Drinking in Dublin

I’m no lush, but it’s hard to go to Ireland and not have a drink or two or ten. Alcohol consumption is one of the country’s favorite pastimes, says our taxi driver as we leave the airport. “But, I don’t drink,” he adds. “I get a lot of strange looks when I tell that to people.”

I understand how he feels because I don’t drink beer, but whiskey is another story altogether. So, while the Guinness Factory tour isn’t high on my list of activities, I make it a point to visit the Old Jameson Distillery in the heart of Dublin.

Located on a cobblestone side street, the nearly 250-year-old building plays host to visitors from around the world coming to the epicenter of whiskey production in Ireland. John Jameson founded the distillery in 1780 and by the beginning of the 1800s, he was head of the biggest distillery in the world.

While the facility no longer is used for producing the liquid gold that made the Jameson family very wealthy — those operations moved to Cork — tours provide the history of the brand, shows how whiskey is made step by step and gives visitors an opportunity to try the smooth, triple-filtered product. Eight lucky volunteers on each tour participate in a tasting that pits Jameson against Johnny Walker Black and America’s own Jack Daniels.

I’m pretty sure my hand went up first to volunteer.

After watching “the greatest film ever made in the history of the world” — a period drama/infomercial that introduces visitors to the production process during the early days, through though the eyes of a journalist coming to interview Jameson — we were guided from room to room through the process of converting barley, malt and water into a the spirit that was first created by monks trying to make perfume. Jameson is made with varying amounts of raw barley and sprouted and roasted barley that is mixed together and fermented, then mixed and stored in wooden barrels that previously were used either to store sherry in Spain or whiskey in the United States. In all, there are 37 different varieties of Jameson created by the various combinations, including the Reserve label, sold only at the Dublin facility.

As the tour comes to a close, a television screen suddenly becomes a window and through it, we see the tasting room bar covered with cups of mixed drinks. I heading through the door first (one of the perks of being chosen as a taster), I scoop up a Jameson and cranberry before finding a seat at the tasting table.

Sitting between a Russian and Swede, we smell, then taste, the first sample at the urging of the guide. This is not a blind taste test at all; he tells us right away the Jameson is first. It smells like honey and vanilla and the taste is smooth. The second sample is Jack Daniels, which is made with corn. The whiskey is distilled only once and matured in new white oak barrels. It is sweet. Finally, we taste the Johnny Walker Black that smells smoky. It’s a 12-year-old whiskey that is distilled twice.

Well, which one do you like best, the guide asks. “There’s no wrong answer, but one right one.”

Laughing, most of us hold the Jameson in front of us, but some rebels chose poorly.

In the end, I walked — crookedly — out of the distillery with a certificate in my hand to prove that I’m a certifiable whiskey drinker now.

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The Old Jameson Distillery, Bow St., Smithfield, Dublin 7; +353 1 807 2355, jamesonwhisky.com
Open Monday to Saturday from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m., Sunday from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.; One-hour tours cost 13 euro for adults