Ireland

IRISH WHISKEY

Ireland has reclaimed its position as one of the world’s best whisky producers. And there’s more to come. Dominic Roskrow reports on how the country’s leading producer has responded to the new world

To say that the world of whisky has changed a bit in the last two decades is like saying the corona virus caused something of a disruption in 2020.

The world of whisky has been turned completely on its head. In just 20 years it has changed beyond all recognition, and things will never be quite the same again. When we welcomed in the new millennium Scotland had more than 100 distilleries, and the rest of the world, including America, could boast perhaps 30 of any note.

Today Australia alone has that sort of number, America’s micro distillers run in to hundreds, and Sweden, France, England and the Alpine region all have thriving and sizeable whisky industries. And then there is Ireland. One of the oldest, if not the oldest, whisky making nation on the planet, it had been reduced to a skeleton by the end of the 20th century. Some 40 years before the few remaining producers – Jameson, Midleton, Paddys, Powers and Bushmills -had sought strength in numbers and banded together. They defined Irish whiskey as not Scotch – a triple distilled peat free, blended whiskey, bottled at 40% ABV. When businessman John Teeling launched Cooley and offered a range of diverse whiskey styles, Irish Distillers as it was now known, tried to shut him down.

Fast forward 20 years and Ireland is a world whiskey force once more, and there is plenty more to come. All sorts of innovative and exciting whiskeys are in the pipeline, and the

country’s whiskey community is vibrant and animated.

It has not been all plain sailing. The Irish Whiskey Association, set up to protect the Irish whiskey category, has been criticised for being dominated by Irish Distillers, and for being unduly restrictive in the way it defines Irish whiskey.

And yet Irish Distillers, owned by drinks giant Pernod Ricard, is still the dominant force in the country. With Jameson a leading world brand, that’s not surprising perhaps. But there is more to it than that. Irish Distillers has successfully reaffirmed its position as the main exponent of Irish whiskey due to a two pronged approach: firstly, it adopted a ‘if you can’t beat ‘em, befriend ‘em’ approach, and secondly it set about ‘owning’ Ireland’s most important whisky style –pot still whiskey.

The first part was achieved by dangling carrots in front of the new distillers. Irish Distillers has gone from strength to strength in recent years and has had to expand its operation as a result. When it built new stills a few years back it surprised the whisky world by unveiling a new training centre and made it available to budding distillers, ensuring that they produce quality whiskey and maintained the country’s world reputation. And it offered the new boys a whiskey buddy, an Irish Distillers employee available to offer advice and help as needed.

The masterstroke, though, was to invest time and effort in its pot still whiskey portfolio. Pot still whiskey is Ireland’s unique whiskey selling point. It is made using a mashbill of malted barley and another un-malted grain.

The definition isn’t without controversy. For years writers have got away with defining it as a mix of malt and un-malted barley, and although the Irish Whiskey Association allows some leeway for other grains, the definition has been heavily criticised.

Experts such as Finn O’Connor historian and author of Irish whiskey book A Glass Apart, and Peter Mulryan, a former whiskey writer and now owner of the Blackwater Distillery in County Waterford, argue that the IWA definition is too close to the recipes used by Irish Distillers, and

that it ignores a slew of historical recipes using other grains and in far greater proportions.

But Irish Distillers’ record for quality whisky releases is all but faultless. A few years back it committed to new pot still whiskeys every year for 10 years, and it has delivered, with a number of releases under its Redbreast, Midleton and colour spot releases labels.

The most recent release is Blue Spot, a whiskey aged in Madeira casks for at least seven years and bottled at cask strength. It joins Red Spot, Green Spot, and Yellow Spot, and reunites the whole family of spotted whiskeys for the first time in more than half a century. The name refers to the colour daubed on each cask to show how long it was to be matured for.

And the company isn’t done yet, as the company’s business acceleration director Simon Fay explains.

“We have several new releases planned across our portfolio this year, the details of which we look forward to unveiling in due course,” he says. “While we cannot reveal too much at the moment, we are particularly looking forward to sharing our Midleton Very Rare 2021 Vintage Release with whiskey drinkers across the globe.

“In a break from tradition, and in response to consumer demand for the annual vintage to be made available earlier in the year in question, newly appointed master distiller Kevin O’Gorman will reveal the 2021 expression earlier. Kevin will become only the third master distiller to influence one of the world’s most sought-after whiskey collections and the 2021 marks the beginning of a new chapter in the world of Irish whiskey.”

As we have noted elsewhere in the magazine 2021 doesn’t come without its challenges for the Irish whiskey sector. The virus didn’t retire on New Year’s Eve, and will continue to have a major influence on all of us for some time yet. No-one knows what the fall out for the hospitality industry will be, but few if any are predicting that life will return to the way it was pre virus.

“Beyond product innovation, Covid-19 has fundamentally changed how we think, behave and consume, which in turn has changed how we engage with our whiskey drinkers,” says Simon Fay.

‘E-commerce has unsurprisingly accelerated since the pandemic and we have seen impressive numbers joining our online members’ clubs such as Redbreast’s The Birdhouse and Midleton Very Rare’s 1825 Room, giving us a unique opportunity to connect directly with whiskey drinkers, offering them exclusive content, launches and experiences.

“We are extremely optimistic about the future of the whisk(e)y category. In May, the IWSR noted that global Irish whiskey sales for the 12 months of 2019 fell just short of 12 million cases, a target set by the Irish Whiskey Association on its establishment in 2014. This completed an extraordinary decade of export led growth which made us the fastest growing international spirit category worldwide.

“Looking ahead to 2021, we’re finding that the pandemic has accelerated the trend of premiumisation. Heightened by the closure of the on-trade, consumers are drinking less, but better-quality products, seeking to recreate a premium drinking experience at home.”

The other event casting a long shadow in the months ahead is Brexit. Ireland is uniquely affected by the departure of the United Kingdom from the European Union. Ireland remains part of the Union but Bushmills, no longer owned by Irish Distillers having been sold first to Diageo and then to Casa Cuervo, is in Northern Ireland, which is leaving with Great Britain. Like the rest of Northern Ireland, the distillery is stuck between a rock and a hard place. There is an open border between Ireland and Northern Ireland, a key component of the Good Friday Agreement which brought peace to the island. A border in the Irish sea between Northern Ireland and the British mainland would keep the harmonious relationship between North and South intact, but this would mean a special status for Northern Ireland, and that is anathema to Ulster Unionists.

Simon Fay recognises that Brexit will bring challenges, but says Irish whiskey producers are geared up to raise to them.

“Brexit is certainly a significant event in that it will change the way business is done with the UK for all its trading partners, not least other European countries,” he says. While the ‘transition period’ came an end on December 31t, but both the Pernod Ricard Group and Irish Distillers have been working hard over the past few years to make sure we are well prepared as a business for all eventualities.”

Challenging times, then, but Ireland remains confident that it will continue to make strides in the months and years ahead.

“As with most spirits categories, Irish whiskey sales have been impacted by the challenges of 2020, but thankfully our year end results to June 2020 show that our whiskeys have demonstrated great resilience,” says Fay.

“We know from history that the Irish whiskey industry has proven itself to be both strong and dynamic. Of course, the future remains unclear, but we are confident we will bounce back to continue our growth trajectory.”

With so many distilleries in Ireland – both North and South – still yet to bottle their first whiskeys, it seems that the Irish whiskey category is set for more acrobatics in the future. We live in unpredictable but potentially exciting times.