In a complicated landscape for spirits, Irish whiskey has demonstrated resilience worldwide, exhibiting growth where most other spirit categories have flatlined or declined. Despite being a well-established and popular category in the United States since before Prohibition, the craft Irish whiskey industry is still fairly young, with most distilleries entering the game in the last few decades.
On American retail shelves and backbars of late, there’s depth to the Irish whiskey category beyond Jameson and Bushmills, with myriad options available for enthusiasts to explore the category. Dublin’s storied Celtic Whiskey Shop and online store Master of Malt make a deep selection of Irish whiskeys available to US consumers via their willingness to pay tariff prices and for international shipping, so there are few bottles that are technically not at all available in the States, at least for home consumption.
When it comes to sipping whiskey on the Emerald Isle itself, though, you have the best opportunity to try brands or bottlings that you can’t get back home — at least not in most retail or bar settings. Even bestselling brands in the U.S. such as Jameson and Tullamore D.E.W. have distillery or bespoke blends that can only be bought or sampled at the source, and beyond those well-known labels, there is still much to explore for the intrepid Irish whiskey fan around the country. From limited release or special edition whiskeys to those from small or new producers that aren’t (yet) in the business of export to whiskeys bottled specifically by or for an Irish bar, these are seven, harder-to-come-by Irish whiskeys that you should seek out when you’re in Ireland.
