Conor McGregor is going premium. It seems a little surprising, given how strong his brand is and how well his whiskey is selling in America – in 2023, Jameson dominated Irish whiskey sales in America with 3.9m nine-bottle cases sold, followed at some distance by Tullamore DEW at .317m. But breathing right down Wm Grant’s neck is McGregor’s Proper No. Twelve whiskey at .309m, having grown 12% from 2022 to 2023 in a period when others saw sales slow. Given that his whiskey brand is a mere six years old, and is competing against brands with a century of history and vast multinationals behind them, the rise of Proper No. Twelve is something to behold. And while McGregor is still the face of the brand – and it is hard to imagine the brand existing without him as the face of it – he sold his share to current owners Proximo for a deal worth a reported US$600 million.
Part of the triumph of Proper No. Twelve is that McGregor knows how to market himself. He released a product which, much as it jars with our modern sensibilities, is still often seen as a man’s drink, and with most of his fans being combat sports aficionados, it was an instant success.
McGregor also chose to sell it at a reasonable price point, in stark contrast to a lot of Irish whiskeys in America that come with wild notions about their own value. But McGregor’s success at selling his whiskey in America also came about because he is the embodiment of a particular stereotype of Irish people which exists in American lore – he is a fast talking, quick-witted, short tempered brawler who is no less menacing outside the ring as he is inside it. He also looks slightly leprechaunesque. America ate him up, and other Irish whiskey producers would often find themselves being asked by US media – and what do you think of Conor McGregor? Isn’t he great? It’s a big question for any Irish whiskey lover – on one hand, he is introducing millions of people to the category who might not otherwise have ever gone beyond Jameson; he is also an authentic working class voice in a category dominated by legacy brands whose tales of aristocrats and wine merchants can get a little stale. But a quick browse through the ‘controversies’ section on his Wikipedia page will tell you why people here in Ireland might not be too proud of one of our most famous sporting sons.
McGregor’s keen business sense is never in doubt, and when he chose to expand his whiskey range, he opted for mass appeal with an apple flavoured edition, complete with playful ad campaign.
Perhaps his next pivot was inevitable – after the flavoured whiskey, the only way was up into the premium sector, and so this label appeared on TTB, the American site which publishes labels for whiskey bottles and where nerds go to see what might or might not be coming down the tracks.
It’s a 13 year old single malt distilled matured and bottled at 43% on ‘Ireland’s North Coast’. Given the age, the location, and the fact that Jose Cuervo own both McGregor’s whiskey brand and the iconic Northern Ireland distillery Bushmills, I’m going to assume that is where the spirit is from. The malt component of the standard Proper No. Twelve release also allegedly comes from there, with the grain being part of the large amount of grain spirit Bushmills has which was made in Midleton Distillery; again, allegedly. The back label has some typically American-focussed bollocks:
This appears to be the first of a series of premium releases – there is no evidence of what the price will be, but if McGregor opts to take the piss – as so many producers and brand owners in the category have done before him – it could be in the €80-€150 region. If you are upset by that, there is always the Bushmills 14 year old single malt which you can usually get on sale for around €60, which you can buy without feeling like you are condoning the various horrors of Mac The Knife’s increasingly toxic public image.
Triple Distilled Communications 