Irish coffee record falls again

This is becoming a regular item... the world record for the largest Irish coffee has been broken again (previous record attempt, and the one before that).

What they all have in common is that they take place outside Ireland. This time the venue was Vinexpo in Bordeaux. It was very much an Irish effort, however, because the feat was achieved by the Hot Irishman company based in Carlow, using their own Irish-coffee-in-a-bottle product.

We're fans of Bernard's at Irish Whiskey Notes because his company also bottles a couple of quality whiskeys from casks selected personally by Bernard himself, along with, more recently, a limited edition cask strength. And the good news is that there will be more limited editions, each different and unique to The Irishman range.

Twenty years and counting

Noel Sweeney, Master Blender, celebrates twenty years at Cooley Distillery this week. Since the distillery is not much older than that, and has never released a whiskey more than 16 years old, that means Noel has watched over every drop of your preferred Cooley spirit from distillation through maturation to bottling. It must be very gratifying to be able to compose some of the finest whiskeys coming out of Ireland today after waiting patiently all those years.

Here's the man himself, demonstrating how a cask is filled at the distillery:


Congratulations, Noel. Here's to twenty more years (and a thirty-odd year old bottle of Tyrconnell)!

Slane Castle whiskey

Slane Castle was in the news at the weekend, hosting its near-annual rock concert. That always garners a lot of publicity and this year the castle's owners have taken the opportunity to unveil a new venture into Irish whiskey.

Slane Castle whiskey is a blend made by Cooley, to be sold in ten states in the eastern US (though it can also be found in the Celtic Whiskey Shop in Dublin). It's priced above Jameson and I think this is the reason it is described on the label as a "premium blend".

I tried this whiskey last Friday at a dinner hosted by Cooley and the Celtic Whiskey Shop. It's clearly very young, too young to enjoy neat, but that's intentional. This is unashamedly a mixing whiskey and it will fill that role just fine.

According to The Sunday Business Post, there is a Slane Castle aged single malt in the pipeline. This post on the Irish Whiskey Society forum from the Sunday Mirror's whiskey correspondent has more exclusive detail on the positioning of the new brand and the motivation behind it.

While I hope the whiskey helps to keep the lights on at Slane Castle, the business seems like a long shot to me. Can anyone succeed against Jameson in the low-end blend category, especially with a more expensive product? Higher-end whiskeys don't fare much better. The obvious comparison is with Castle Brands, owners of Knappogue Castle whiskey. They have been selling fine, collectable single malts in the same eastern US market for the last decade but are still struggling to turn a profit (Irish whiskey is only one part of their business, however).