Here’s my taste of Ireland…
Dublin
From the Fitzwilliam Hotel on St. Stephen’s Green, everything looks beautiful! Our merry band of nine started off with lunch at the Old Jameson Distillery (first Jameson and Ginger consumed in Ireland). The Irish Whiskey making history tour and “experience bar” set the tone for our trip—we would be eating and drinking constantly!
We had wonderful meals including a tasting dinner at Chapter One, which goes on my list of most fabulous meals. There was Pub crawling, Temple Bar hopping and the best nightcap spot, No. 27 Bar in the Shelbourne Hotel. I also had a chance to shop Grafton Street, visit the Irish Writers Museum, the National Gallery of Ireland, where I fell in love with Jack B. Yeats, and The Hugh Lane gallery. Of course I made it over to Trinity College to see the ancient Book of Kells and even took in a comedy “Grumpy Old Women” (not comments please!) at the gorgeous 140 year old Gaiety Theatre. In sum, even in the cold rain, Dublin rocks!
County Cork
Our group took the train for a couple of hours south to County Cork to experience the current Jameson Distillery and meet with the men behind the whiskey. We had behind the scenes tours of the whiskey making operation and got to meet one of Ireland’s three remaining Coopers. A Cooper is a chap who makes the wood barrels that store wine and spirits. Today most barrels or casks are made by machine, but it still takes a Cooper to repair them. He was charming!
All full of whiskey expertise, we had a special dinner in the Jameson Master Distiller's cottage. Barry Crockett, the Master Distiller, was actually raised in the cottage since the honor was passed down from father to son, like the Cooper trade. I started to wonder what I'll do back at home without a perfectly paired tasting menu presented to me for dinner each night. Oh, and did I mention that I’m falling in love with Irish Whiskey?
OK, if I had to cook these fabulous meals myself, I'd enroll in the Ballymaloe Cookery School (http://www.cookingisfun.ie/) which we visited before another fabulous lunch at the Ballymaloe House. Ballymaloe is an Irish manor house on a rural 200 acre estate. I would say it doesn’t get much better than this, but it does. The highlight of our trip was our stay in Castlemartyr Hotel (http://www.castlemartyrresort.ie/), a classic 18th century manor house located next to the ruins of an 800 year old castle built by knights. The history is presented in five star luxury. The bar was formerly a chapel, but the spa and swimming pool were all brand new. They opened the hotel just for our Jameson group, so it felt like we all had a private staff. My Irish country experience is complete!
Slรกinte!
