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Pick of the week Connemara Peated Single Malt ($64.95, product No. 475921). The flavour starts with honey and fruit, is followed by notes of vanilla and chocolate, and resolves into a smoky finish.

Millions of pints will be raised on Friday to honour a fifth-century saint, and that's just counting happy hour at the Dora Keogh pub on Toronto's Danforth Avenue.

Meanwhile, in homes across the country, people will celebrate St. Patrick's Day in similar fashion, and blue boxes will be piled high in the days that follow with the telltale evidence of yet another successful celebration: empties of Tylenol.

I hope to keep the hangover at bay by restricting myself to one can of Ireland's most famous beer (Guinness), and capping the night off with my preferred Celtic tipple, Irish whisky.

I'll also be toasting another, lesser-known son of the Emerald Isle, John Teeling.

Not heard of him? Teeling is the man credited with doing more to enhance Ireland's image as a whisky producer than anyone since St. Patrick, who reputedly introduced distilling to the country 1,500 years ago (although, for the record, most historians would dispute that legend as another blarney tale). A Harvard student in the 1970s, Teeling returned home frustrated at his country's decline in the global whisky trade (in the 1800s Ireland produced more, and in many eyes better, stuff than Scotland).

An entrepreneurial sort, he bought the former state-owned potato alcohol plant on the Cooley peninsula in 1987 and installed two state-of-the-art stills. The Cooley Distillery, the first rival to the island's then-only remaining spirit company, Irish Distillers -- which makes the popular Jameson and Bushmills brands, among others -- was born.

In less than 20 years, competition transformed an industry that, truth be told, had fallen well behind its Scottish counterpart in the quality department. For most of the past century, Irish brands, with the exception of Jameson and Bushmills, languished through a lack of passion and investment. Today, though still generally lighter than aggressive single malts from Scotland, Irish whiskies (many of them revived classic brands) offer a whispering complexity to connoisseurs looking for a mellower drinking experience.

The lighter style is chiefly the product of triple distillation. Scotch is distilled twice, a process that leaves behind heavier flavour compounds; distilling a third time yields a lighter spirit. When done right, it's not a bad thing. In wine terms, if Scotch is full-bodied cabernet sauvignon, good Irish whisky is more like delicate pinot noir -- not as heavy, but potentially just as satisfying.

Ingredients and distilling methods also come into play, but in recent years some Irish brands have revived the traditional Irish technique, now associated more with fine Scotch, of drying barley on peat-fuelled fires for that prized smoky flavour. Some also are deploying single-batch pot stills (again associated more with Scotch), which tend to leave behind more character than the so-called continuous, high-volume stills that prevailed in the past century.

Vintages stores in Ontario have just released several superpremium Irish whiskies in time for St. Paddy's Day, and one of the stars is Connemara Peated Single Malt ($64.95, product No. 475921). This mind-bending whisky from Cooley should amaze any lover of great Scotch. The barley here gets the full peat-smoke treatment, revealing a flavour that starts with honey and subtle fruit, is followed by notes of vanilla and chocolate, and resolves into a long, penetrating campfire-smoke finish.

Regular whiskies are diluted with pure water down to about 40 per cent alcohol by volume after they've finished their final distillation, a step that balances out flavours and cuts the heat. For the less-squeamish, some distillers bottle some of the production at full, or "cask," strength. It's the beverage equivalent of a race car, and the idea behind Connemara Cask Strength Peated Single Malt ($84.95, No. 913400), bottled at 58.6 per cent alcohol. Intense it is, with an explosively smoky start only partly extinguished by nuances of fruit, pepper and chocolate. This one is for veteran drinkers only.

Another terrific choice is Locke's 8 Year Old Single Malt ($64.95, No. 913475). There's a good dollop of Scotch-like peat in this one too, laced with notes of toasted cereal and dried fruit and finishing with vanilla and a tangy, smoky edge.

You can also find its very good younger, and more affordable, sibling, the standard Locke's Irish Whiskey ($34.95, No. 657254) at Vintages and in better stores around the country. Silky smooth and malty, it offers up a medium body and almost sweet flavour hinting at oloroso sherry with a smooth oaky finish.

Other good and well-priced brands include the lush, honeyed, grain-flavoured Kilbeggan Irish Whiskey ($32.95, No. 657247), which won "best in category" at the recent International Wine & Spirits Competition, and the delicate, floral Paddy Old Irish Whiskey ($27.95, No. 345215).

Moving away from whisky, there are some highlights from last week's Ontario Vintages release that I didn't get to in my previous column. Among them is Martin Steimer Gewurztraminer 2004 ($16.95, No. 709790), a ripe, floral, oily textured white with classic gewurztraminer notes of plump lychee and spice. It would be a great match for spicy, aromatic dishes.

Bordeaux lovers will find a deal in Château des Grands Moines 2000 ($23.95, No. 674325), a ripe, chewy red from the excellent 2000 harvest that shows notes of cherry, leather and minerals. It's perfect for steak or roast beef.

Bargain hunters may want to seek out Routas Infernet Grenache Syrah 2000 ($12.95, No. 931899), a meaty red from Provence with hints of black-skinned fruits, licorice and earth.

And from a prior release, don't miss a stellar value, Les Piliers Syrah 2003 ($16.95, No. 678086), a rich, velvety red from southern France showing plum, sweet vanilla and subtle spice, wrapped up in tight, chewy, ripe tannins. It's a nice choice for lamb or roast pork.

bcrosariol@globeandmail.com