Gary Quinn - Irish Whiskey - Ireland’s best-known and most-loved whiskeys

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.

Blackwater Distillery

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.

Boann Distillery

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 stills have included enhanced reflux control on the neck to give better control over output, they say. Additionally, they reference the use of nanotechnology in the still design, creating the conditions for much greater interaction with the copper.

The location twenty-five minutes from Dublin Airport and just off a motorway exit means that the time-poor whiskey tourist eager to get out of Dublin is going to have Boann Distillery firmly in his or her sights.

They currently source whiskey for their Whistler range and aim to produce a future range of triple-distilled single malt and single pot stills under their own steam.

The Whistler: The Blue Note

Boann created the Whistler Collection using sourced whiskey in advance of their distillery opening in 2019. Building on their contacts from their years working in the wine trade, they sourced oloroso sherry casks to age this five-year-old single malt for a further two years. Bottled at 46 per cent and non-chill filtered, it won Gold at the 2017 World Whiskey Awards. Bottled at 46 per cent.

The Whistler: 10-year-old

The 10-year-old Whistler single malt is designed to be an even smoother, more elegant take on Whistler Blue Note. Matured in ex-bourbon casks and finished in oloroso, its sweetness is strengthened by its extra time in cask. Plenty of vanilla notes, fresh summer fruit flavours, and a distinctive finish. Bottled at 46 per cent and non-chill filtered. They also produced a cask-strength version of Whistler bottled at 59 per cent.

Bushmills Distillery

CONTACT:Bushmills Distillery, 2 Distillery Road, Bushmills, County Antrim, Northern Ireland, BT57 8XH

WEBSITE: bushmills.com

EMAIL: visitors.bushmills@bushmills.com

DESCRIPTION:Working distillery, visitor centre, café/bar, and shop

It’s often a surprise to whiskey drinkers to find a village surrounding the famous home of Bushmills whiskey, but the more than eighty listed buildings that shape the centre of this heritage site reflect the long-held position of Bushmills as a place of industry and success.

When water was the most bankable power source around, the mill’s pulling profit from the river Bush made the village a significant commercial success in this quiet corner of north Antrim, and the distillery grew from that. It’s from a tributary of the same river Bush, called St Columb’s Rill, that the Bushmills Distillery still takes its water today, and visitors marvel at how close they can get to a natural water source that is destined to be transformed into the core whiskeys that make up the Bushmills brand. Located just two kilometres from the dramatic Causeway Coast, the distillery receives more than 120,000 visitors a year, making it one of the most popular tourist destinations in the region.