www.bushmills.com
www.jameson.ie
The word "whiskey"
descends from an English mangling of the Irish "uisce beathadh,"
or "water of life."
Manhole covers
in Dublin read "UISCE," a constant reminder that there's
drinking to be done.
St. Patrick's
Day Tippling Tip:
Rather than get
trampled in the crush of sodden amateurs at Portland's Irish
and not-so-Irish pubs, why not try drinking at one of these
spots:
The Irish Remedy:
One shot of Jameson served with a half-pint of black and
tan (stout and lager).
The Low Brow
Lounge, 1036 NW Hoyt St., 226-0200.
An English bar that matches local Irish joints for its
treatment of Dublin's black gold.
The Moon and
Sixpence, 2014 NE 42nd St., 288-7802.
Honor thy father with a shot each of Jameson
and Bushmills for $7.
My Father's
Place, 523 SE Grand Ave., 235-5494.
I didn't trek to Dublin for St. Patrick's Day two years
ago to see dozens of American high-school marching bands,
surrealist floats or "one of the lads from Boyzone." That,
however, was just what the Irish capital's gala parade offered.
Nor did I visit the Auld Sod to mix with thousands of Americans
in Notre Dame baseball caps, so I tried to act as Canadian
as possible.
Dublin is a gorgeous, graceful city, about the size of
Portland, populated by a friendly breed of young Irish go-getters
(demographically, it's the youngest city in Europe). It
has a cosmopolitan air without the megapolitan overload
of, say, London. I managed to do there a lot of what I went
to Ireland to do--drink.
Naturally, I made Guinness my standby during my stay, preferring
it to the municipal water supply. But when I needed variety
in my robust liquid diet, I had two choices: Bushmills
and Jameson.
Like most Irish dichotomies (North/ South, Republican/Unionist,
Catholic/ Protestant), the divide separating the two great
Irish whiskeys can incite violence. While there are intrinsic
differences between the two brands, you only have to look
at a map to get at the real root of the issue. Bushmills,
product of the oldest licensed distillery in the world,
is made in County Antrim, Northern Ireland. Jameson, founded
in Dublin's Bow Street in 1780, is now distilled in County
Cork, deep in the Republic.
Thus, a certain Hibernian hothead acquaintance of mine
dismissed Bushmills as "Protestant whiskey" and championed
Jameson--despite the fact that the old Dublin brand has
been safely in French corporate hands for years.
The artificial geographical divide between the two, in
fact, obscures the real differences between them. Rather
than focus on the Border, a sad legacy of British imperialism,
let us concentrate on the liquor.
Both whiskies are manufactured in a distinctively Irish
manner, drying their malt in smokeless kilns, eschewing
the swampy peat fuel that gives Scotch its flavor. Thus,
both are smoother than Scottish whiskies. Over ice, both
Bushmills and Jameson go down like the Titanic. Jameson
has a more muscular flavor than its northern rival, perhaps
because it's aged for seven years while Bushmills sits for
five.
At a recent sip-off at My Father's Place (where
$7 gets you a shot of each), a companion and I traded doses
of Irish pride back and forth until the lassie decided she
preferred Bushmills' lighter approach. For my part, I was
fine with Jameson's strength. We agreed to disagree, and
downed our choices in relative peace.
Would that all Irish disputes could be settled so easily.
Sláinte!
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Willamette Week | originally
published March 15,
2000
|
