This St. Patrick's Day, Sip On The World's Most Expensive Irish Whiskey

Throughout the 18th and early 19th Century Irish whiskey was the most consumed spirit in the world. After a long period of decline it has reemerged to become the fastest-growing global liquor category. It's universal appeal is largely owed to approachability. Liquid from the Emerald Isle is as warm and inviting as the folks who make it; sweet, smooth, and rounded. The fact that it's relatively inexpensive certainly doesn't hurt either. Look at the most popular examples on the shelf today. Jameson retails at around $20 a bottle. Entry-level Bushmills is $16. Conor McGregor's headline-grabbing Proper No. 12 fetches just under $30. Slane is a triple-casked blend for just around the same. All of them well-crafted, well-matured, and priced less than a pint and a burger at the pub.

Then there's Teeling. Last September, the Dublin-based producer sold a bottle of three year old whiskey--aged in ex-Muscat wine barrels--for a staggering $13,000 at auction. If it sounds like a large number, that's because it is. In fact, it broke the world record for most expensive bottle ever from a new distillery. Why the stately sum? This was the first commercial release distilled in Ireland's capital since the early 1970s. The brand subsequently released 6,000 more bottles later in the year, none of which made it to American shelves.

But even if you could find it...Is it worth it? That depends on how much of a premium you place on history. The liquid inside the bottle comes from a recipe of 50% un-malted and 50% malted barley, made famous by the dozens of distilleries that once populated this part of Dublin. Owning it is a great way to celebrate a spirit that was reborn from the ashes, as the phoenix on its label suggests.

For the more modest sum of $2500, you could track down a 29-year-old bottle of Teeling, released earlier this year. It aged in a combination of ex-rum casks and sherry butts; less than a hundred bottles washed ashore in the US. If you're doing the math, you'll note that this juice could not have been produced at the Dublin Distillery, which only fired up in 2015. It was sourced from a 1989 run at Cooley, a high-volume distillery that the Teeling family sold to Jim Beam in 2011 for a reported $95 million. Unlike the world-record setter, this stuff offers more than just history. It's filled with the sort of dark and leathery complexities that only time in the barrel can provide.

And that's not even the oldest one on the market. In 1987, Knappogue Castle bottled a whiskey that sat in ex-sherry butts for 36 years. Today it is considered to be among the rarest releases from this part of the world. As recently as last year, it's been spotted on Irish and UK shelves at the relative bargain price of $2000. If you find it on pour at your local pub this St. Paddy's Day, you must truly have the luck of the Irish.