Irish Whiskey: Stories and Sips
Episodes
Irish whiskey has a fascinating past - we’ve had many great conversations about the rise and fall and rise again of Irish whiskey on this podcast. One of the most fascinating aspects to me of Irish whiskeys past is the role of whiskey bonders and bottlers - those middlemen who purchased casks of whiskey from the distilleries and bottled under their own label or matured the whiskeys further, selling the whiskeys on in their own pub ...
In October this year, Ireland had 34 operating Irish whiskey distilleries. As we settle in to November, we now find ourselves with 36 distilleries on the island of Ireland producing Irish whiskey.
The newest distillery, Glendree Distillery, is located in Glendree in East Clare, on a winding mountain road on a slope of the Slieve Aughty Mountains, at the family farm of founders Paul and Alex Loudon.
Before the available choices of single pot still whiskey stretched beyond two – Green Spot and Redbreast 12, one man had fallen in love with both the spirit and its history. Today, Fionnán O’Connor, my guest on the podcast, is recognized as one of the foremost experts on the history of single pot still whiskey.
His book A Glass Apart, published in October 2015, is recognized as the definitive guide to Irish pot still whiskey today.
...Irish single pot still whiskey is in the midst of a welcome resurgence. Once one of the best selling styles of whiskey in the world, its rollercoaster journey has been well documented on this podcast and elsewhere. Though the Midleton distillery was the only distillery in Ireland producing this style from the early 1970s until 2012 when Dingle Distillery began production, today there are more than a dozen producers of Ireland’s uni...
In this episode of Stories & Sips I spent a very enjoyable afternoon chatting with Jarlath Watson, global brand ambassador and part of the founding team of the extraordinary Echlinville distillery. We sipped on some Dunville's Irish whiskey and I learned more about the history of this storied brand and Echlinville’s impressive approach to growing, malting and distilling.
It’s been 175 years since legal distilling has happened in Ireland’s North Western-most county of Donegal. That changed with the establishment of Sliabh Liag Distillers - founded by husband and wife team James and Moira Doherty who uprooted their family from Hong Kong to pursue a passion.
He built an Irish pub group, he became the world’s biggest seller of Jameson, he launched his own Irish whiskey, he sold the pubs, he sold the whiskey and he’s still not done.
In this episode of Stories & Sips, I chat with Co. Mayo native Kieran Folliard about his extraordinary drinks adventure in Minnesota and what it took to sell more Jameson than anywhere else on earth.
Daithí O’Connell is the founder of W.D. O’Connell Whiskey Merchants. It's safe to say that the whiskey merchants of old didn't have previous experience flying planes in the Middle East or setting up pubs and financial technology companies in Asia, but Daithí is a modern whiskey merchant with a hint of the renaissance man about him. It might just be the beard...
John Quinn serves as global brand ambassador for Tullamore D.E.W., one of the most recognized brands in Irish whiskey, a company he has played a role in growing since his early days with Irish Distillers. In 2016, John was named Whiskey Brand Ambassador of the year by Whisky Magazine’s Icons of Whisky Awards, and in December 2018 he was appointed as Vice Chairman of the Irish Whiskey Association.
In 2019, John became the first Iris...
Growing up even closer to a distillery than I did, this week’s guest Jack Ferris, is the United States National Brand Ambassador for Bushmills. I’ve fallen more and more in love with the single malts from Bushmills over the past year and I had questions, many questions for Jack about Bushmills past, present and future. I hope you enjoy our chat.
This is the first episode in a series of conversations I'll be having with the founding team of Ireland Craft Beverages. They are about to launch their first ever Irish whiskey and are allowing me to follow that journey as they set about getting it on shelves all over the world. Launching a whiskey brand is no small undertaking and I hope you're as interested in me in learning what it takes. In this first in our series foll...
Teeling has remained a bit of an enigma to me over the past few years as I've tried to get my head around the myriad of brands they produce.
To put me straight and get my head around the company and their approach, I sat down with Robert Caldwell, Teeling Global Brand Ambassador to help me understand what Teeling is all about, the philosophy behind its distillation and maturation and what we might expect from them going forward...
Today we are seeing a resurgence in demand for Ireland’s quintessential style of Irish whiskey - pot still whiskey. New distilleries all over the country are distilling and maturing single pot still whiskey in the hopes that it once again becomes the world’s most consumed and demanded Irish whiskey. In the late 1700s and throughout the 1800s and well into the 1900s single pot still whiskey ruled the world. As domestic and global ev...
Outspoken and passionate, Peter Mulryan is determined to build on Irish whiskey's rich, diverse history and recipes, and with a healthy pour of innovation ensure that his Irish whiskey takes advantage of the best of Irish whisky’s past and present.
I’m a fan of what Peter and his team at Blackwater Distillery are doing and in advance of the launch of their newest sourced whiskey, Velvet Cap, I'm excited to share our chat wi...
One woman has been part of the story of Dingle and the distillery since before this crazy idea to distill in one of Europe’s most westerly towns was hatched. Her name is Mary Ferriter and there is no Dingle Distillery without her. As General Manager and Global Ambassador for the Dingle Distillery, she has observed and managed its growth from a unique perch.
In this episode of stories I chat with Mary about the early days of the dis...
The rise in demand for Irish whiskey around the world over the past ten years has led to the building of new distilleries in Ireland and the establishment of new whiskey brands, bonders and bottlers.
This evolving mixture of established multi-century brands and new risk-taking upstarts makes for a more diverse, more energetic and more interesting Irish whiskey landscape than we’ve had in Ireland in more than a century.
Fueled by pa...
In the fight for Irish rights in the early 1800s, there is one dominant name - Daniel O’Connell - known as The Liberator or The Emancipator. O’Connell, a Kerryman, campaigned for Catholic emancipation - including the right for Catholics to sit in the Westminster Parliament, something that was denied for more than 100 years—and repeal of the Acts of Union which combined Great Britain and Ireland.
He was a legendary figure and had a...