Dublin - Jameson Bow St Experience

I know it was only about five minutes ago I was saying that I don't really drink gin. People might just stop believing me on my drinking habits soon, but I don't drink whiskey either. 

Still, while we were in Dublin, and practically walking past The Jameson Bow St Distillery, it felt only right that we call in and learn a bit more about one of Ireland's most well-loved exports.

You can pre-book tickets (it's a guided tour so you'll need a specific time slot) but we thought we'd take our chances and just call in, getting tickets for The Bow St Experience about 45 minutes after our arrival. There's a couple of nice places nearby to grab food and/or a drink before you get started, including a very nice Jameson bar. 

You do get a free drink with the tour tickets too and were told we could have this before our tour but we thought we'd ave it 'til after so it was more of an 'informed and educated' drink, so popped just outside to Jo'Burgers for delicious burgers and home made lemonade, mmmm! 

While we waited for our guide we had chance to peruse the Jameson Timeline Wall, which took you right from the company's humble beginnings, through the ups and downs of war years and prohibition, and really highlighting the importance of Jameson to the city of Dublin (these guys were such huge and important employers, they even had a cat on the payroll.)

The tour consisted of the group (not huge, maybe around 20-25?) being shepherded through a small number of rooms covering different aspects of the history of Jameson, the distillery process, and everyone's favourite - the whiskey tasting! 

The site has recently had a massive refurb, and (though I can't compare it to what it was like before) is looking great. The interactive exhibits throughout the tour look so shiny and new. There was plenty to touch, smell and taste along with some impressive visual effects, and it felt like as comprehensive education as you could fit into a 40 minute timeslot.

The tasting session was a comparison between Jameson, a traditional Scottish Whisky and an American one. One of our fellow tour group guys managed to impress us all by identifying each of the mystery drinks by taste alone, while another woman in our group had the most brilliant 'I don't like whiskey' tasting faces! 

I promise I'm not just sucking up when I say the Jameson was definitely my favourite of the three! 

Jameson Whiskey is no longer distilled at the Bow Street site, the operations were all moved to Cork a fair while ago, but this was the original site and despite the refurb, they've managed to maintain a couple of the original features. 

This homage to the beginnings of the company alongside some really impressive new fixtures results in a grand looking attraction that reflects the synergy between the important past of the company and its bright future.

We had plenty of time to sit and appreciate how handsome the bar area is while we had our free drink. There was a choice of a Jameson neat of on the rocks, or their newest offering - with ginger beer and lime. Despite what I said about not being a whiskey drinker earlier, this was actually lovely and I'd definitely drink it again! (I told you you'd stop believing me about my drinking habits!) There were a number of Jameson cocktails available at the bar too! 

The Bow St Experience tour costs 20 euros, but it was easy to find leaflets across the city offering a couple of euros off. They also offer a couple of more intense Jamesons experiences for the experts but this was a great beginners tour!