Category: Whiskey

With all the movement across the Irish Distillers stable – Powers rebrand and expansion, Crested rebrand, rumours of Jameson 12 and 18 making way for NAS releases – I had been wondering when they were going to get around to doing something with Paddy. Well;

IRISH DISTILLERS ENTERS INTO EXCLUSIVE NEGOTIATIONS WITH SAZERAC FOR THE SALE OF PADDY IRISH WHISKEY

Tuesday 3^rd May 2016 – Irish Distillers, an affiliate of Pernod Ricard, has entered into exclusive negotiations with Sazerac regarding the sale of the Paddy Irish Whiskey brand, the 4^th largest Irish whiskey brand in the world. The transaction, if completed, would involve Irish Distillers continuing to produce Paddy Irish Whiskey at its Midleton Distillery. There would be no impact on roles at Irish Distillers; all employees would remain in place under current terms and conditions.

Commenting on the proposed deal, Mark Brown, President and CEO of Sazerac, said: “In the global market, Irish whiskey experienced the fastest volume growth in the last five years, outpacing all other spirits categories. Consumers worldwide are seeing it as an alternative to other whiskies. If this deal goes through, we are confident that we will be able to take Paddy to the next level, building on its strong history and roots.”

Anna Malmhake, Chairman and CEO of Irish Distillers, stated: “At the heart of everything that Irish Distillers does is a desire to see Irish whiskey grow. This deal with Sazerac, if completed, would allow Irish whiskey’s reputation and footprint to grow further internationally. The proposed deal would ensure that Paddy would continue to be produced with the same love and care by our team in Midleton, Cork.”

The proposed divestment of Paddy Irish Whiskey is in line with the Pernod Ricard strategy to simplify its portfolio for growth and could facilitate, among other things, targeted investment in other key Irish Distillers’ whiskey brands including Jameson and Powers to support continued growth.

Paddy Irish Whiskey is the 4^th largest Irish whiskey brand in the world, selling 200,000 9-litre cases in 28 countries worldwide annually. As the Irish whiskey industry is projecting 100% growth by 2020, an acquisition of the Paddy brand by Sazerac would ensure that the brand is positioned for sizeable investment to support its future growth.

Subject to pending negotiations, Irish Distillers and Sazerac expect to sign and complete the transaction simultaneously in the following weeks. An announcement will be made if and when the transaction is complete.

About Pernod Ricard

Pernod Ricard is the world’s n°2 in wines and spirits with consolidated Sales of € 8,558 million in 2014/15. Created in 1975 by the merger of Ricard and Pernod, the Group has undergone sustained development, based on both organic growth and acquisitions: Seagram (2001), Allied Domecq (2005) and Vin&Sprit (2008). Pernod Ricard holds one of the most prestigious brand portfolios in the sector: Absolut Vodka, Ricard pastis, Ballantine’s, Chivas Regal, Royal Salute and The Glenlivet Scotch whiskies, Jameson Irish whiskey, Martell cognac, Havana Club rum, Beefeater gin, Kahlúa and Malibu liqueurs, Mumm and Perrier- Jouët champagnes, as well Jacob’s Creek, Brancott Estate, Campo Viejo, Graffigna and Kenwood wines. Pernod Ricard employs a workforce of approximately 18,000 people and operates through a decentralised organisation, with 6 “Brand Companies” and 85 “Market Companies” established in each key market. Pernod Ricard is strongly committed to a sustainable development policy and encourages responsible consumption. Pernod Ricard’s strategy and ambition are based on 3 key values that guide its expansion: entrepreneurial spirit, mutual trust and a strong sense of ethics. Pernod Ricard is listed on Euronext (Ticker: RI; ISIN code: FR0000120693) and is part of the CAC 40 index.

About Irish Distillers

Irish Distillers Pernod Ricard is Ireland’s leading supplier of spirits and wines and producer of the world’s most well-known and successful Irish whiskeys. Led by Jameson, our brands are driving the global renaissance of Irish whiskey. Jameson is the world’s fastest-growing Irish whiskey, experiencing 26 years of consecutive growth and hitting sales of 5m cases in 2015. Our brands are exported to 130+ markets, with over 50 of those experiencing double- or triple-digit growth.

Irish Distillers was formed in 1966, when a merger took place between John Powers & Son, John Jameson & Son and Cork Distilleries Company. In 1988 Irish Distillers joined Pernod Ricard, gaining access to unprecedented levels of investment and an extensive global distribution network. In 2015, we completed a €220m investment which doubled our production and bottling capacity to meet global demand for our products.

We employ over 600 people across our operations in Cork and Dublin.

About Sazerac

Sazerac is one of New Orleans’ oldest family owned, privately held companies and has operations in New Orleans, Louisiana; Frankfort, Bardstown, Louisville and Owensboro, Kentucky; Fredericksburg, Virginia; Carson, California; Baltimore, Maryland; Lewiston, Maine; Manchester, New Hampshire; and Montreal Canada. For more information on Sazerac, please visit http://www.sazerac.com

So there is an Irish whiskey boom- it is the fastest growing spirit in the world right now, so surely you would want to hold on to all your stock and/or brands? Well, perhaps if you were an independent company – but less so if you are part of a global drinks giant that desperately needs to free up some revenue to pump into a brand that went from the toast of Wall Street in the 1980s and ’90s to being a ubiquitous non-event. Absolut’s misfortunes have been well documented, but with current Irish Distillers CEO Anna Malmhake being sent back to the brand she came from to work some of her magic there, Pernod will be looking to make as much money from their Irish operations as possible in order to turn Absolut around, in the hopes it becomes the magic brand it was in Brett Easton Ellis’s American Psycho.

So what are Sazerac getting? Well, this:

Two flavoured whiskeys, a standard release, and the pot still centenary edition, which is the best by a mile. Paddy is what one might call the more ‘robust’ dram in the IDL cabinet, which is a nice way of saying ‘smooth as sandpaper’. It’s a nice drink, with a big personality, and I would take it over standard Jameson on a night out – but then, I like grindcore and chili, so obviously I like my senses cranked up to 11. So what exactly Sazerac plan to do with it is going to be interesting – simply flog it hard to the American market, or expand and experiment (and then flog it hard)? Given that they own the elusive Pappy Van Winkle brand as well as the (anti-freeze spiked) Fireball, it could go either way. But as this is one of the true Cork whiskey brands, it’d be nice to see it thrive. Corcaigh abú.

You can read Mark Gillespie’s coverage of the news here.

There is a grievously mistaken notion abroad that Dublin, and Dublin alone, is the home of the best Irish whisky. We fear, moreover, that this heresy has been encouraged, in no small degree, by the brilliant pamphleteering of our greatest living journalistic writer, George Augustus Sala.

At least one county in Ireland (Cork) owes him a grudge, for he has written what our orthodox friends might designate a “tract” on the virtues of “Dublin” whisky, utterly oblivious of the fact that, if the pure and beneficent crathur is anywhere obtainable in a state of maturity and immaculateness, it is at Cork, the centre of a great whisky-distilling district, whose products in this line are characterised by virtues that cannot be surpassed in the whisky trade of the world.

The heresy then of which provincial Ireland has a right to complain is best answered by the assertion that Dublin is no more Ireland for whisky than Paris is France for clarets and other French wines, and this proposition has been abundantly sustained at all the great international exhibitions both at home and elsewhere.

From Stratten’s Guide to Dublin, Cork and the South Of Ireland.

Those words were written as part of a profile of the Cork Distilleries Company in Stratten’s Guide, published in 1892, but they were also meant as a reminder to a Dublin-based media that there is life – and great whisky – outside the Pale. Not a whole lot has changed – there are distilleries springing up all over Ireland, but it is ‘distilling returning to Dublin’ that seems to make the majority of the headlines. But Cork has always been a distilling powerhouse. At the time of Stratten’s Guide, Cork had several distilleries in operation, mainly on the heavily industrialised northside. But Cork Distilleries Company had their head office on Morrison’s Island, just off the financial and legal heart of Cork – the South Mall. The CDC eventually became Irish Distillers Ltd and moved production to east Cork (and head office to Ballsbridge) but the South Mall is still Cork’s Wall Street (in a good way).

On the corner of the Mall and Grand Parade lies Electric, which has been transformed from a dilapidated branch of ACC Bank to a beautiful Art Deco gastropub by Ernest Cantillon. Ernest is one of the people behind the Cork Whiskey Festival, which saw events in participating pubs across the city over the weekend. On Thursday last there were two events in Electric, and so it was I headed along there to soak up the last rays of a dying sun – and some great whiskey. First off was a free Nikka whisky tasting, held upstairs in the fish bar, which sits above the south channel of the divergent River Lee and provides incredible views of St Fin Barre’s Cathedral. The cathedral looms over what was once the site of Walker’s Distillery at Crosse’s Green, one of the earliest distilleries in the city. Not much is known of it, and all it warrants is this short passage in Brian Townsend’s Lost Distilleries Of Ireland:

In the record of the letters to the UK Houses Of Parliament, there is this plea in relation to duty from the distillery owners in 1834:

You can read the whole communication here, and the sadly succinct reply. They were doomed, and the excise on their product was not to be cut or modified. But taxation is the foundation of empires – the very first tax levied by the newly formed American government was one on whiskey, which led to the Whiskey Rebellion of Western Pennsylvania (a state was named after William Penn, onetime resident of east Cork).

But back to Electric and Nikka, a brand which previously boasted these two celebs as spokespeople – eat your heart out, Suntory and Bill Murray.

Paul Maguire was the host of the Nikka event, and as we chatted about whisky I told him that, much as I love visiting the Celtic Whiskey Shop in Dublin or Bradleys on North Main Street in Cork, buying liquor from retail outlets is just too pricey – so I shop online, where I can get a bottle of Redbreast for 12 euro less than it costs in the town where it is made. Again, the curse of duty (and the curse of rents and rates for high street retailers). As we chatted, a dozen or so whisky fans came and took their seats, and I slipped away back downstairs for the whiskey supper – but not before I took a few photos:

So to the main event. I feel torn when it comes to food pairings with whiskey – it really is a small, powerful drink, with a dynamic flavour profile that often needs to be savoured and explored on its own. Canapés work really well with it, as do chocolate, but large meals like the one I had in Strathisla last year can just overwhelm the palate. Thankfully, the meal in Electric was light enough to strike a good balance, but more importantly it served as a great introduction to whiskey for the average consumer – even my long-suffering wife, who is neither a fan of whiskey nor of my ‘worrying’ devotion to it – was able to enjoy all four drinks served with the meal, especially the opener; a fantastic Old Fashioned.

Hyde Whiskey were the sponsors. The brand is the brainchild of Conor Hyde, who runs a food marketing firm called Bullseye Marketing in Blackpool. Conor got his hands on some ten-year-old Cooley single malt, distilled and matured in County Louth, which he then finished in sherry casks in west Cork for nine months. Conor also helps organise Cork Summer Show, which is where I first sampled Hyde Whiskey. They were also selling it for 50 a bottle – a considerable drop on the 70 or so they charge now – so I bought one there and then. It recently won Best Irish Single Malt at the San Francisco Spirits Awards, and is a great example of the sheer variety and quality of Cooley’s output. Hyde Whiskey is a good enough dram to stand on its own – I understand that whiskey marketing dictates that there be some sort of historic narrative and loose geographical rooting with each brand, but it really does it a disservice – this is a quality whiskey, by any name. And so to the food:

I used to work as a chef in a place called Proby’s Bistro, right on the site of the old Walker’s Distillery in Crosse’s Green, and my three years there gave me an appreciation for good food and an aversion to food snobbery that I still have. If I was a food critic, everything would be awesome, all of the time. So you probably can’t trust me when I say that the meal in Electric was awesome, but it was. It was just the right amount of flavour and complexity to compliment the three whiskeys. I was especially impressed with the grain whiskey, served with the main course. Grain whiskey is made using a column still, a device that has its genesis in the creation of one Sir Anthony Perrier, a former Lord Mayor of Cork, who also ran the Glen distillery in Kilnap, which also features in Stratten’s Guide:

There is a memorial to Perrier in what is now the Triskel Christchurch, a stone’s throw from Electric:

Perrier’s first attempt at this type of distillation was not a success – but it was perfected some time later by Aeneas Coffey, whose family had their roots in Barryroe in west Cork. Grain spirit is another divisive issue in the whiskey scene – but then, what isn’t? Grain is seen as something of a diversion, an occasional distraction from the main event of single malt (or pot still whiskey, if you’re Irish). It has always been viewed with suspicion – even The Glen distillery poured scorn on it later in their life:

I can safely say that after having Hyde’s grain whiskey, I suffered no more delirium nor decrepitude than I usually do. It was a great compliment to the weightier flavours of the burger, and goes to show that grain is there for more than taking the strain in blends. The whole meal was great, as was the company – I was sat next to Mick Hannigan, who I had worked with on the Cork Film Festival about 13 years ago, the year that Song For A Raggy Boy premiered in the Opera House. I even got to hold a door open for Aidan Quinn. He said thanks. As celebrity stories go, it isn’t that great – but when I was a chef in Proby’s, Robert Plant came in for a bite to eat (specifically, a baby spinach salad tossed lightly in olive oil with cracked black peppercorns; I know this as I was the one who made it). After his meal one of the waitresses told him she was a huge fan, especially of his hit song, Addicted To Love. He said thanks. So at least my celeb encounter isn’t as awful as that one.

In Electric I also met Rebecca O’Keeffe, one of the people behind Taste Cork, a food branding initiative by local government. Their aim is to make Cork the foodie capital of Ireland – with so many great food brands based here and so many great events, such as the Ballymaloe LitFest, it should be a perfect fit. Dublin has the nightlife, Galway has the arts, and Cork has grub. Events like the Cork Whiskey Festival are a great way of highlighting our great tradition of food and drink – after all, the vast majority of the world supply of Irish whiskey still comes from Cork. It’d be nice to see more heritage events at the next festival – you could easily do a walking tour from the Porterhouse, located in the whiskey warehouses of bonders Woodford Bourne, down to the North Mall site of IDL/Wyse’s, to Kryl’s Quay where John Daly & Co. made and bottled Tanora as well as their lesser known bonded release, Sláinte Irish Whiskey. Then take a walk down John Street to the site of James Daly’s distillery, on to Blackpool where the New Furniture Centre still has one wall standing from the old Watercourse distillery, on then to Distillery Court in Blackpool, where a solitary archway is all that remains of The Green distillery. And then back into town to raise a glass to The Apostle of Temperance, Fr Mathew, whose memorial church stands just downriver from Electric. How he would feel about all this great whiskey being served up the road can only be guessed, but perhaps we remember him as something of a killjoy; consider this encounter William Makepeace Thackeray had with Fr Mathew in the Imperial Hotel on the Mall:

There is nothing remarkable in Mr. Mathew’s manner, except that it is exceedingly simple, hearty, and manly, and that he does not wear the downcast, demure look which, I know not why; certainly characterises the chief part of the gentlemen of his profession. Whence comes that general scowl which darkens the faces of the Irish priesthood? I have met a score of these reverend gentlemen in the country, and not one of them seemed to look or speak frankly, except Mr. Mathew, and a couple more. He is almost the only man, too, that I have met in Ireland, who, in speaking of public matters, did not talk as a partisan. With the state of the country, of landlord, tenant, and peasantry, he seemed to be most curiously and intimately acquainted; speaking of their wants, differences, and the means of bettering them, with the minutest practical knowledge. And it was impossible in hearing him to know, but from previous acquaintance with his character, whether he was Whig or Tory, Catholic or Protestant. Why does not Government make a Privy Councillor of him? — that is, if he would honour the Right Honorable body by taking a seat amongst them. His knowledge of the people is prodigious, and their confidence in him as great; and what a touching attachment that is which these poor fellows show to any one who has their cause at heart — even to any one who says he has!

Avoiding all political questions, no man seems more eager than he for the practical improvement of this country. Leases and rents, farming improvements, reading societies, music societies-he was full of these, and of his schemes of temperance above all.

As a keen supporter of local business, I think even The Apostle Of Temperance could see the importance of events like the Cork Whiskey Festival, not to mention the unifying labours of Taste Cork and the earnest endeavours of the staff of Electric and all the other venues that hosted events over the weekend – just as long as we don’t all end up suffering delirium and decrepitude tomorrow morning.

It’s a tense time in the whisky field, with an increasingly bullish Japanese market milking their recent acclaim. But the Scots aren’t letting the grass grow under their feet and are out to prove they won’t be cowed. The farmers of Speyside – the most distillery-rich soil in the world, a veritable land of milk and honey for whisky fans – are planning to settle this beef once and for all by locking horns with their Asian rivals in the most Scottish way possible: By getting farm animals drunk:

Farmers on Speyside are being urged to lead a fight back for the Scotch whisky industry after a Japanese malt was named best in the world – by feeding their cattle a daily dram.

A nip of our national drink – coupled with a diet of high quality feed from distillery by-products – could produce meat so succulent and tender that it will rival Japan’s famous Kobe beef.

And it is thought that playing cattle upbeat traditional Scots music, in much the same way that Kobe herds enjoy classical sounds, will further enhance the quality of the beef.

Now there are calls from organisers of the world renowned Spirit of Speyside Whisky Festival for local farmers to help further trial the theory.

Thousands of visitors from all over the globe visit the annual Festival, and organisers are concerned about the level of attention being focused on Japanese whisky.

Ann Miller, a director of the Spirit of Speyside Whisky Festival, says, “We do not believe there is anywhere on earth that produces better malt whisky than Speyside – and millions of whisky drinkers agree.

“We were genuinely shocked and dismayed when Yamazaki was named the best whisky in the world, but we are firm believers in the old adage of don’t get mad, get even.

“And that is exactly what we intend to do. All the signs indicate that introducing Speyside malt into a cow’s diet and using animal feed created from distillery by-products gives the meat a lovely, whisky-tinged flavour.”

The incredible discovery was made by Speyside farmers Ali Rolfop and Joe King, who have a herd of Aberdeen Angus cattle.

They were mucking out a byre one evening on their farm, Ure Gullybale, near the distillery town of Keith and poured a bottle of single malt Scotch into a water trough.

Ali explains, “I’m a big fan of two of Speyside’s most famous products – malt whisky and traditional music – and so I decided to share these with our cattle.

“The next day, we noticed their coats were shiny and their eyes were bright. We’ve since been sharing a bottle of malt with them and we even have some local fiddlers come down to perform. We tasted the beef from the herd for the first time a couple of weeks ago and it is sensational – there is definitely a hint of whisky in the meat.”

The Spirit of Speyside Whisky Festival takes place from April 28 to May 2 and is one of the biggest events of its kind anywhere in the world. It comprises almost 500 different events, from distillery tours to whisky tastings, from ceilidhs to comedy nights, and from whisky themed dinners to outdoor events.

Ann adds, “With all this focus on Japan, I suppose we are a little worried that the thousands of visitors who fly in from all corners of the globe to enjoy our Festival might be tempted to go there instead.

“But while Japan may have been able to produce some decent drams, it doesn’t have the history and heritage of Scotch whisky. We’ve been producing the best whisky in the world for generations – no beef about it – and while they have learned how to make whisky from us, we’re now learning from their farming techniques.”

Tickets for all events in the 2016 Spirit of Speyside Whisky Festival programme are available to buy now at www.spiritofspeyside.com The Festival is also active on social media – facebook.com/WhiskyFestival and @spirit_speyside on Twitter and on Instagram.

Drunk cows should be an added bonus to this year’s event, as last year I really felt the festival could do with more cow tipping and bovine TB. Unless of course all this is some sort of April Fools – or April Coos, if you will. But given the Scots’ lack of respect for their own bodies, existing as they do on a daily diet of Scotch eggs, sausage rolls, Irn Bru and methadone, it seems altogether possible that they would get their farm animals pissed up in the name of national pride. So pull the udder one, as I’m with Ure Gullybale all the way!

The drinks industry has built itself on a desperate search for authenticity – every plywood flatpack bar claims to be the authentic Irish pub, every pub aspires to be the real home of Guinness, everyone wants to be the spirit of Dublin, everyone is on the quest for real ale, then there is the craft beer movement, the hipsters who were into every beverage before you, before it got big, before it became corporate.

So many brands try to root themselves in some pre-industrial Never Never Land, as opposed to proudly embracing modernity and the glistening chrome of computer operated production. But authenticity is something that really cannot be faked – contrast some of the Paddywhackery of Dublin tourist pubs with a place like Dick Mack’s in Dingle. The simple charms of The Pub That Time (Almost) Forgot has made Dick Mack’s the country’s greatest whiskey bar, and just a great pub in general. But places like that can be hard to come by.

In my hometown, there aren’t many that come close. But if you want an authentic Irish pub with a better-than-most whiskey selection, Canty’s is a fairly good place to start. It’s been on the Irish Whiskey Trail for a number of years, a tourist initiative started by Heidi Donelan, which saw her travel the country finding proper Irish pubs with a decent whiskey culture.

Heidi ran tours of the pubs, bringing them to Midleton year after year, including some well-known whisky personalities, such as Martine Nouet, a famous whisky-pairing chef and author who forsake her native France for the elemental dramatics of Islay.

The Irish Whiskey Trail website has a little bit of history about Canty’s and its links to the distillery in Midleton, but as a local I have to admit I have probably been in Canty’s twice in my life. It was seen as an auld fellas’ pub when I was a young jackaknapes, so maybe my recent appreciation for it is a sign that I have finally achieved auld fella status.

Canty’s is what an old friend of mine used to call a ‘great drinking pub’ – you could go in there at 10am and have a pint without being judged. When I popped in there recently at about 11am there were a dozen or more patrons, supping pints with the odd half one to follow. The place hadn’t changed since I was in there 20 years before. The current owner, Catherine, told me they mostly do a day trade, and the fact that their smoking area opens onto a lane connecting them directly to the bookies down the street meant that they had the best of both worlds – or a perfect storm of human vices, if you want to look at it that way. But Canty’s is a slice of the old world – a lot of the people in there were the old school drinkers; men in their 70s and up, supping pints and shorts, because that was what men did. There was no meeting the lads for a frappucino or going for a spinning class and sauna together, this was Irish Male V1.0: You drink to socialise, you go to the pub to get out and meet your pals, because they didn’t have brunch during the Civil War lads.

But the patrons in there were good craic, all bemused at me taking photos of their local, wondering what was so special about it. Here are a few of my photos:

The pub was really too busy to have a proper rummage through the dusty old bottles, but I did spot this number:

Catherine told me she wouldn’t feel right selling it to people as she was worried it had been there so long they might get poisoned from it. I told her to charge them so much they wouldn’t be able to afford a lawyer.  Anyway, here are some details via this excellent site:

Sadly, this Whiskey is now a rarity as Irish Distillers decided in 2004 not to produce this fine blend any longer. It was first launched in 1960 by Cork Distilleries Co., the name being a hint at one of its founding distilleries: Watercourse Distillery in Watercourse Road, Cork, owned by the Hewitt Family. Strangely enough, the address on the label – North Mall, Cork – points to another distillery located there, which was owned by the Wise Family. However, the blend consists of two Malt Whiskeys – one from Midleton, one from Bushmills – and a Grain Whiskey from Midleton. It is bottled at 40 per cent abv. As Jim Murray notes, “if you ever see this on the shelf of a bar or store, get it.”

It also gets a mention in Brian Townsend’s excellent The Lost Distilleries Of Ireland:

Again, Hewitts was another whiskey yearning to achieve authenticity, pointing to a past it had little connection to, rather than standing on its own two feet and embracing its own oddness – apparently it is the only Irish Distillers blend that does not contain any pot still whiskey, it comes in 1.125 litre bottles, and then there is the fact it contains malt from Midleton – a comparative rarity. Although they did make a single malt many years ago, one that is best forgotten, if the awful title and label design is anything to go by:

At the other end of the main street from Canty’s lies the town’s newest pub in one of its oldest buildings. The former barracks in the town was designed by AW Pugin, known as God’s Architect because of all the churches he designed across the UK.

It is a stunning old building, previously run into the ground as McDaid’s, a pub that started so well as an excellent, atmospheric late bar and gradually turned into a teenybopper kip. Shut by the banks, the building was sold for a bargain 600k to the Lynch family of the award-winning Cotton Ball micro-brewery, and is leased to the two gents behind the incredibly successful Castle bar in Glanmire and Elm Tree gastropub in Glounthaune. It had its first night last night (the official opening is tomorrow), so naturally I sauntered along to see what sort of whiskey selection they had. I was very pleasantly surprised by the range – and the venue as a whole.

As always, drinking nice whiskey on a night out is a costly affair; a Yellow Spot was 8.90. So sip it slow. The plans for the venue sound great – it will be over-23s, with a strict dress code, a function room upstairs, and a possibility of food down the road, once they get the upper floors ship-shape.

They also used some of the spaces to celebrate the heritage of the building and the man after whom it was named – JJ Coppinger. You can read about his incredible life here, but here are some more details about the building, past and present, thanks to historian Tony Harpur of the excellent Midleton With One D blog, who corrected a few errors I had in this post originally:

There is a copy of the most famous portrait of Pugin in the smoking area of the bar, surrounded by copies of some of his architectural sketches. These particular sketches belonged to George Coppinger Ashlin. Ashlin was born in Little Island of a Midleton mother (Dorinda Coppinger) and and English father (John Ashlin)! Having studied architecture and partnered Pugin’s son Edward and designed St Colman’s Cathedral in Cobh, Ashlin married Mary Pugin, and became Pugin’s son-in-law. Ashlin’s older brother, John, lived at Castleredmond House, hence the presence of Ashlin Road in Midleton.

The building was never the RIC barracks – that was the old part of the Garda Station behind the Courthouse. Instead the Midleton Arms Hotel was requisitioned in 1920 as a barracks to house the Auxiliaries (ex-British army men hired to beef up the RIC during the War of Independence). The facade still ears the traces of bullet marks from an IRA attack in late 1920, although the holes have been filled in.

The Coppingers of Midleton ran a brewery on the site next to the building from the mid-1790s until about 1840. That building is still there – along Distillery Walk and Main Street. It really is nice to see the Coppinger name return to Main Street in Midleton.

Hopefully this new venture will do justice to the Pugin/Coppinger name, the legacy of the building, and the simple needs of an authentic middle-aged git who likes to have a decent whiskey in a nice pub – be it an oldschool auld-fella watering hole, or a collision of exposed brick, historic stone and slick design.

The chaps at Master Of Malt had a lottery for the new Yamazaki Sherry Cask. Guess what? This:

Gif reaction:

All this because one man said the 2013 release was a great whisky. Madness.

The top performing investment last year was not gold or wine – it was whisky. As the Guardian reports:

The leading index for scotch whisky, the Rare Whisky Apex 1000, rose by 14% last year, outperforming wine, which fell by 0.4%, gold, which declined by 10%, and many of the world’s leading equity indices. The FTSE 100 index in London lost 4.9% in 2015, while on Wall Street, the S&P 500 edged up 0.7%. In China, the Shanghai Composite gained 9.4%.

The whisky market is booming: the total value of rare whiskies sold at auction in the UK last year was £9.6m, up from £7.6m in 2014, according to consultancy Rare Whisky 101.

So this begs the question, what defines rare? Is Midleton Rare actually rare? As time goes on and people consume more and more of each year’s releases, yes. And the editions signed by former Master Distiller Barry Crockett are now a diminishing number, so that adds to their specific rarity and thus to their value. But generally there is enough of it released each year that it won’t appreciate in value for some time. So when the guys in Midleton decided to release a special edition Redbreast, I was screaming ‘shut up and take my money‘. I bought four bottles, getting around the two-per-customer clause by purchasing two in my wife’s name, which in turn led to a recreation of the closing scenes of Se7en, as I begged her over the phone not to open the box that had just arrived with her name on it. Eventually she did open it, and realised that it wasn’t a lovely gift for her at all, but more fucking whiskey for her (then-unemployed) husband. Gif reaction:

I got to sample the new release before I bought it, but haven’t actually opened any of the bottles I bought. I used three of them as gifts, and now have just the one left. There were only 2,000 released, so I waited and waited for them to sell out, as the value would (theoretically) go up. And lo and behold, this email arrives during the week:

Mano a Lámh, gone but not forgotten.

It’s true. We are writing to let you know that all two thousand bottles of our limited edition, all sherry, Redbreast Mano a Lámh are gone. Every last drop. But you can help us to begin a new tradition in its honour and be rewarded for your thoughts.

Did you have an opportunity to taste Mano a Lámh? We are eager to know what you liked most about it. In return, we are giving you the opportunity to win a further addition to your whiskey cabinet. And so, as a thank-you for filling out our quick survey, you will go into our members-only draw to win a bottle of Redbreast 21 Year Old Single Pot Still.

While Mano a Lámh is now gone and officially retired, there are new opportunities on the horizon. Our Master Blender Billy Leighton was truly inspired with your appreciation for this all sherry whiskey. So he is now working on a new project that we will be excited to share with you soon. Which is why your views today may help us to craft a new whiskey in the future and keep the collaborative spirit of Mano a Lámh alive.

Translation: We have sold out, there is now only a finite amount of them available, and none through normal retail outlets; in other words, they are now rare.

My immediate reaction was: Shall we start the bidding at one million billion euro?

And then later, my reaction was: No, we shall not. This is why:

Two auction sites there giving you an idea of the prices it is reaching. Even the 150 is probably a bit optimistic, given that this is a non-age statement whiskey. The whole debate over the NAS movement is akin to the weed droughts of my youth – someone alleges there is a drought, prices go up and product quality and availability goes down. In the whiskey world it simply means that we are being sold younger whiskey at older whiskey prices. The move towards NAS is not necessarily a bad thing, as age statements are often misleading and bear no relation to quality. I won’t bore you again with the tale of the seven-year-old Adelphi bottling of a Glen Rothes that blew my mind, or my opinion that the seven-year-old Glendalough is preferable to the 13, but I assure you I’m no ageist snob. But if you want an investment whiskey, an age statement is sorta important. Or, failing that, for the distillery to be obsolete, which is the case with a present I got this Christmas:

The one on the left is the valuable one. The distillery at Dumbarton is long gone, and the stills sat idle at Bruichladdich for years – with one of them sitting in the front garden with a welly boot sticking out of it. But then Mark Reynier set up down the road from me in the sunny south east, and brought his sense of terroir – exemplified in Bruichladdich’s Islay Barley release, above on right  – and the Inverleven stills to Waterford city, where he is now operating a distilling powerhouse (here’s Mark talking about the Inverleven stills in a recent interview).

The whisky made by the Inverleven stills is finite – their Scottish life ended long ago, and the Cadenhead bottling of their single malt ticks all the boxes for investment; the distillery is silent – not just mothballed, but gone – so no more product; the age statement is a fairly profound 27 years, and it is bottled at a shitkicking 53.9%.  The stills that made this malt are now making Irish whiskey in Waterford, so the value should increase. So much as I would love to crack it open and try to get a glimpse of where Reynier is going with his spirit, I’m not going to. Neither am I going to sell it, as I like the fact that it has a (somewhat obscure) link to a place not that far from me. Perhaps when Waterford’s product matures in fives years we can open it and compare and contrast. Because no matter how rare the whiskey, no matter how expensive it becomes, it was made to be drunk. An undrunk whiskey is an unplayed piano, a car up on blocks, an unloved child. It needs to live and breathe and have somebody talk about it and say ‘this was the best’ or ‘I’ve had better’ or ‘this tastes like photocopier ink’.

I tend not to buy expensive whiskey, as I prefer variety over exclusivity. I like to try as many drams as I can, rather than chuck away 200 bucks plus on something that may or may not be the emperor’s new clothes. Snobbery is the action of the insecure, and to pooh-pooh any malts, blends or grain is to deny yourself some cracking drams. I’m about as far from an expert as it is possible to be – to be honest, I’m not even sure how whiskey is made – but I know what I like. I like something I can obtain again with relative ease, and without remortgaging my home or selling a kidney to an Albanian to pay for it. I don’t want to drink unicorn blood, because what if I like it, where will I get more? Those goofy bastards are almost extinct you know.