There is a long history of Scots working in the Irish whiskey business – from consultants to blenders to master distillers, they turn up in quite a few distilleries across the country. It makes sense – our industry is a relatively new one having gone from a handful of operations a decade ago to almost…

A possibly once-off collection of news stories about booze from this last month, largely based on my own terrible Twitter feed.  Killarney Brewing and Distilling are on another round of fundraising, focussing on the US and aiming to bring in €7 million. The 62k square foot brewery, distillery, event centre and restaurant which lies just…

Dublin City University lecturer Dr Paul Davis and his wife Jude fell in love with Lahardane in County Mayo from holidaying there, and soon realised that its windswept lakes and rugged landscapes in the shadow of Nephin Mountain would be the perfect backdrop for a distillery. Along with a Ballina native called Mark Quick, they…

The September 2023 issue of The Spirits Business magazine carried a feature about the previous ten years of growth in the Irish whiskey category and asked the question – what now? Where do we go from here? What works and what doesn’t? And can all this growth continue? You can read the full piece here.…

I dislike most words associated with not drinking. I don’t want to get bogged down in the semantics of abstinence, but ‘giving up’ is rarely a positive thing. I am giving up drinking, I am giving up sweets for Lent, I am giving up on life. Giving up sounds like defeat – same goes for…

Noel O’Loughlen is a Burren man. His family once ruled the area – the chieftain of the O’Loughlen clan was known as the Burren Prince and the family seat was in what is now known as Gregans Castle, not far from where Burren Distillers operate. O’Loughlen is a fast talker – his sentences tumble into…

Most drinks categories are old. Beer, wine, spirits – all come with vast and ancient histories that slowly branch out into various subcategories before they eventually end up encapsulated in a kaleidoscope of brands. But there is one drinks category that is a recent invention, built around one idea which blossomed into one category-defining brand,…

Human settlements have been built around water for thousands of years. Springs, streams, rivers, harbours – all vital for sustenance, agriculture, transport, and trade. You could argue that part of Midleton’s prosperity as a town came from having two rivers running through it, and being sat alongside an estuary within Cork Harbour. Obviously you might…