Jameson Irish Whiskey - Company History

Company History

When John Jameson, a Scottish businessman, acquired the Bow Street Distillery in 1780, it was producing about 30,000 gallons annually. By the turn of the 19th century, it was the second largest producer in Ireland and one of the largest in the world, producing 1,000,000 gallons annually. Dublin at the time was the centre of world whiskey production. It was the second most popular spirit in the world after rum and internationally Jameson had by 1805 become the world's number one whiskey. Today, Jameson is the world's third largest single-distillery whiskey.

Historical events, for a time, set the company back. The temperance movement in Ireland had an enormous impact domestically but the two key events that affected Jameson were the Irish War of Independence and subsequent trade war with the British which denied Jameson the export markets of the Commonwealth, and shortly thereafter, the introduction of prohibition in the United States. While Scottish brands could easily slip across the Canadian border, Jameson was excluded from its biggest market for many years.

The introduction of column stills by the Scottish blenders in the mid-19th-century enabled increased production that the Irish, still using the Pure Pot Still, could not compete with. There was a legal enquiry in 1908 to deal with the trade definition of whiskey. The Scottish producers won and blends became recognised in law as whiskey. The Irish in general, and Jameson in particular, stubbornly continued with the traditional Pure Pot Still production process for many years and to this day much of Jameson remains Pure Pot. Jameson also produces a special limited edition Pure Pot Still Whiskey named Redbreast, as a celebration of the ancient Irish craft of whiskey making.

In 1966 John Jameson joined forces with Cork Distillers and John Powers to form the Irish Distillers Group. The New Midleton Distillery built by Irish Distillers produces most of the Irish whiskey sold in Ireland. The new facility adjoins the old one, now a tourist attraction. The Jameson brand was acquired by French drinks conglomerate Pernod Ricard in 1988, when it bought Irish Distillers.

In 2008 The Local, an Irish pub in Minneapolis, sold 671 cases of Jameson (22 bottles a day.) making it the largest server of Jameson's in the world, a title it has maintained for four consecutive years.