Irish Whiskey Is Following Scotch’s High-End Strategy

Scotch whisky producers from the windswept shores of Islay to the banks of the River Spey have won devoted followers with offerings that emphasize the character of the grains and water that make up their spirits, helping quadruple global sales to more than $5 billion over the past three decades. Distillers across the Irish Sea have lagged in the hype sweepstakes, mostly offering blended variants—think Johnnie Walker rather than more exclusive Scottish single malts.

Led by Jameson Irish Whiskey (Ireland spells it with an e while Scotland doesn’t), producers today are bolstering high-end offerings to conjure up the aura of exclusivity that has burnished Scotch’s image. Jameson—which holds 70 percent of the global market for Irish whiskey, with 2016 sales of $730 million—last spring reopened its historic distillery in Dublin after an €11 million ($13 million) renovation. The facility takes a page from the Guinness Storehouse, the venerable brewery across the River Liffey that attracted 1.6 million visitors last year. Although Jameson’s facility hasn’t produced whiskey since 1971, tourists there can taste the goods and attend classes on, say, pairing whiskey with sherry sorbet or the proper way to add lemon zest to a cocktail. Under chandeliers made from Jameson bottles, they sample flights of the company’s products and peer through a glass floor to cellars where whiskey was once aged. Jameson has succeeded with “a very approachable, consistent type of whiskey,” says Jean-Christophe Coutures, chief executive officer of Irish Distillers, Jameson’s parent and the whiskey arm of France’s Pernod Ricard SA. “What we need to do now is go to the next level.”