Murphy's Blended Irish Whiskey

[Tyson L]

i got this bottle of Murphys blended irish whiskey form a buddy of mine. ive never heard of it before so naturally i went to the net to source some info, but i cant find anything other than it seems it came from Midleton Irish whiskey distillery...
if anyone knows about the distillery or the whiskey i would love to hear what you have to say.

thanks much

[John]

Welcome to the IWS forum Tyson! Not sure I have an answer for you at the moment but there are plenty of Midleton gurus here so I'm sure one of them will pick up the gauntlet
All the best,
John.

[TheWhiskeyBro]

Hi there Tyson L, welcome to the forum:

Murphy's Blended Irish Whiskey & Murphys Premium Irish Whiskey are indeed from the Midleton distillery.

The former was for the export market and the latter sold in Ireland, it is thought to be a blend of 50% grain/50% malt, it originally consisted of a 3/4 year old grain and 10 year old malt as far as we know.

It was withdrawn from US Market in 1988, and discontinued here in Ireland around 2004.

The whiskey was a competitor of Dunphy's and latterly targeted for use in the Irish Coffee market in the US.

This inexpensive blend would be described as a 'light and refreshing whiskey',

It would be great if you could post a picture of the bottle for our information, many thanks TWB

[IrishWhiskeyChaser]

Moved from Introduction area to Whiskey.

Thanks for posting Tyson and looking forward to hearing more of you thoughts on whiskey.

Welcome to the forum.

[rathbeggan]

I had a bottle of Murphy's c. 10 years ago, and very much enjoyed it. Lovely stuff in my opinion, a lot nicer than Dunphy's - in a different league. I don't have any notes but I have fond memories. I have an unopened bottle and am looking forward to having it someday. No longer available as far as I know.

What did you think yourself Tyson? Have you tried it yet?

I'll post a photo sometime once I get a scanner.

[Whiskey Pilgrim]

Kaixo Chico´s
A bottle of Murphys sits proudly in Gernika.dont know about the whiskey as its sealed, but as a collectors piece it has a curious label and top,,which always draws a few comments..

[IrishWhiskeyChaser]

Yes an interesting whiskey and not the worst whiskey in the world, I would describe it as a pleasent blend but nothing special. Not being produced any more but still available f your lucky enough to know somewhere off the beaten track so more of a curiousity than a collectable though.

edit ...

Here's a pic of the last version that was on sale in Ireland.

[Mr Booze]

Greetings,

I have come across a bottle of Murphy's Irish Whiskey and was curious if anyone has any information. It was gotten in the US. The label looks like this:



The back label is instructions for making Irish coffee and the importer is Buckingham Wile Company, NY New York. Is it really from the 80s? How curious.

I'll break it open this weekend and decide how it tastes. Cheers!

[TheWhiskeyBro]

I haven't seen this version before, possibly a US distributor continued to get Murphys in the US as a private retail own brand style arrangement. Can you check the bottle for a bottling code in small overprint on the reverse label or machine printed somewhere on the glass bottle itself, that might help with dating the bottle, and to see if it is post 1988.

[Mr Booze]

Well I didn't see any dates on the back label. I have a picture of it here:



The bottom of the bottle had several series of numbers on it, so I can't really tell if any of them indicated a bottling date. However, based on some research about the distributor the Buckingham Wile Company of New York would indicate that this is an old bottle. It is possible, but improbable, that it is from the 80s.

I thought it tasted a lot like Paddy's.

[TheWhiskeyBro]

Looking at the front picture is there a series of inkjet printed numbers low down on the bottle near the base?

If you can't find any trace of any inkjet printed numbers on the bottle (put up to the light to see),
then it is likely that the bottling is pre 1992/1993 when the first batch/bottling codes appeared on Irish Whiskey bottles.


Cheers

[IrishWhiskeyChaser]

..... pre 1992/1993 when the first batch/bottling codes appeared on Irish Whiskey bottles.

Cheers

How sure are you that IDL used this system at that time? The reason I'm saying this is I don't think Cooley did it till the late 90's and I don't remember seeing any IDL bottles coded prior to 99.

That is not to say there isn't just I've not noticed any.

The Millennium Bushmills have the code but the likes of Hewitts which uses the same bottle don't.

[Mr Booze]

There are numbers embossed on the bottle's side and bottom, but none that would indicate a date. Just random numbers. I suspect that, because the label's age and the lack of information about both the brand and the distributor, that this is a hold over from the 80s.

If anyone else is interested in this curiosity there were about a half dozen bottles left on the shelf as of a week ago. This place also still has bottles of the old Jameson 12 1780, the one with the picture on the bottle.

[varizoltan]

There are numbers embossed on the bottle's side and bottom, but none that would indicate a date. Just random numbers. I suspect that, because the label's age and the lack of information about both the brand and the distributor, that this is a hold over from the 80s.

If anyone else is interested in this curiosity there were about a half dozen bottles left on the shelf as of a week ago.

bottling code usually goes on the bottom of the bottle or bottom of back label

L7093 was bottled in 200"7" and 093 is production date code
L9181 is 2009 181
L10025 is 2010 025 and so on

the reason they have this, to keep tracks in case of any hygiene and quality issues, so they will know as far as who was working on that day, and so on

you can see code on the neck of the bottle on screw cap bottles, but on cork bottles is hidden under the foil what you usually not take off like;
A4L 03:41
19/10/08

these are the actual (glass) making day of the bottle starting with code, time and date, on this example 19th october 2008, 03:41am

[TheWhiskeyBro]

Mr Booze post in his blog:

http://misterbooze.blogspot.com/2010/07 ... iskey.html

[IrishWhiskeyChaser]

This place also still has bottles of the old Jameson 12 1780, the one with the picture on the bottle.

That is a possible way of dating the Murphy's too ... it would stand to reason that they are of a similar era.

The 1780 with the Picture (HERE) is 1980's possibly up to early 90's when it was replaced by this (HERE)

[Mr Booze]

Hey there, sorry about the delay. I took the bottle camping and we finished it off and it was disposed of. So I couldn't give you the numbers on the bottle. However I did finally make it back to the liquor store to see what I could see. There is some embossing on the bottom of the bottle, but I can't make heads or tails of it. There is the number 33 inside of a circle. There are also the numbers 1845, 85, and 55. Sorry, no great pictures this time. Maybe the 85 is 1985? I have no idea, but it is a likely culprit.

I was having a hard time making up my mind and decided on a bottle of bourbon instead. Yeah, I know, but hear me out. It was Sunny Brook bourbon, with the National Distillers label on it. They were bought out by Jim Beam in 1987. And the bottom of the bottle has, among many numbers, 87. So what the heck, it was 11 bucks for a liter. I was actually just as close to getting a bottle of brandy from Moldova. Maybe next month.

Also, I recall buying a bottle of the Jameson 12 1780 with the picture at this store a few years back. I took a picture of it, but my flickr account expired. They also have the newer looking bottles in the second picture at this place.

So I guess they have some strange old whiskey at this place! From the 80s. Cue Flock of Seagulls...

[IrishWhiskeyChaser]

Also, I recall buying a bottle of the Jameson 12 1780 with the picture at this store a few years back. I took a picture of it, but my flickr account expired. They also have the newer looking bottles in the second picture at this place.

So I guess they have some strange old whiskey at this place! From the 80s. Cue Flock of Seagulls...

Even the Newer bottle is out of date and has been replaced by this

So it sounds like that shop is stuck in a time warp Flock of Sea gulls eat your heat out

However there is always a silver lining. Some of these old bottles are well worth trying.

[smee]

new to site and was looking this over. Have two bottles of this left. Maybe only one after today/tonight being StPat's day and all. My bottles little different than pictures posted will try to post a couple of photos later. Bought several bottles in state of Iowa, USA between 1976 and 1980. Family name is Murphy so have to keep some on hand.

mine say distilled and blended in Ireland, imported and bottled by Austin, Nichols & Co., Lawrenceville, Ky