Sun Tzu said that if you wait by the river long enough, the bodies of your enemies will eventually float by. It could also be said that if you wait by the great golden river that is the whiskey industry long enough, every blogger, podcaster, and commenter will float by on a gilt bier eventually.…

I arrive at Ballykeefe in late summer 2024. Expecting to find throngs of tourists, I’m greeted by an empty car park. No tour buses, no campervans, no cars, no bikes. Many distilleries in Ireland push hard on tourism as a driver of both revenue and brand awareness. Not Ballykeefe. Theirs is a different approach.  I…

It’s not just Irish whiskey. We are not the only ones struggling, the only ones being left on the shelf. In the classic breakup style, it’s not us, it’s them, where them is anyone who enjoys an adult beverage. People are drinking less all over the world, there is a move among younger people towards…

In January 1986, the space shuttle Challenger exploded over the Pacific Ocean shortly after takeoff from Florida. All seven crew died, including schoolteacher Christa McAuliffe, there as part of the ‘Teacher in Space Project’. As a result of her presence on the trip, the launch and the explosion that followed were witnessed live in many…

John Gavin used to draw on the walls when he was a child. It was probably the first hint of the career he would later pursue, given how much of his design adorns various surfaces across Ireland. After studying Visual Communications Design, his father spotted a job in the Irish Times and John had his…

Biodynamic is a great word. It sounds terribly modern – bio anything means good right? While dynamic is one of those buzzwords we throw into a job application to make us sound less like a sloth. The term, however, is not modern, it is a century old, and the style of farming it refers to…

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…

Pat Rigney has pedigree. That was how his career was described to me by another whiskey maker about ten years ago. It had just been announced that Rigney was opening a distillery in Leitrim and I admitted I knew little of him, so this was how he was described – as a man with pedigree.…

Two fallacies were debunked at the Waterford Distillery Festival 2024 – one, that organising a piss-up in a brewery – or any drinks production site – is easy. The team at Waterford Distillery went all out, decorating the massive site with brand-themed chains of coloured paper, setting up cocktail and craft beer bars, organising food…