Triple Distilled Communications

Technically, Irish whiskey’s annus horribilis started in 2024. Around March last year there were whispers of a slowdown in the US – sales were softening, producers were shipping far less stock to the category’s promised land. The mood was still upbeat, but there was an air of caution in the industry that was unfamiliar to any of the dozens who joined the category in the preceding decade. By the latter half of the year, the clouds had spread, and in what was to become the first sign that this wasn’t just a vibe shift, Waterford Distillery went under in November. For all their beauty, their luxuriant financing, their global reach, Mark Reynier’s big bold vision for Irish whiskey slid into receivership, and was put up for sale, where it still languishes one year on. It was a warning to all – if they can fail, so can anyone. 

In 2025 the Irish whiskey industry entered a pronounced period of contraction and structural recalibration after years of rapid expansion. The most significant factor was the re-imposition of a 15 % tariff on Irish whiskey exports to the United States in August 2025, a key market that accounted for millions of cases and hundreds of millions of euros in export value in prior years. The tariff increase suddenly made Irish whiskey less price-competitive in the US, prompting widespread concern among distillers and intensifying calls for the reinstatement of a “zero-for-zero” trade agreement to remove export duties. But with a combative US President who sought to push an America First agenda – one which he was elected on – imports were the enemy. Irish whiskey sold well in the US, aided by the commercial might of Irish Distillers and their decision to push Jameson as an embodiment of ‘Irishness’ as it was perceived in America – smooth, easy going, approachable, and a counterpoint to the occasionally snooty world of scotch. But the tariffs were not the only crisis hitting Irish whiskey. 

The financial fragility of several craft and independent producers became starkly visible in the first half of the year. In late June 2025, Powerscourt Distillery formally entered receivership, unable to secure additional financing as its lender stance tightened amid broader industry strain. Company filings indicated reliance on a previous €25 million banking agreement, which under pressure became untenable without fresh capital, leaving the distillery struggling to meet its obligations and forcing a restructuring path through receivership. 

Killarney Brewing & Distilling Company — active in both beer and whiskey — entered liquidation in July 2025 after an unsuccessful examinership, resulting in all 54 jobs being lost and its assets wound down. Their sizeable new build outside Fossa near Killarney cost €24 million to build. It is now for sale for €4.8 million.

Major producers adapted to the slowdown. Irish Distillers — the Pernod Ricard subsidiary behind Jameson, Redbreast and other core brands — announced a temporary pause in whiskey production at its historic Midleton Distillery beginning in April 2025, with operations resuming over the summer. The adjustment was described as a routine scheduling review but occurred amid similar global pauses in whisky production by other major spirits companies, reflecting a nervous approach to inventory build-up and uncertain near-term demand. The timing was suboptimal, as the production pause occurred against the backdrop of Midleton’s 200th anniversary celebrations.

Alongside this, the building of the new €250 million distillery project adjacent to the existing facility in Midleton, originally announced in September 2022, was slowed. The new distillery was intended to be one of the largest and most modern in Europe, carbon-neutral and capable of supporting future global demand for Irish whiskey, with up to 800 construction jobs and 100 permanent skilled roles once operational. Early planning and construction were expected to see the facility operational in 2025. However, by May 2025 it was reported that the opening had been pushed back to at least 2027, reflecting the impact of slower market conditions and company decisions to reallocate resources amid the broader industry slowdown. The timeline extension signified a shift from expansion to strategic pacing and risk mitigation by Irish Distillers as it balanced legacy production with evolving market realities. 

Irish Distillers were not the only ones hitting pause. The new Roe & Co distillery in Dublin, owned and operated by Diageo at the rear of their vast Guinness complex, was silenced in June 2025, with no reopening in sight. The company described the move as a way “to optimise resources and support the sustainable future growth of our business”, indicating that the pause was intended as a measured response rather than a permanent closure. But production staff were let go. However, the tourism wing stayed open, and the company continued selling their own stock and their sourced Roe & Co whiskey, which they did not make, and they continued to hold PR events. 

In May 2025, Dublin Liberties Distillery abruptly paused production and closed its visitor centre as part of a strategic response to weakening market conditions. The distillery’s UK-based parent, Quintessential Brands, which said the move was designed to “assess current market conditions” and better align operations with reduced demand and broader industry headwinds. Its Mill Street site had an annual production capacity of more than 700,000 litres of new make spirit, and in earlier years the brand expanded into over 40 export markets with a number of limited-edition releases and international partnerships. Industry analysts pointed to tariff-related export costs, inventory overhang, slowing orders from overseas distributors, and a broader slowdown in premium spirit sales as driving factors behind the decision to halt production. The pause was framed internally as temporary, but no firm timeline for resumption was provided at the time, leaving staff and local stakeholders uncertain about the distillery’s short-term future. 

While there were high-profile collapses, in the background many were either cutting back production or simply switching off the stills. Dr John Teeling’s Great Northern Distillery significantly reduced its production output in response to weakened global demand and broader sector headwinds. The facility, founded in 2015 and known for supplying bulk spirit and contract-distilled whiskey to a wide range of brands, cut back malt whiskey production by around 70% compared with its previous output levels. Industry analysts and insiders noted that Great Northern’s cutback was not an isolated case but part of a wider industry correction. By mid-2025, reports suggested that up to 90% of Irish distilleries had either paused or reduced production in response to oversupply, rising inventories and cost pressures.

If there was self reflection in the industry, it wasn’t immediately apparent. In preceding years, anyone who suggested that the growth in the category – either by number of distilleries or the explosion of non-distilling producer brands – was unsustainable was deemed something of a Cassandra. The good times, we were told, would continue forever. But forever came to an end this year, so the industry scrambled to reframe this as a long overdue ‘market correction’. Cold comfort to anyone who invested in what now appeared to be an overheated category – either in a distillery such as Nephin which never got finished, or one of the others now languishing in various states of sale, or in flipping bottles they now struggled to sell in an equally cold auction market, or in bulk whiskey via the hard-sell boiler rooms that pushed pallets of casks onto people with no clue what they were getting themselves into. A lot of money poured into the category in the last ten years, and not all of it will be seen again. 

This is not all the result of the hubris of the industry – a cost of living crisis, an energy crisis, war on the edge of Europe, a shuddering of the old order and rise in identity politics in our largest market, all helped rattle the bones of the category, and none of these could be helped. But the Irish whiskey category is more exposed than other more mature drinks categories – Scotland has been through this ringer several times over the centuries, Cognac the same. In Ireland we had a lot of heavily financed new distilleries still very much in the early stages of developing their brand, their voice, and their routes to market. Those who had the courage to set up a distillery and actually make something had to compete with often weak brands that offered the same sourced stock as all the rest. A common theme among small producers is that getting shelf space is hard enough without these bland, inconsequential brands backed by speculators in it for a quick buck. We simply have too much white label whiskey – the technical file set a high bar for building a distillery and making whiskey, but there is really no obstacle to setting up a brand, no matter how tepid it is.  While the right number of distilleries for the category could be debated, we have too many brands, but in the current climate it is the former that will fall and not the latter. 

These closures, receiverships, production pauses and investment delays played out alongside broader industry data published in late 2025. The Irish Whiskey Global Trade Report showed that while 2024 had reached a historic high of 16.15 million cases sold globally, the outlook for 2025 and beyond was clouded by export costs, inventory adjustment and slowing growth trajectories outside core markets.

By the end of 2025, the narrative within Irish whiskey has shifted. What only a few years earlier had been an era of almost unbounded growth — marked by new distillery openings, record exports and intense speculative investment — has become a period of consolidation and recalibration. Market attention has increasingly turned toward financial discipline, export diversification, and navigation of trade policy headwinds as the industry seeks a more sustainable footing after a turbulent year.

You will encounter all manner of theory around why some distilleries have now fallen – all had particular weaknesses but chief amongst them was they started big and wanted to be bigger – none of these were small operations getting ready to scale; all carried significant amounts of debt to service and when sales slowed, the weight became too much. There is no point in victim blaming or cherry picking an aspect of any of them and saying this is why this happened, they were all just the wrong size. If they were smaller they could pull down the shutters and ride the storm, if they were larger they would have a parent firm that could sustain them. 

As we depart 2025, three impressive Irish distilleries – Killarney, Powerscourt, and Waterford – are for sale along with all their stock and there is no sign of buyers. In our promised land of America, Jim Beam just announced they are closing their main distillery for the year. People are drinking less. The world is changing. Irish whiskey isn’t doomed, and is facing the same challenges as other spirits sectors – but we are more vulnerable than more developed categories. 

2026 will hopefully end better than it starts, but now in the quiet time we need to consider where the category goes from here – it will be leaner, and hopefully meaner, offering better value to consumers – IDL clearly already got that particular memo, as their limited edition Redbreast 15 and Green Spot 10 retailed at €130 and €80 respectively, the kind of pricing which we had not seen from Midleton in some time. IDL also sold off the Castle Brands portfolio which they had acquired in August 2019 for a remarkable US$223 million (a cash offer of $1.27 per share). In July 2025 they offloaded the brands – including Knappogue Castle and Clontarf whiskeys – to a small startup. The price was not disclosed. 

Looking ahead to 2026, nothing is certain. Since Waterford’s fall in late 2024, not much is – they had financing, incredible branding, a great backstory, and a liquid that was rapidly improving.

But this does not mean the category is doomed, or even that it will go back to where it was with three producers and not much else. We are better off now, even with all the strife, than we were 15 years ago. There may be a little bloating and some resulting contractions but the right level will be reached. If America changes its mind on tariffs and Russia bids farewell to arms, we could be back in black before the end of 2026. Failing that, Nigeria and India both hold promise, and IDL in particular are pummelling the UK market with their sponsorship of the English Football League. In late August, Irish Distillers reported a 2 % increase in global net sales for the 2025 financial year ending 30 June 2025, across its Irish whiskey portfolio, demonstrating resilience in the face of a challenging global economic environment. Jameson was a key driver of this performance, posting 3% net sales growth globally and delivering double-digit increases in markets across Asia (including India, Japan and South-East Asia), Africa (notably Nigeria) and Latin America (such as Brazil and Mexico).

So the machine rumbles on, and if you need to comfort yourself further, pay heed to the rate of distillery closures in the US where the decline is being felt far harder than here. So this isn’t just an us problem; and while the industry talks up resilience, it needs to see this as a time to reflect on where it goes in 2026. Consumers want the usual – authenticity, quality, good stories – but they need value to bring them back. Offering that while managing large amounts of debt is where the challenge lies now for producers.

Things are not great in Irish whiskey right now. After ten years of historic growth, and the number of whiskey distilleries here growing from four to almost fifty, the current crunch has come upon us at alarming speed. Headlines about distillery closures, examinerships, receiverships, extended silent seasons and significant layoffs has caused consternation. The question now is – where do brands go from here?

Enter Ben Odgers, a drinks specialist who has provided his 12 steps to rebuilding spirits brands for the new era.  Odgers began his career in the drinks industry in 2001 at Majestic Wine Warehouses in the UK, where he progressed to head office and attained multiple professional qualifications in wine and spirits. In 2008, he became a founding member of Le Clos – Finest Wines and Luxury Spirits, an Emirates Airlines Group venture based in Dubai. Over the next 14 years, he played a pivotal role in transforming the business into a multi-award-winning enterprise, generating hundreds of millions in revenue and creating over 100 jobs.In 2022, he launched a new venture: Spirits Sourcery, dedicated to sourcing and supplying the world’s most prestigious wines and spirits. 

With more than two decades of experience in the luxury drinks sector, Odgers champions a highly personalised approach, but he also supports producers and retailers by unlocking new markets, optimizing commercial strategies, and enhancing profitability. He recently published his Whisky Brand Owner Playbook: 2025 Edition – 12 Tenets on LinkedIn. It contains a lot of hard truths for whiskey producers – the days of unicorns being chased and flipped at auction are largely gone; gone are the easy sales, the unscrutinised claims about ‘limited editions’. Odgers says this is the time to rebuild both brands and their relationships to consumers. 

He highlights how the whisky market is undergoing a fundamental shift meaning legacy brands must adapt or risk obsolescence; and – in good news for Irish whiskey where most distilleries are modern – modern, agile distilleries may have an advantage.

The paper lays out 12 strategic tenets for survival and growth, and lays the new metrics for brand owners. The old order is, as Odgers sees it, gone – success now is not to be measured by how many days a release takes to sell out, but by customer lifetime value. Auction premiums are no longer the goal, instead it’s market price stability; similarly the number of limited releases a brand can put out is to be set aside in favour of a healthy repeat purchase rate. Auction records are now less important than customer satisfaction. 

Odgers’s guide will be music to the weary ears of whiskey lovers who, in some cases, have become increasingly disillusioned by the way the market was going – ballots being offered simply for the opportunity to attempt to buy a bottle of what was once an standard off the shelf release; limited editions being hoovered up by investors and high net worth individuals, and a general jacking of prices beyond normal inflationary standards. Odgers says that what producers need to do now is listen to customers – when they do distillery tours, their feedback in person and online, via mailing list surveys, or – if the brand can afford it – via market research. 

“I think the most important thing any producer or brand owner can do is listen. Partly the reason the wider whisky market is in a mess is that there was too much too fast. For a long period distilleries had their steadfast supporters both drinkers and collectors which were the lifeblood of the brands. They understood the age statement ranges, buying more entry level ones to drink and older ones as a treat. Once or twice a year there would be a special edition which was relatively affordable and they could stretch to  add to their collection. 

“Things then very quickly began to escalate.  The age statements expanded into territories that the loyalists couldn’t afford and with what seemed like a new special edition every month. The loyalists couldn’t keep up and became disenfranchised. The flipping and assets focused consumer filled the void but with the market correction they can make any money and have moved on.  

“If I was a brand owner I would be looking to the core customers from a decade ago and asking them what they want. These people were originally the best advocates for the brand as they were interested before it was about making money or being seduced by the marketing. There seems to be a feeling in some marketing departments that if they are not releasing a super aged statement they are falling behind. The reality is the queue for some of these releases is very short as it doesn’t fit with the customer base and high end collectors are just not interested.”

I asked Ben where there could be opportunities for growth – either by category or geography: “I don’t see much crossover between the Scotch and Irish whisky consumer. I think the easiest tactic would be to try and grow the overlap on the Venn diagram. I don’t think most scotch drinkers know much about Irish and vice versa. This is far easier than trying to move someone into Irish whiskey who usually drinks wine. The industry probably needs to get together and create an education piece on why Scotch and Irish Whisky’s are similar and different. I don’t see any particular market being a saviour. If I was a small distillery owner I would be concentrating on my own domestic market and consolidating my resources.  The exception to this would be travel retail however these players are not immune to the market conditions,  but if you can get in with a small independent then they can be a great incubator.”

What should Irish distilleries focus on now – RTDs, clear spirits, marketing, rebranding; what are the strengths they should focus on going forward? 

“This goes back to the listening point. You have to give the customer what they want in the way they want it.  A bit of malaise has crept in partly down to a lack of transparency. This is often driven by marketing. Saying a release is a limited edition but when that is actually 10000 units it is letting the customer down. A rebrand isn’t going help you re-engage with your existing customer base, I think the producers need to get as close to the consumers as possible. Bottles leave the distillery and they don’t know where they end up. I would be building engagement systems so I can communicate directly with my end consumer, creating loyalty and stickiness to the brand. You then have a conduit to make sure what you are offering is aligned with the customers wants and needs.” 

Odgers ends his 12 step programme on a positive note – he says that whisky isn’t collapsing, it’s maturing; that adaptation based on authenticity and customer partnership will lead to long-term success; and perhaps most important of all, the joy of fine whisky still thrives, it’s just that the industry must re-align to serve it better. 

You can find Ben Odgers’s Spirits Sourcery website here and his guide is available to download from his LinkedIn here.

Achill Island is a landscape infused with loss. Abandoned villages, dried out petrol stations, plaques commemorating those who died in the Famine, or those forced to emigrate in the almost 200 years since; it feels like everywhere you go you are confronted with the act of separation – island from mainland, kith from kin. It’s a place of extraordinary beauty – vast sea cliffs sweep down to golden crescent beaches, plains of bog teem with life, hidden mountain lakes sparkle, roads cling to the hillsides and everywhere you go feels like a discovery for you and you alone. There are also sheep – thousands of them, wandering freely around the hills, down onto the roads, the beaches, the back gardens of the island’s two thousand residents. In spring this means spending a lot of time crawling along narrow roads behind a ewe and various black faced lambs as they totter about the place. Soon they too shall part. 

It takes vision to see the potential here for a distillery. It has the right setting, but the logistics make it a challenge. Whiskey tourism can be big business, if you sit within Dublin’s golden triangle – Jameson Bow Street, Roe & Co, Teeling, Dublin Liberties, and Pearse Lyons Distillery are all within walking distance of each other. It’s slightly different if you are on an island off the west coast of Ireland, 84km from the nearest distilleries. But for John McKay, Achill was the perfect spot, and the journey from mainland to island across the Achill Sound was part of that magic. From Dundalk, he married a Mayo woman and settled in the yew county.

McKay’s background was in construction, civil engineering and property development, but in 2014 he took a notion to launch a whiskey brand.  He had various business dealings in the US over the years and he could see the power of the diaspora and how they consumed products that spoke of the homeland – so when it came to naming his brand, he went straight for the jugular; IrishAmerican Irish Whiskey. He focussed his sales work on the US – specifically Boston – and while the brand also sold well domestically, the US was the land of opportunity for growth. And grow it did. Soon McKay realised that in order to feed the demand, he would need a distillery. Despite being from Ballyhaunis on the Mayo mainland, he set his eye on Achill Island – the site he was looking at had room for expansion, tourism footfall, unique maturation climate, and would also allow him to achieve his goal of producing Ireland’s first island whiskey (aside from all the whiskey made on the island of Ireland already). Speaking to Mayo Live in 2018 he said: “I live in Mayo myself and I didn’t want to open just another distillery in Dublin. I wanted it to be in Mayo and the opportunity arose to locate it in Achill. It is a unique location and will be the only distillery in Ireland and maybe even Europe on an island and as far west as you can go.”

His choice of site was an obvious one; Achill Island Brewery opened in Bunnacurry in September 2014, run by two sets of brothers who were also cousins. They used water from Bunnafreeva Lough – which sits more than 300m above sea level – and Carrageen Moss, a type of seaweed, as an ingredient. In 2017 it was reported that the brewery was in liquidation, unable to pay their electricity bills, and that the relationships between the founders had soured. The building they operated out of was owned by Údarás na Gaeltachta, the regional authority responsible for the development of the Irish-speaking regions of Ireland. After the brewkit was auctioned off, John McKay took over the unit, and with the support of a €174,000 capital investment package from Údarás na Gaeltachta to renovate the building, and another €4 million private investment on top of that, the facility was transformed. The two stills from Speyside Copperworks were brought across the Michael Davitt Bridge from the mainland, led by a bagpiper playing The West’s Awake, and installed. Now all they needed were distillers. 

Ken Quinn had moved from Dublin to the island to work as brewer with Achill Island Brewery, and immediately took to island life – he joined the RNLI, set up Achill Island Boxing Club, and settled down. After the brewery closed, he became lead distiller in Achill Island Distillery. The set up of the distillery was overseen by David Hynes of Great Northern Distillery while Dr Jack O’Shea also provided guidance. 

Drioglann Oileán Acla (the official Irish language name for Achill Island Distillery) was officially opened by the then Minister for Rural and Community Development, Michael Ring on June 14, 2019. On the day, Minister Ring paid tribute to John McKay for bringing his vision to life: ““Thank you for your investment here today…To John and your family I want to thank you for choosing Achill because you could have chosen any corner of Ireland and I want to say, on behalf of the Government, thank you.”

John McKay died from an aggressive form of stomach cancer in the last days of February 2020. As the world was plunged into the worst pandemic in living memory, the McKay family – John’s wife Marion, sons Michael and Seán, daughters Kelly Ann and Katie – were plunged into grief, isolated by pandemic restrictions. Two years later, John’s right hand man, fellow founder and distiller Mick Gallagher, passed away suddenly. Mick and John were married to two sisters and were like brothers to each other; without them the project could have lost its focus, but John’s sons were unwilling to give up on their father’s dream, as Michael explains: “It was a difficult and sad time to lose our father just as the distillery dream was finally realised. But we just had to dig deep and carry on, no one knows what life has in store really. Losing our uncle Mick Gallagher as well shortly after was a tough blow to take. Mick was my father’s right-hand man in construction and lifelong friend for 40 years.”

Michael says the hardship of those losses has kept things in perspective as the world stumbled out of the pandemic and into trade wars: “It grounds us in a sense and helps put tariff woes, Covid, and rising production costs into perspective. We have come through a tough few years but it just gives everyone here more drive and resilience to push ahead. These two men put us on a good footing for the future and their legacy is a major part of what drives everyone here to make a success of the distillery.”

Graduating with a BComm in economics from Galway University, Michael worked as a fund accounting supervisor with Deutsche Bank in Dublin before moving to New York to work as a fund accounting manager with HedgeServ for four years before he came home in 2019 to work with the distillery, and he says his background gave him many of the less glamorous skills that are crucial to running a distillery: “There is a lot of work involved in the background to operating a distillery that may not be realised; forecasting long term financial projections, managing cashflow, cask management strategy, production cost analysis. Dealing with Revenue was very intense and paperwork-heavy to get the distillery up and running. Obtaining GI compliance, bonded warehouse licensing as well as manufacturing and sales licensing. This is something that needs constant attention, and fortunately my previous financial skillset was easily transferable to this role.” 

But coming home wasn’t just about the distillery, as he explains: “Like most Irish people you get a stronger sense of patriotism when you are away from, and I had a greater appreciation of the culture and community spirit we have here in Ireland when I returned.”

But behind the widescreen romanticism and John Hinde-esque landscapes of the wild Atlantic way, the logistics of running a distillery on a small island located on the rural and rugged west coast of a larger island are an added complication to any business: “Yes there is an additional cost in shipments getting them this far out, as well as increased waiting times. There is not as much regular courier service in this part of the west. But it’s something we are used to and build into our logistics planning. If we are given two-day delivery time we just assume a week, however it’s a small price to pay for our scenic location.”

Achill resident Heinrich Böll noted the same effect when he said that when God made time he made plenty of it – Böll wrote often of the fluid nature of scheduling on the island, such as when the screening of a film was delayed so all the local priests plus other members of the clergy holidaying on the island could take their seats. Another frequent visitor to the island was Graham Greene, who engaged in an illicit affair with Catherine Walston, the wealthy socialite wife of a British MP; her island residence was an old fisherman’s cottage, with tin roof and no electricity. It feeds into the romanticisation of island life – waves smash upon the rocks, storms roll in off the Atlantic and pummel homes, lovers entwine on a horsehair mattress and come undone when the real world comes calling – the island offers beauty and brutality, comfort and cruelty, the purity of nature and the grubby business of human desire. Greene’s novel The End Of The Affair – which detailed the disintegration of a doomed romance between a married woman and a writer – was dedicated to his island lover. 

But all this romance, all this lore, this useless beauty isn’t a whole lot of good when trying to build a brand around a distillery that few can visit. Having an incredible location meant nothing during a pandemic which killed tourism for almost two years; now the world faces a cost of living crisis which is also impacting travel and tourism. Coupled with this the tariffs inflicted on American consumers by their current commander in chief.

But Achill Island Distillery has an ace up its sleeve – while pricey Irish whiskeys have been making headlines for years now, Achill have quietly been making some of the best bang-for-your-buck spirits in the category. A bottle of their core single malt is under €50, usually €47, and almost half that in the duty free at Mayo’s Knock Airport. Their special edition single pot still releases – complete with wooden box and all the trimmings – retails for only €123. In a scene where brands are charging significant sums for sourced product and wild prices for their own young whiskeys, it’s quite the feat. I asked Michael how they do it: “It’s something we prioritise – giving customers a premium whiskey experience and good value for money. We want our whiskey in as many people’s hands as possible and to experience and enjoy what we are making here.I can’t speak for other distilleries but we have a very efficient production process and get maximum LPA return from our mash thanks to Ken’s methods.

“Our focus over the last five years has been mainly on production over marketing and ensuring we produce high quality spirit and we won’t release anything unless we are completely happy with it. To quote our sales director Paul McKay, we let the whiskey tell us when it’s ready to be released. We have been in no rush to release our whiskey and we have slowly built up our core range of three single malts and soon to be released single pot still. Now we feel we have a solid core range behind us we can push our products more and give it the marketing backup it needs.” 

The core releases are the bourbon cask matured single malt, a bourbon cask matured single malt with Bordeaux red wine cask finish, and what they call their peated single malt which is actually an unpeated single malt finished in a peated cask courtesy of another island distillery, Laphroaig. They wanted to have a nod to the island’s extensive peat bogs, but didn’t want to run the risk of tainting future spirit runs with peat, so they used a peaty Islay quarter cask instead. The peat was too soft if they released it at 44% – as they did the other two core bottles – so they left it at a robust 60%. 

Their two Scottish-made 5,000 litre stills are used mostly for triple distillation – they worked with double distillation but felt what it added in initial impact it lost in finish. They run seven days a week production and perhaps reflecting the slower pace of island life, Achill distillery runs their seven fermenters on a very long fermentation – seven days in winter and five days in summer. Although having a former craft brewer as a distiller probably helped steer this decision. They fill between 800 and 1,200 casks per year, and are coming to the end of their cask programme which offers bourbon casks of single malt or pot still on a seven year hold with all labelling and bottling included in the €6,000 price. Their warehouse is on site also. 

Alongside the whiskey they also make Akill Vodka, Keem Bay gin, An Bodán high-proof poitín, and a number of contract spirits for The Confession Box pub in Dublin. They also brought out a special sourced whiskey called JJ Devine’s named after the fictional pub in Martin McDonagh’s The Banshees Of Inisherin, which was shot on numerous locations around the island. 

They plan to continue the IrishAmerican brand their father started, transitioning over time to their own stock: “There is no plan to phase it out, quite the opposite actually. IrishAmerican is the brand that got us started and has been going from strength to strength in recent years, especially the emergence of the global travel retail sector for us. The sourced stock element of IrishAmerican is the part that will be phased out as our own stock matures. The current five-year IrishAmerican is Achill Island Distillery liquid and in the coming years all the IrishAmerican will be our own Achill Island spirit.

“With the exception of course being our IrishAmerican Founders Reserve series the 21 year plus range. This stock was our father’s vintage collection which we release every couple of years as it ages; the series will run expressions of 25, 28, 30, and 32 years plus. It’s a series we released to honour his legacy featuring his signature on the bottle and something that is very special to us.

“In terms of what’s coming next, we are always looking to develop each year and we currently have an Achill Island Aged rum in the pipeline. This is rum that we made ourselves from imported molasses, distilled and matured here for a minimum 18 months. It’s been an exciting project and we are looking forward to releasing it soon.

“Our San Patricios 7 Anos has just won Gold at the San Francisco World Spirit competition along with silvers for IrishAmerican 21 year and Achill Island Bordeaux Cask. This will help us in our drive to promote these three brands as this is our main focus for the next 12 months.”

They are also looking beyond the American market for sales, pushing into Europe and Asia, with Michael telling Mayo Live, “It is not like America is the only show in town.”

But their pricing may well see them survive where others fail. Distillers that operated with great fanfare or spent tens of millions on distilleries will struggle to compete with Achill on the shelf. The Achill team are fighters, and they know when you have to roll with the punches. When I call to the distillery in April, it is closed, and asking why in a nearby shop I am told ‘they are all boxing mad and are off in Portugal for a tournament’. I pass later in the day and they are back open, with Kenneth Quinn – son of head distiller Ken – fresh off the plane from Porto and visibly exhausted. His brother Ben also works in the distillery, and both are All Ireland boxing champions. Another distiller, Matthew, is also a keen boxer and won a recent bout in Westport. The island has an indirect link to a tradition of boxing – Johnny Kilbane, once considered to be one of the world’s greatest featherweights, was the son of an Achill emigrant and an Achill-American mother. He is commemorated with a statue outside the boxing club where Ken coaches.

Achill distillery is the plucky underdog in Irish whiskey – their releases are smooth and pleasant, young but polished, and at under fifty euro, they punch above their weight. Maybe it’s time they had a shot at the title.

When the American drinks giant Sazerac bought Lough Gill Distillery three years ago, it was probably inevitable that they would change the name. A quick scroll through their brands will show you that they like plain, simple names – easy to pronounce, easy to say. Lough is not the easiest word for anyone who has no familiarity with the Irish language – even the scots have one up on us there, as their version of the same word – Loch – happens to be known to people worldwide due to the fact there is a lake in Scotland with a mythical beast living in it (it’s Loch Ness, btw). But with lough, will the average American know how to say that? Loaf? Lounge? Log? And Gill, like on a fish or is that a soft G, like Gillian? You want a brand that has no obstacles to a sale – no consumer should have to pause and try to get their mouth around a word that they are unsure of. Yes that means a world filled with homogenised brands, but sometimes that is what it takes – most consumers like simplicity. 

Where Sazerac have bought legacy brands, the names went unchanged because they were buying a heritage associated with the brand, although even then they are not afraid to execute a bold rebrand. When they bought Paddy from Irish Distillers Ltd for an undisclosed fee in 2016, they changed the branding to Paddy’s and gave it a makeover that was far more Irish-American than before – with his bowler hat, the cartoonish caricature of Paddy O’Flaherty was now more ‘top of de marnin to ya’ then the proud Corkman he was. But given they paid an alleged €90 million for the brand, they could do with it what they wanted. 

But Lough Gill Distillery was not a heritage brand. In fact, they had no product on shelves in any capacity, with their adjacent Athrú brand being entirely sourced. There was heritage to build on – the distillery, although built into the front of a giant factory, sat behind the historic Hazelwood House on the edge of a lake in County Sligo. And much like anywhere in Ireland, there are a million stories to be mined from the history of the place – legends, myths, historical anecdotes, poetry, prose, and simple geography. And somehow with this incredible, rich tapestry from which they could pull any thread to weave their own brand, they went with Hawk’s Rock Distillery. 

In their defence I will say this – better to change the name now than when there is any real brand allegiance to Lough Gill Distillery. Locals might have a great sense of pride in the local lake having a distillery named after it, but outside Ireland, nobody cares. Also the fact there is a distillery named Lough Ree might have influenced them, but they are very small and I get the sense that Sazerac might not even know they exist. Changing the name before there is any real brand loyalty is a good move – I can still recall the conniptions that came when the new look Paddy’s oirish whiskey was revealed, but if we want brands to live on, they have to grow and change. Sazerac knew what they wanted to do with that brand, and they did it (although as far as I know, it’s still Paddy in some markets, including Ireland).

With Hawk’s Rock they also move on from the initial founder’s vision – David Raethorne’s Lough Gill Distillery is no more, from here on in it’s Sazerac’s Hawk’s Rock Distillery. Per Business Plus, at the end of 2021, Lough Gill Distillery had bulk whiskey stocks valued at €6.3m, capital investment in the land, premises and equipment totalled €10.6m. The risk capital invested was €16.8m. You’d have to assume that Sazerac covered all that and a good chunk more when they bought it, and with that comes the right to call it whatever they want. 

The press release fills in the blanks – 

The name change reflects Sazerac Company’s vision for the future of Irish Whiskey – the art and science of blending, innovation and respect for Sligo’s rich heritage. Named after a prominent outcrop in the Ox Mountains that inspired Nobel Prize winning poet William Butler (W.B.) Yeats’ play “At the Hawk’s Well”, Hawk’s Rock Distillery aims to become a global hub for Irish Whiskey, while offering a gateway to explore the rich traditions of Sligo and the surrounding region.

“The renaming of Hawk’s Rock Distillery marks a new, yet familiar, frontier for us,” says Sazerac President and CEO Jake Wenz. “Sazerac is known for its balanced approach to honoring tradition while embracing change in constant pursuit of crafting the world’s best spirits at our distilleries in America, India, Canada and France. Our mission holds true for Ireland, and we are excited to reveal how we are blending time-honored traditions with bold innovation to advance the art of Irish whiskey-making.”

Piggybacking on WB Yeats makes sense – the region is known for its links to Ireland’s pre-eminent emo. But At The Hawk’s Well is a pretty deep cut to claim a reference to – premiering in 1916 it saw Yeats explore his usual themes of Irishness, identity, age, and mythology but in the style of Japanese Noh theatre. The play is only around 40 minutes long, and has mentions of hawks, and of rocks, but precisely zero mention of Hawk’s Rock, a stony outcrop in the hills near Lough Gill. Does any of this matter? Not really. They could have plucked any number of easy-to-prounce anglicisations of local placenames, but they happened to choose one which is distinctly American. 

Hawk’s Rock does not evoke the waters and the wild of the west of Ireland; as many have pointed out, it sounds like an American bourbon. Hawk’s Rock is perhaps closer to Eagle Rare, which, incidentally, is also owned by Sazerac, than any Irish whiskey brand. I can understand that they might not want a brand name that is hard to pronounce, but Hawk’s Rock doesn’t sound Irish, although perhaps most grating will be seeing that apostrophe come and go depending on who the copywriter is. 

But to look beyond our discomfort with change of any kind in the Irish whiskey category, this is a vote of confidence in the Sligo distillery. From what I can gather, Sazerac are running it full throttle since they took over and have big plans to redevelop Hazlewood House as a visitors centre. And the real test here will not be whether the name on the distillery is Irish enough to appease the guardians of Irish identity (myself included) but whether they make good booze or not, which we will all get to determine in June when their new whiskeys are released. 

Update 06/06/2025 – their first new whiskey ‘from the distillery’ is not from there at all – it’s a sourced 20 year old single malt, presumbaly from Bushmills, and they expect you to pay €199 for it. Press release here, which makes zero mention of the fact it was sourced.