Triple Distilled Communications

A Disciple Of Fire

January 30th, 2026
I often wonder why James Doherty did it. Why he decided to leave a good career in an international drinks giant to build a distillery in a remote part of Ireland. Sure, Irish whiskey was booming, but there were easier ways to make a buck off it – start a brand, flip it to a multinational, retire. Building a distillery meant investing millions into an idea that might or might not pan out, and you would need to wait four to ten years to really find out if it was all for naught. And to build in Donegal – one of the most remote places on the island of Ireland. But once you visit the county, visit the distillery, and taste the whiskey, you start to understand.

Born and raised in Woking, England, Doherty grew up in a household rooted in Donegal. His father was born in Britain to Donegal parents, while his mother was born and raised in Donegal before emigrating to the UK. Doherty studied agricultural engineering, which led him abroad early in his career. Over several decades, Doherty built extensive experience in senior commercial and leadership roles with major multinational companies. When the time was right, he secured a site in Donegal and tried to build. In a storyline that sounds part Local Hero and part The Field, he was up against what one might call manoeuvres, and rather than spend more time and money trying to outflank those in his way, he simply went elsewhere.

Ardara Distillery now sits outside the titular village in the south of Donegal, and in August last year, they released their first whiskey. Much like the county it comes from, it is unlike anything else in its field – sweet, smoky, unctuous, and unique. It is alien by design – a heavily peated spirit produced from a grains-in distillation, because Doherty wanted to redesign the narrative around Irish whiskey. It is a category with a heavy emphasis on the latter parts of whiskey making – we are overrun with cask finishes, perhaps fuelled by those who source spirit from one of the usual suppliers seeking to put their own stamp on the liquid, or to see an occasionally superficial difference. Doherty sees difference as being something intrinsic, rather than something that gets tacked on; nature, more than nurture.

“Since the late 1990s there has been a noticeable shift that moves the flavour proposition from the front end of the process – distilling – to the last vestiges of maturation – finishing. We have, as an industry, moved from product intrinsics driving distinction to cask finishing and this is seen throughout the stock modelling process. This creates huge flexibility in the stock modelling because you do not need to specify what the spirit is destined for straight off the still but also creates quick and efficient use of higher impact casks later in the process.

A bottle of Ardara CS at Assaranca Waterfall.

“The downside is that the impact of full maturation, all the depth, complexity and subtlety it creates is lost at the altar of obvious and convenient. There is no substitute for time.

“What we now have is the easy borrowing of credibility with finishing and as time becomes more precious people lean into smaller casks and other tricks that increase wood action as a substitute for time creating interesting flavours that have, for me at least, are something less than.

“I would like to see a return to distillate-driven flavour, whiskeys that have a profound sense of place that are enhanced by the influence of wood not dominated by the impact of wood. Distillates that we afford the luxury of time to allow them to become what they can be.”

Based on this belief in a reformation of Irish whiskey making, Doherty made a decision to try and capture as much of the essence of the landscape of Donegal as he could by using a grains-in method of production. In doing so, made his distillery a lot more complicated than it needed to be, although he claims it is complex until it is understood: “All of the elements are individually proven, but they had not specifically been put together the way we have. We originally installed it with a roller mill and had trouble with the extraction end of the process and then transfer processes. Since switching to a hammer mill, the process has run like clockwork. In many ways our decoction process is to a single malt purist somewhat dumbed down but it is highly effective and super efficient, super flexible because we can use additional enzymes.”

To keep the dense liquid from settling and effectively turning into a kind of cake, it needs to be kept in a state of constant movement, which befits the sense of place, as Donegal is a place of perpetual, chaotic motion. Rivers come screaming down from the hills to fling themselves at the ocean, cascading over cliffs and hillsides and down into caves and onto beaches. The ocean comes to fling itself upon the shore, tearing it into jagged peninsulas and breathtaking cliffs, or simply pummelling the coast into golden sand, giving Donegal more beaches than any other county in Ireland. Rain comes at every angle, in every format, and the ground itself is in a semi liquid state – there are few counties where bog is so prevalent, and the harvesting of peat so visible. Driving through the amber hills all you can smell is the burnt sugar and smoky bacon aroma of peat as it dries all around you. Doherty’s churning gyre of smoky wort writhes like a living thing, agitated and whipped into a frenzy by the propellers, and the ferocity of the process reflects the bold spirit produced. But in trying to stand apart, is there a danger here that his whiskey – with its grains-in, smoke in, sticky sweet burnt sugar profile – stands a little too far apart?

Doherty notes that many whisk(e)y categories are closely tied to a sense of place, a specificity he appreciates. In contrast, he observes that Irish whiskey — aside from examples like Connemara — has largely been defined by a perceived sameness. The dominance of Jameson, he argues, has shaped a widespread belief that all Irish whiskey follows a sweet, smooth, easy-drinking style.

When considering how to compete in this environment, Doherty explains that his team recognised they lacked the scale, heritage, economics, and distribution to challenge the mainstream Irish whiskey model directly. Attempting to build a brand within the largest and most obvious segment would also mean entering the most competitive space, where they would hold the fewest advantages. Instead, he says, they looked to other spirits categories where success has come from targeting smaller, more profitable niches. From this perspective, they concluded that peated Irish whiskey could become one such opportunity.

“We coined the phrase “Donegal the Islay of Ireland” a decade ago hoping I would show a strategic intent, a direction of travel, and a helpful language that would convey a sense of regionality and an alternate view of what Irish whiskey might be. If Islay is seen as a holy grail for Scotch what would the Irish equivalent be?”

But ‘the Islay of Ireland’, thus far, only has his peaty, grains-in distillery, the smaller, experimental Baoileach Distillery, and Crolly Distillery, which is unpeated for the most part, and who they have found their difference by using direct fired cognac stills (and by building a distillery in a former doll factory). But his association of peat and Donegal is easy to understand once you visit the county and travel through acres of bogland.

“When I think about whiskey it is for me a product of a place. It has to say something specific about where it comes from, what brought it into being and what connects it to place. The question then is how do you create a whiskey from Donegal. My people are from Donegal, a county with a rich (perhaps richest) illicit distilling heritage on the island. The grandson of two illicit distillers we set out to honour Donegal and these men. The county was famous for peated whiskey and poitín and this is both well known and reasonably well documented. It seemed obvious that we should approach our distillery in Donegal from a peated perspective.

“Allied to this is a view that specifically with Islay that people in general like smoky things and smoky tastes but struggle with the iodine flavours that remind them of hospital corridors. Can you create a specifically Donegal take on peated whisk(e)y? We decided it had to be profoundly smoky, there is no point in being gently or lightly something. Donegal is a place of profundity so the whiskey is too – can we create all the smoke and none of the Iodine. The world believes Irish whiskey is triple distilled so we chose not to fight this. But we have bespoke cut points so that our peated Irish is not a double or triple distilled scotch made in Ireland. The grains-in choice is to respect the illicit heritage. Arguably they would not have the facility to filter the mash so neither do we. It has brought a lot of unexpected bonuses in terms of flavour, texture and efficiency.”

The grains-in process according to Doherty:
- Hammer mill (2 tonne batch)
- Mash conversion vessel (no mash tun)
- All wort including grain transferred to fermenters. Fermenters have propellers in to ensure all the grain kept in suspension. Yeast added (D53 for its fruitiness). The grain in element means we do not need anti-foam
- Wash Still – 10,000 litre off set neck and externally heated using a shell and tube reboiler.
- Needs a robust CIP system and cleaning is hugely important for yield and flavour consistency
In a sea of new Irish whiskeys, he does appear to have achieved his vision of a wildly different flavour – but with the category facing headwinds, is peat a harder sell? In the monolithic world of smooth Irish whiskey his liquid is a deliberate outlier, but maybe that is what drinkers are seeking as they explore the category, and the reviews have been positive. On Whiskybase, their inaugural release holds an average score of around 84/100 based on user ratings (it should be noted however that not everyone was a fan). So the distillate is good, and the inaugural release is good, but the industry is not where it was when Doherty went chasing his dream in the wilds of Donegal. Ever the optimist, he sees better days ahead: “I don’t think many people will be asking to have 2025 back again. We were fortunate at Sliabh Liag Distillers that we started cutting back 18 months previous but we still delivered a significant year for us with Ardara Single Malt being released, and the Silkie Redesign getting to market. Ardara Distillery was in production throughout the year.

“Securing our long term stock financing with Fero was hugely significant. The business is much more focused on markets closer to home and peat/smoke positive particularly northern Europe. The business is now broadly cash neutral and losses were halved last year so we are in a stronger position all around. Consumer demand is still hard to read but you would think over stocking in the USA will be cleared out by mid year and hopefully inflation starts to trend down. If the early reaction to the Ardara release and Silkie redesign are a tell, then 2026 looks promising.”

Ardara Distillery

The stills in Ardara

A warehouse at Ardara

Ardara whiskey on display

Ardara Distillery warehouse entertainment suite

Ardara at Assaranca

James Doherty explains offset still necks to a ten year old (and a 50 year old, out of shot)

James in on grains-in

Ardara stills

Ardara stills

For a (very long) profile of James Doherty and his Ardara dream, click here.
The Year Of Natural Causes

December 31st, 2025

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.
Irish Whiskey Tourism: Is It Really Worth It?

August 2nd, 2025

In May this year, Teeling Distillery in Dublin announced that it had hit a remarkable milestone – in the ten years since they had opened, they welcomed a total of one million visitors. Located in the Liberties area of Dublin city, the distillery had been smart about their tourism offering; the distillery had an exhibition space, cafe, and most importantly, a vibe. It was a nice place to visit and hang out, as well as a distillery. They were also fortunate in that they were in Ireland’s capital, and within walking distance of three other distilleries – the now defunct Dublin Liberties Distillery was just around the corner, while Alltech’s Pearse Lyons Distillery and Diageo’s Roe & Co. Distillery were a short walk away. If you were a whiskey lover, you could also take a stroll down to Bow Street, where the old Jameson distillery offered a range of experiences.

Whiskey tourism can be big business, but as with the category as a whole, a handful of large brands and their respective brand homes dominate. Bord Failte, the Irish tourism board, publishes visitor numbers to brand homes each year, the most recent data being from 2023.

In that year, the top spot for Irish whiskey tourism destinations was the Jameson brand home on Bow Street, which welcomed 318,099 visitors, making it the second most popular brand home in Ireland after the Guinness Storehouse which welcomed a whopping 1.4 million visitors. Next in the whiskey category is Teeling, which welcomed 127,571, then Midleton Distillery with 111,305, the highest for any whiskey attraction outside of Dublin. The next closest is Pat Rigney’s The Shed Distillery in Leitrim, with 50,000 visitors, Pearse Lyons Distillery with 35,176, Rose & Co with 33,500, Kilbeggan with 33,250, Powerscourt Distillery with 19,000, Tullamore DEW with 14,666, Dublin Liberties Distillery with 6,500, and Clonakilty Distillery with 6,018, (some way off the 40,000 visitors per annum promised when the distillery was being planned). Teeling shows that even newcomers can build remarkable numbers when it comes to visitors, but the other, lower figures show that nothing is guaranteed.

Whiskey tourism can also build brand awareness, as JJ Corry owner Louise McGuane notes: “For unknown brands it has to be about generating revenue first and foremost. It can certainly build brand awareness but you need to be in a high traffic tourism area for it to do that. You can’t build a destination right off the bat, that takes time. You can either be a tourism business or a whiskey business, I don’t think you can be both in the beginning, trying to run a bar or restaurant without an established route to market is nothing but a drain on resources and a distraction.”

But even if you had an all-singing, all dancing whiskey tourism offering of a brand home, tours, gift shop and cafe, there is also the question of access. Outside Ireland’s capital, tourism of any kind is more of a challenge, for both visitors and operators.

When McGuane started her business – a resurrection of a whiskey bonder brand from her area – she had the perfect location; her home in west Clare. She built her maturation warehouse on the site of her family farm, alongside her own renovated cottage, a contender for Ireland’s home of the year. As a venue to build the brand around, it worked on one level – high net worth visitors could fly in by helicopter and be wined, dined, and wowed, but this was never going to be a place for the bus tours.

“In the main I have tried to avoid tourism, as the farm facility is small and always quite busy. It was never a major part of our business plan, but eventually I realised there was an opportunity there, but one I wanted to control tightly.

“Tourism is very seasonal in Clare, so we open from March to October each year by appointment only. We only work with the local five star hotels and DMC’s who service high-end tourism clientele. This keeps the numbers down but the value up. We’ve managed to build great relationships now with that level of clientele and the sky is the limit in terms of what we can offer. The on-site visit is very tailored and a really unique experience beyond the usual tour of copper stills. We frequently get visits from guests on helicopters on their way to or from Adare or Ashford and that level of experience has to be top notch.

“More mass market tourism never interested me, because unless you are in an area with an existing tourism base, the amount of work involved in creating awareness for an attraction and the running costs of a large facility would detract from our main business which is selling whiskey. We have been hyper focused on building route to market first and foremost.”

With ten years of hard work behind her and a growing brand, an opportunity to develop a tourism offering in the actual home of the brand presented itself. After a planning application to create a production facility and tourism offering in Doolin was turned down, another far more fitting location became available. Bunratty Castle and Folk Park is one of the top tourist attractions in Ireland, welcoming hundreds of thousands of visitors each year. It is also where the original JJ Corry shop is located.

“I have had my eyes on it since the inception of the business and took a lot of inspiration from there. I worked behind the scenes for many years to see if there could be an opportunity and finally once new ownership took over I was able to prove my case. The park gets close to 400,000 paying visitors per annum. That is 400,000 people walking past the door of the JJ Corry shop.

“We have created a heritage driven experience that allows us to tell our story and lean into the history and heritage of whiskey bonding in the late 19th Century in an authentic way. It was a turnkey project. We had it up and running within two weeks and it has a huge amount of potential going forward. We are learning as we go and I am beginning to embrace tourism as part of our business model.”

The setting is an ideal one for any brand looking to appeal to the American tourist, as its mix of olde worlde charm and actual built heritage gives a sense of a place out of time.

“Bunratty is kind of a magical place. The 19th Century street really transports you to a particular moment in Irish History and culture and as it happens that moment is exactly when the original J.J. Corry was launched. I love leaning into the heritage of that time to draw inspiration and stories from the JJ Corry timeline. “

And aside from that charm, it also means McGuane’s home can be that again – just her home: “Bunratty works as a mass market offering because of the established footfall, brand awareness comes after that. Those who visit us on the farm become lifelong advocates for the brand due to the experience they receive. I’ve had to draw a line with people visiting my home as part of the experience most of the time, it can become disruptive.”

Ardara Distillery founder James Doherty faces different challenges. Also perched on the west coast, his distillery is located in a small village in Donegal on the north west coast. With his distillery operational a little over three years, his focus has been on making whiskey, not on hospitality. “Tourism plays an important part of the business from a “getting the word out there” but not really from a commercial perspective. We hesitate to call our tour a visitor experience as it is very much a tour of a working distillery followed by a tasting and a shop. Our space means we are limited to small groups (generally less than 15). We have done larger groups but it is difficult for us to accommodate that size of group and the tour loses the personal touch we like.”

Doherty also sees his distillery as part of the greater tourism offering in his area, and wants visitors to spent time in the village: “Our philosophy has been one of completing Ardara not competing with Ardara. Consequently we have no tea, coffee, café or indeed hospitality. The village is well equipped with three cafes, five pubs, three churches, and two hotels so we want people to spend an hour or so with us and then spend time with the weavers, spinners, craft shops and then on to the venues.

“Our belief is that while distilleries are intrinsically interesting, our process idiosyncrasies amps that up but you cannot overcome the seasonal nature of tourism in rural Donegal. The return on capital from the visitor centre is materially lower than whiskey production so it really is about creating awareness, generating advocacy and enhancing the area.

“Our whiskey style is inherently regional which plays well with the tourist who comes to Donegal; they tend to be more adventurous. Our season is from 17 March to the bank holiday weekend in October. A city centre distillery visitor centre is a different beast but once you are 30-40 minutes out of town the business opportunity is, for me, far from clear.”

But in a difficult time for whiskey producers – tariffs, rising costs of production, and a cost of living crisis in the US and Europe – tourism numbers are also down. Failte Ireland’s June report highlighted that Q1 2025 was relatively weak compared with 2024. This was partly due to Ireland’s winter air access being down -2% due to the Dublin airport cap; disruptive storms in January, and a comparative high in the same period in 2024. Also in June the Central Statistics Office reported that figures were continuing to decline, with a 10% drop in the number of foreign visitors coming to Ireland in May.

Doherty sees their small-scale tourism as being safe from any decline in numbers visiting the country as a whole: “We are still young and growing so our numbers in terms of visitors and spend is growing year on year and I think we will this year start to bump up against our capacity constraints. The tourist in Donegal is not as fickle as perhaps for the rest of Ireland so a combination of capacity (small) and regional location means that we are not seeing numbers softening.”

But the numbers nationally are – the Central Statistics Office revealed that tourism figures for June were down 2% on last year, while a Fáilte Ireland survey of tourism operators showed an overwhelming majority indicated that every major overseas market sector was down in terms of revenue compared to the previous 12 months; and 59pc of operators said revenue from North American visitors was down on 2024. Three distilleries which were built with prime tourism locations and offerings were Killarney Brewing and Distillery – just outside the tourism hotspot of Killarney and boasting a stunning location and popular restaurant; Waterford – just off the heart of Waterford city and with a modern distillery and historic brewery; and Dublin Liberties Distillery – just around the corner from Teelings. All are now closed. Another whiskey tourism offering, Powerscourt Distillery – located on the historic estate in Wicklow which welcomes thousands of visitors each year – is in receivership and being sold.

For Louise McGuane, things are tough, but she is positive: “I will be honest and tell you that it is extremely challenging on a personal and professional level, in that this seems to be a once in a generation industry-wide shift, and by industry I mean the entire drinks industry not just the Irish whiskey Industry.

“The timing of this shift is particularly cruel to the Irish whiskey industry as a whole, we’ve all only really had a ten year run in to rebuilding the category and diversity within it and we thought that Covid would be the worst thing we would face, but we were wrong. There is no doubt we are on a downswing and still on the way down, but the market will come right again and the challenge now is to prepare the business for that moment. That is what I am focusing on now, ensuring the longevity of the JJ Corry brand beyond this moment and adapting ourselves for the future.

“I am disappointed at the lack of stewardship being shown by some of the multinationals. A show of belief and commitment to the sector has proved lacking from some and we need long-term buy-in and belief for a long-term future once the downturn is over. The positives for me are that I’m feeling re-energised on a new mission; stay positive and stay in the game.”

For James Doherty, the smaller distilleries like his, are somewhat sheltered from the worst headwinds: “It feels there is a dark cloud over the industry at the moment. I didn’t subscribe to the hype pre and immediately after Covid but equally I don’t subscribe to all the darkness now. It is undoubtedly tough but if you have scale you are safe enough, and, if not, strong propositions – with strong sense of place, robust authentic origin stories and distinctive spirit styles – will be no doubt tight for capital and cash but should pull through.

“Ten years ago when capital was more readily available business models that were about rapid growth and building businesses that were scalable and valuable (almost fin tech like) targeting obvious opportunities are more questionable now; smaller less capital intensive (but scalable) feels like a more robust model in this climate. That’s certainly been my advice to anyone thinking about coming in now.

“We have cut our cost base substantially, focussed-in on fewer markets closer to home and undertaken some spirit wholesaling. We are still distilling as we believe in the long term opportunity of Donegal as ‘the Islay of Ireland’ and Ardara Single Malt at the core of that. We have a lot to be excited about really even in this climate – the Ardara Single Malt in all its uncompromising glory will be released shortly and the response to the whiskey has been strong.”

Alongside this, Doherty is the star of a documentary about his distillery project which premiered at the Galway Film Fleadh: “We are fortunate that we commissioned a video of the distillery build for the investors, though I do ask myself does anyone really need a three-metre wide James Doherty on a screen in front of them.”
A Time To Rebuild

July 5th, 2025

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.
The Fighters

May 9th, 2025

Ken Quinn, Seán and Michael McKay, and the late Mick Gallagher outside Achill Island Distillery.

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.”

Kenneth Quinn at Achill Island Distillery

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.

A Disciple Of Fire

The Year Of Natural Causes

Irish Whiskey Tourism: Is It Really Worth It?

A Time To Rebuild

The Fighters