be going straight back to some JPS 21-Year Rye after LSU laid the smack down on #2 UGA last week, but I'm not superstitious and I don't really believe that my whiskey choices have any impact on a football game.  That said, it's always been a fun tradition that started in my tailgating days to start off a big day with a wakey whiskey.  That tradition has evolved past tailgating into all game days, and even birthdays, holidays, weddings, and other special events.  If it's a cause for celebration, it's a cause for some wakey whiskey!

With that noted, I'm of course going to feature a new whiskey today, as you're here to read about the beverage and it would be boring to write about the same one every time LSU wins, right? There's only so much I could have said about the Roaming Man Tennessee Straight Rye whiskey that I started off the season with, and you would have had 5 weeks of that one!  So this week, an Irish Whiskey with a twist, the Jameson Caskmates Stout Edition.  This one starts out as a standard batch of Jameson Irish Whiskey, and then is aged further in barrels that were used to age an Irish craft-brewed stout.  

Jameson Caskmates Stout Edition Irish Whiskey

The color is basically the same as regular Jameson, golden with hints of orange.   The nose is smooth, with hints of honeysuckle, mineral water, and a hint of fruit.  There's a minimal 'burn' on this whiskey, as it's triple distilled in the Irish tradition and bottled at 80 proof.  The result is an extremely smooth sipping whiskey, with a hint of chocolate malt notes on the taste combined with the fruit and honey flavors of the base whiskey.  It finishes easy with another little hint of chocolate.

Overall, I really enjoy this whiskey, although I don't know that I really get much 'stout' out of it.  I think it would have been even better with more time in those beer barrels, but I also feel like it's a lot harder to impart the beer flavors into a whiskey than it is to pull whiskey flavors into a beer.  I admire the creativity to mix up the process, and at a reasonable price around $30, it's not a bad buy.  I'm going to have to try the IPA edition next, as I feel like hop flavors might work even better.  Until then, cheers, and GEAUX TIGERS!