Our morning in Kinsale was spent walking through the downtown area shopping. It was an absolutely gorgeous morning and Joe & Kaylene opted to sleep in the cars to wait as Bettina, Tracy, Kelly & I opted to soak up as much of the environment as we could.
It was low tide at the harbor and all of the boats were stuck in the mud but it was still an amazing sight to see. We sat on the harbor wall just watching the fish in the 1 foot of water come in to the bugs from the surface. To say that our morning was relaxing might be an understatement. Kaylene & Joe missed out!!
After we spend more time than we had planned soaking up the scenery & stores, it was back to the road we went as we had more sights to see. On the way from Kinsale to Scarrif where the cottage is we first had to stop at a very important location that is near and dear to Kelly's heart. Thats right, we had to stop at Jameson!!
Now on the off chance that someone reading this doesn't know what Jameson is, it is a distillery of whiskey. Not any whiskey, Kelly's favorite drink & go to drink of choice outside of Guinness. Tracy navigated us there with no issues. She claims she is not a drinker & she had taken her first shot of Jameson only days before so perhaps she was drawn to it like a magnet, I'm not saying anything but me thinks she may have enjoyed the Jameson more than she was willing to admit :)
When you walk up the path to the distillery the the first thing you see is a pristine copper distiller. It is set in the ground in a patch of green that is so vividly green it looks unreal. Behind the distiller is the first view of the old/original distillery, a grey building with dozens of bright red doors dotting the side of the building. We would later find out that there were so many doors on all the levels to help contain the location of a fire if one were to break out as the grains were being dried.
Upon entering the building the next thing you see is a gorgeous chandelier. It is 5 tiers of the green Jameson bottle and it practically glows from within. Who knew that a light built from empty whiskey bottles could be so pretty. I'm not even a whiskey drinker and I found it to be very cool :) Our tour was lead by Sinead (not the once popular bald Irish singer, rather a cute little girl with a full head of blonde hair!) The tour is of the old restored distillery where Jameson was started. Its all very educational, but lets get real, Kelly was more excited that he would get to sample their product. Not only that, he & Bettina volunteered to be official tasters who to to compare Jameson to Johnny Walker & Jack Daniels so they could taste the difference that Sinead had just been explaining to us during the tour. They both confirm that you can tell that Johnny walker dries their grains over an open wood fire as they could taste the smoky taste in the whiskey. If I remember correctly their order of preference was Jameson, Jack & lastly Johnny. What really matters is that the two of them were given certificates verifying that they are officially qualified to now be Jameson taste testers!!
The rest of us were given the option of a Jameson shot or a mixed drink using Jameson (we didn't get the Johnny Walker or Jack). Believe what you will, but I actually turned down the Jameson shot/mixed drink as again, I'm not a whiskey drinker. Guinness I'll take, whiskey not so much. What I did take a way is an appreciation that I didn't have before as every single bottle of Jameson is distilled at this location. It is not made anywhere else in the world as Jameson has only the 1 distillery to date!
Enough talk about whiskey for now....its time to get to the cottage!
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