Cooley at Whisky Live Glasgow

Cooley Whiskey is taking the fight to their Scottish rivals' heartland this weekend as they set up stall at Whisky Live Glasgow.


Their Connemara brand is something of a "gateway" dram for Scotch drinkers into the world of Irish whiskey. Double distilled, single malt, peated... doesn't sound too scary! So it's no surprise that Cooley will emphasise the Connemara range, along with their Tyrconnell single malts. Noel Sweeney, Master Blender, will present a masterclass on The Creation of Connemara where he

will be pouring all the whiskeys in the Connemara Family (Regular, Cask Strength & 12 Year Old) including the opportunity to taste his personally selected Single Cask bottlings of older Connemara.

Cooley is looking forward to a good year in Scotland in 2009 as their distributor, Eaux de Vie, has just merged with Malcolm Cowen. The combination has serious whisky distribution clout, already handling such Scotch brands as Bruichladdich, Isle of Arran, Tullibardine, Glenfarclas and Compass Box.

The return of Redbreast 15yo

As an anonymous commenter pointed out (thanks!) on a previous post, Redbreast 15yo has reappeared in the Celtic Whiskey Shop. This whiskey has almost mythical status among serious Irish whiskey drinkers thanks to its uncompromising Irishness. In other words, it's a traditional, unblended, pure pot still whiskey that has been bottled without chill-filtering at 46%.

This style is sadly very rare, with Irish Distillers (IDL) strangely reluctant to commit to its production, despite demand.

The story goes that there was one last pallet of the stuff at IDL allocated to Germany. The distributor there declined to take it, having apparently found it hard to shift existing stock. So Ally of the Celtic Whiskey Shop jumped in and snagged it. As far as I know, no other shop is receiving a new allocation (if I hear different, I'll update this).

As far as we know, this is the last of the last (though there is nothing preventing IDL from making it again, if they choose to). IDL, unfortunately, cottoned on to the latent demand for the Redbreast and bumped up the price. So this time around it's €120 rather than €90. I don't think it will last long, even at that price.

New Irish distillery!

I've been sitting on this news for weeks but The Porterhouse brewing company and pub chain has finally taken the wraps off its plans to start a new Irish whiskey distillery in Dingle, Co Kerry.

I spoke to The Porterhouse guys at the Drinks Festival in Farmleigh last month, including with managing director, Oliver Hughes. They told me of their commitment to producing the best whiskey in the Irish tradition. This will mean a triple distilled, pure pot still style rather than single malt. They will also take a very fine cut from their still.

The cut is that portion of the distillate that proceeds to the next stage. Typically the first (heads or foreshots) and last (tails or feints) portions of the still output are drawn off and returned to the still for redistillation. The rest - the middle cut - proceeds to the next stage. The Porterhouse intends to keep this middle cut narrower than strictly necessary to obtain a more refined spirit.

John McDougal, former head distiller with Laphroaig, has been tapped for his expertise in whiskey production. Equipment will be sourced from Forsyths in Scotland.

So, how long must we wait for the first sip of whiskey from Dingle? The company has just applied for planning permission and hopes to see the stills fired up by the end of 2009. This will mature for at least four years (in ex-bourbon and, interestingly, port casks) before bottling as whiskey. So we won't get a taste before the end of 2013 at the earliest.

The company will make gin in the meantime, however, since this does not require maturation. A visitor centre is also planned so we should be able to watch the spirit being made even as we await the first whiskey.

This is very exciting news and I wish the best of luck to The Porterhouse in their new, €8m venture. Needless to say, I'll be following progress closely.

Spirit-friendly Budget

Update Wednesday, Oct 15: I just heard the minister on the radio explaining why he didn't hike duty on spirits, though he wanted to. He was afraid that drinkers would slip over the border into Northern Ireland to buy their hooch in a lower tax jurisdiction. Thank you, Newry and HM Government! This must be the Peace Dividend we've heard about.

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Today is Budget Day in Ireland, when the Minister for Finance gives you money with one hand while rifling your wallet with the other. Mostly the latter this year, since the economy has crashed (even without bailing out the banks).

Whiskey was mostly spared by the minister, however, as duty on spirits was left untouched (in contrast to wine and petrol which attracted big increases). We didn't get off entirely scot free (scotch free?) however, because the standard rate of VAT (kind of a sales tax) rose 0.5% to 21.5%. So a bottle of whiskey that had cost €50 should now rise to €50.21. A €100 bottle should now be €100.41.

WhiskyFest San Francisco

WhiskyFest San Francisco will be supplying a much needed liquidity injection this Friday. The organisers, Malt Advocate magazine, claim it is America's largest whisky celebration with more than 200 whiskies from around the world available for sampling.

Cooley has sent over some of its big guns. Look out for a seminar from Master Blender, Noel Sweeney, on the creation of Connemara whiskey. There are also many events around San Francisco taking advantage of the expertise in town for WhiskyFest. Cooley's Global Brand Ambassador and friend of Irish Whiskey Notes, John Cashman, will be hosting a tasting at Elixir (16th and Guerrero) at 8pm on Thursday.

Whiskey Miscellany

Dingle Peninsula Food and Wine Festival

If you are down in Dingle this weekend you have a chance to try some Cooley whiskeys at the Food and Wine Festival. Tutored whiskey tastings are promised and Cooley Distillery is pairing up with the Skelligs Chocolate Company under the title SPIRITual CHOCOLATE.

I don't have times and locations but I'm sure the details will be posted around town.

Are you looking for truffle? You've come to the right place!
Speaking of chocolate, I can't resist noting that Co Couture's Irish whiskey truffle got three stars in the Great Taste Awards 2008, leaving its rivals in the alcoholic dark truffle category thoroughly licked.

Which bar shifts the most Jameson?
The bar that sells the most Jameson whiskey in the world is not in Ireland. It's in Minneapolis.

How much Jemmy does The Local flog in a year? 530 cases in 2007. That's 17.5 bottles every day.

The secret is a drink called the Big Ginger that the bar promotes vigorously. It's pretty simple: Jameson, ginger ale, ice, decorated with wedges of lemon and lime. Classic, tasty and very refreshing.

The marketing guys at Jameson, who awarded The Local a plaque honouring their achievement, must be staying up nights trying to figure out how to make this local craze go global.

Meanwhile, The Local is not resting on its laurels. It has a new cocktail to tempt the masses. It's called The JJ and it combines Jameson, blackcurrant and mint.

Here's a genuine photo of The Local, taken from their website: