Midleton Distillery in pictures

Last week, Jameson revealed some big news at its Midleton Distillery in County Cork, Ireland, treating guests to a plethora of tastings, tours and fascinating history lessons.

SB visited Jameson at its Midleton Distillery home for the launch of The Whiskey Makers Series

Hosted by some of the leading names at Irish Distillers Pernod Ricard, journalists, writers and bloggers from across the UK were invited to Midleton for a preview of Jameson’s new Whiskey Makers Series.

In addition, we spoke to executives first hand about the newly restructured Jameson portfolio – said to be the “most significant” move in the brand’s history.

Jameson’s portfolio is now comprised of four ranges that offer a ladder of products into the super-premium Irish whiskey sector, they are: The Heritage Series, The Deconstructed Series, The Whiskey Makers Series, in addition to the original Jameson expression.

The Whiskey Makers Series is comprised of three no-age-statement expressions created in collaboration with Jameson’s head blender Billy Leighton, head distiller Brian Nation, and head cooper Ger Buckley.

“The restructure of the Jameson family is the most significant move in our brand’s recent history,” said Daniel Lundberg, global brand director for Jameson. “This is an exceptionally exciting development that positions Jameson at the forefront of innovation and advance within the Irish whiskey category.”

Under uncharacteristic sunny Irish blue skies, SB attended the launch, and had a sneak peak around the Midleton Distillery and The Jameson Experience…

Click through the following pages to view a selection of images of our trip to the Midleton Distillery with Jameson.

Guests witnessed snippets of The Jameson Experience, meandering between buildings that date back as far as 1800 on their way to various tastings of the restructured Jameson range. Historical artefacts, such as this vintage delivery truck, made for pretty surroundings, in addition to the glorious sunshine.

Simon Fay (left), international marketing director for Irish Distillers, gave journalists a brief introduction to the new education-focused Jameson range – The Whiskey Makers Series – and explained the reasoning behind the brand’s portfolio restructure – described as the “most significant” move in Jameson’s history. “We knew we had to stay relevant to our consumer and evolve our super-premium portfolio. It was time for a rethink and a revamp,” he said. “We hadn’t really evolved the range for 15-20 years and we need to stay relevant. Consumers want to know about our history and heritage, and about the product itself.”

Jameson’s new Whiskey Makers Series consists of The Distiller’s Safe, created in collaboration with head distiller Brian Nation; The Cooper’s Coze, created in collaboration with head cooper Ger Buckley; and The Blender’s Dog, created in collaboration with head blender Billy Leighton. Nation, Leighton and Buckley worked on the range for four years ahead of its launch.

We then headed over to a tutored tasting with Dave McCabe, head of Jameson’s Whiskey Academy, who took us through the Heritage Series, which consists of super-premium Jameson Black Barrel, Jameson Crested and Jameson Signature.

Jameson Crested, a blend of pot still and grain whiskey, is a celebration of the first time the brand took its entire production processes in-house, moving bottling, sealing and labelling operations to Bow Street Distillery in Dublin.

We then moved on to the Tasting Lab, where Karen Cotter, who runs the new micro-distillery at Midleton, took us through the brand’s first travel retail exclusive whiskey range – The Deconstructed Series.

The super-premium range was developed in response to consumer demand for a “new language” to describe Irish whiskey, according to Cotter. Focused around flavour, the range consists of Bold, Lively and Round variants, which have all been designed to ‘deconstruct’ and communicate the individual flavours of Jameson Original.

Archivist Carol Quinn shed some fascinating insight on the storied history of Jameson inside the Distillers’ Cottage, where most of the brand’s historical artefacts are now kept. “Jameson is about the history of people and not just business,” said Quinn. “The Archive Centre aims to put some flesh on the bones of these people. When you have so much history, it’s not hard to find a good story.”

Quinn told guests that in its early days, Jameson could be bottled by anyone who purchased the liquid, such as a pub landlords, and so the quality of the liquid could not always be guaranteed. As such, the brand decided to move bottling in-house with the launch of Jameson Crested Ten, which was a “great success”. We also perused artefacts such as historic bottles, distillers’ desks and coopers’ employee cards.

Later, we enjoyed a range of cocktails created in collaboration with the team from New York bar Dead Rabbit Grocery & Grog using the new Whiskey Makers Series whiskeys as the base. At the same time, we met the whiskey makers themselves – Billy Leighton, Ger Buckley and Brian Nation – who spoke about their new range alongside Dave McCabe.

“The idea behind the range was to look at what makes the contribution of Jameson,” said Leighton, adding that the series reflects not only the production process of Jameson, but also the personalities of the whiskey makers themselves. All three makers worked together to ensure that stocks used for their individual variants were sustainable.

To round-off the trip, we were treated to a delectable meal – with each course created in collaboration with the makers to pair with their whiskeys. A medley of fish made up the starter, followed by succulent lamb for main and concluding on a comforting rhubarb crumble.