irishamericanwhiskeys.com
DESCRIPTION: Working distillery
A red carpet and Scottish bagpipes heralded the arrival of two copper stills on Achill Island in September 2018 from Speyside in Scotland, where they were manufactured. Drioglann Oilean Acla, as their new home is officially named in the Irish language, is the first distillery to open on an island here. It also lies within the Gaeltacht, that part of Ireland where Irish is still the first language. Owned by the Irish American Trading Company, the distillery and its visitor centre will form part of the fledgling Gaeltacht Distillery Trail, as well as being a major tourist attraction in its own right.
These days, Achill is often approached along the 42 km greenway, which links the Atlantic island to Westport in County Mayo. The greenway was built along the route of a disused railway line and is a hugely popular cycling and walking trail, which cuts through some of the most dramatic landscape in the country.
The Irish American Trading Company, a family-owned business founded by John McKay in 2014, with offices in Dublin and Boston, invested some €4 million in the project. Its master distiller, David Hynes, is also a director of the Great Northern Distillery. Currently, they use sourced whiskey to produce their two whiskeys, which are already available in twenty-six US States.
CONTACT: Ballykeefe Distillery, Kyle, Ballykeefe, Cuffsgrange, County Kilkenny, R95 NR50
WEBSITE: ballykeefedistillery.ie
DESCRIPTION: Working distillery, visitor centre, and farm
There are generations of experience behind the distillery at Ballykeefe in County Kilkenny, which is built on a working beef and tillage farm. Visitors here are likely to meet farmer Morgan Ging and his wife and four children personally, as they run these two perfectly complementary businesses in the heart of rural Ireland. You are also likely to meet their cattle. The farm outhouses were converted to house their three copper stills, which were handmade in Italy by another family business, Barison Industries. The water is their own and the barley is grown on site. Maturing happens here too, in first-fill bourbon barrels, making this one of the most environmentally aware, closed-loop distilleries in the country. They simply do it all themselves.
They’ve already won more than thirteen international awards for their vodka, poitín, and gin, using the spirit they’ve distilled since 2016. Their first whiskey is due for bottling in August 2020 but their most recent sample, tasted after nineteen months in barrel, has fuelled their confidence levels. They use only the highest cut of the distillate, they say, to ensure their whiskey will be extremely smooth, and this early taste is right on target. They have a single malt, a single pot still, and a 100 per cent rye whiskey under way, as well as various blends of this trio.
Bucking the trend of other distilleries, Ballykeefe chose not to launch a sourced-whiskey brand in advance, putting all their stock in their own hard work. Despite their whiskey not being available to taste yet, there’s already a well-worn route to Ballykeefe by whiskey societies and individual whiskey fans. This ambitious family affair is a really positive addition to the Irish whiskey landscape, and well worth experiencing first hand for an alternative take on who is building the category.
CONTACT: Blackwater Distillery, Unit 3, Cappoquin Enterprise Park, Cappoquin, County Waterford
WEBSITE: blackwaterdistillery.ie
DESCRIPTION: Working distillery
Blackwater Distillery have had tremendous success with their gin products, pouring huge amounts of effort into the creation of a family of gins which is trusted, innovative, and packed with personality. So, becoming the twenty-first Irish whiskey distillery to start operating here, in November 2018, sparked lots of enthusiasm for what they might conjure.
A quick glance at posts on their blog will drop you directly into a refreshing whirl of attitude and opinion on where the future of Irish whiskey is headed. They’ve challenged themselves in this bright new world of Irish whiskey. Experimenting with maturation isn’t enough for these trailblazers to start heralding a revolution, it seems. Instead they want to create real distance between what they are creating and the rest of the field.
The people behind the distillery, founder and former broadcaster Peter Mulryan, Kieran Curtin, and the head distiller, US-born John Wilcox, feel this can only be achieved through provenance. Is their whiskey truly Irish and, if so, what determines that? The barley, the water, the wood? Blackwater will be using block-chain technology on every bottle of their double-distilled whiskey so that the customer can scan and see the full production journey, including their use of Irish grains. They’ll see where exactly they mature their spirit and the kind of wood they’re using. The customer will get complete transparency. That shouldn’t be such a radical idea, they suggest.
They’ve built their business from scratch and appear to have garnered a real sense of who they are and where they want to go in doing so. They’re ambitious for Irish whiskey and that’s just the fuel they need.
CONTACT: Boann Whiskey Distillery, Platin Road, Drogheda, County Meath
WEBSITE: boanndistillery.ie
DESCRIPTION: Working distillery and visitor centre. Tours daily.
There aren’t many distilleries in Ireland with a solid marble floor, but that was part of the luxury inheritance Boann received when they took up residence on their site in the Boyne valley, near Drogheda, on Ireland’s east coast. The building that held the site before the stills arrived was a high-end car showroom and the floor laid for its cash-rich customers was too good to lose, they say. But then, the family behind this distillery are no strangers to a high-quality finish. They’ve been involved in the drinks industry in Ireland for decades, running the Gleeson Group before setting up Boann’s parent company Na Cuana, which also has premium cider, cream liqueur, and craft beer brands in its stable.
Their beer brand bookends the distillery, and visitors to the Boann Distillery’s L-shaped building can continue their journey through the Boyne Brewhouse on the same site. Boann is named after an ancient Celtic female god, who is said to have created the nearby Boyne river, which carves out this historically important slice of the Irish landscape.
They currently use sourced whiskey as their own spirit matures, but you can expect experimental collaboration with their brewhouse in future releases. Plans to use their Imperial Stout casks in finishing their whiskey are already under way. With a close eye on the environment, the Italian engineers behind their
