Whiskey History: John Jameson

By Richard Thomas

Ironically, the biggest name in Irish whiskey is that of a Scotsman. John Jameson was born in 1740 in Scotland, and didn’t move to Ireland until he was 30 years old. Upon arriving in Ireland, Jameson was involved in the whiskey business, but it wasn’t until 1780 that the foundations of Jamesons were laid. That year saw Jameson buy the Bow Street Distillery in Dublin.

Skipping the myths and sticking to the facts, Jameson was a confident, aggressive businessman. He reputedly insisted on the highest quality grain and barely for his Irish whiskey, personally selecting the ingredients himself. However, it is certain that it was John Jameson who ordered his new distillery to go from double to triple distillation. That extra round of distillation is a signature feature of Irish whiskey today, but was not as common in the late 18th Century. John Jameson didn’t invent triple distillation, but his success firmly established it in Irish whiskey-making.

When he bought the Bow Street Distillery, it was producing 30,000 gallons of whiskey a year. Two decades later, Jameson’s company was producing over one million gallons annually.

John Jameson died in 1823, long after he handed the reins to his son, John Jameson II, who would further expand the company. Even so, Jameson’s accomplishments were significant. One way to look at what Jameson did is that turned his distillery into one of the biggest outfits in the what was then the world’s leading distillery town. In so doing, he had substantial influence on the development of Irish whiskey as we know it today.