Irish Whiskey News & Stories

WHY IT’S BEEN A MOMENTOUS YEAR FOR SLIABH LIAG DISTILLERS written by Rachel McLaughlin  December 11, 2022 2022 was an exciting year for the Sliabh Liag Distillers team as they continued on their journey to reclaim Donegal’s distilling heritage. As well as celebrating international accolades for The Legendary Silkie Irish Whiskey range, the company filled their 500th cask and found a new home with the opening of the Ardara Distillery to the public in July.    The Ardara Distillery is a full-scale whiskey distillery built to help meet the forecast of the doubling of the Irish whiskey market by 2023; it has...

Irish whiskeys had their best showing ever in the annual Whisky Advocate Top 20 List. For 2022, five Irish whiskeys were listed with three making the top 10! The Whisky Advocate List is based on: Our Top 20 is a selection of whiskies worthy of your attention. The list includes great values that might otherwise be overlooked, whiskies that are best in class for their style, and highly accomplished bottles you should be looking for. Most importantly, each of these whiskies generates excitement and marks a highlight across a year of tasting. The five Irish whiskeys to make the list...

Bushmills is making up for lost time with new core expressions and super premium releases. Can we call it a comeback? In the early days of the Irish Whiskey Society America, we often lamented (along with others in the industry) the lack of activity coming from Bushmills. While the Irish whiskey scene was booming with new distilleries and products, Bushmills was relatively quiet by comparison despite being an industry leader. With new owners, Bushmills is now making their presence felt by leaning on their storied history and quantity of aged single malt inventory.  Ironically, their relative absence during the early...

The legendary Celtic punk band "The Pogues" have a storied history of live performances, storytelling, and alcohol related exploits. Every year around the holidays one of their more popular songs receives increased airplay. To this day, "Fairytale of New York" is still the most played holiday song in the U.K. 35 years after its release. If enjoying a drink of the band's namesake Irish whiskey while listening to this song over the holidays, have a read about its origin. The Story and Meaning Behind The Pogues’ Drunken Holiday Classic “Fairytale Of New York” BY TINA BENITEZ-EVES It was Christmas Eve babe...

Carol Quinn is the archivist with Irish Distillers.  This recent article in the Irish Examiner is timely as it follows our "Celebration of Powers" event in November which featured Carol. Our videos from that event as well as the complete interview with Carol are located on the IWSA website and YouTube channel. Archivist is very proud to help preserve history of Irish distilling SAT, 17 DEC, 2022 - 11:05 COLETTE SHERIDAN   One of only about 200 archivists in Ireland, Carol Quinn is head of archives at Irish Distillers Pernod Ricard.  Based in the Distillers Cottage in Midleton (which is...