Locke’s Old Kilbeggan Distillery

As previously stated in my first post, I will periodically wax poetic about whiskey experiences outside the Carolinas. And a few months ago, I was fortunate enough to convince my wife to spend our tax refund vacationing in Ireland. Ireland’s whiskey heritage is equal to that of Scotland, although the debate over whose is older is beyond the scope of this blog. Regardless, due to circumstances that include (but are not limited to) Irish Independence, the invention of the column still, and American Prohibition, Ireland’s once proud whiskey industry was decimated and eventually reduced to two operating distilleries, both under the same ownership. Since that low point in the 1970’s, Irish whiskey has seen three more distilleries begin operating and the formation of the Ireland Whiskey Trail.

Of the four stops (out of 36) on the Whiskey Trail that I was able to indulge in, the first was Locke’s Old Kilbeggan Distillery in County Westmeath. This site is run by the Cooley Group, which until very recently was the only Irish-owned distillery in operation. Originally used for whiskey production beginning in 1757, Kilbeggan Distillery closed in 1957 but resumed operations in 2007, so none the whiskeys produced there will be ready for consumption until 2014. However, the facility is open for tours, serves as a museum, and other whiskeys produced by the Cooley Group at their facility in County Louth are available for tasting and purchase. Guided tours are available for pre-booked groups, and self-guided tours are available for walk-up visitors. The displays on the tour are quite disjointed, to the point of being completely worthless if not for the pre-printed guides leading one through the facility. I have a pretty functional knowledge of the distilling process, but found myself spending much time listening to Connie narrate from the guide as I was eyeing the exhibits. There are also several rooms that focus on non whiskey-related topics which were quite perplexing, but overall I found the tour to be incredibly rewarding, and not just because a careless employee inadvertently left a ring-full of facility keys in the lock leading to the room with the spirit safe, thus enabling unsupervised access to new-make spirit coming right off the still (molasses-type sweetness, a bit grassy on the nose, and VERY high proof). The smell of the Angel’s Share (whiskey evaporating during the aging process) permeates every corner of the site, giving the air a sweet, pungent aroma.

As far as the whiskeys themselves go, the Cooley Group takes tremendous pride in distilling whiskey that doesn’t conform to the classic definition of Irish whiskey. Most of their whiskeys are distilled through copper pot stills twice (unlike the usual three times). They offer a single-malt whiskey using peat-smoked barley in their Connemara line. There is also a single-grain whiskey called Greenore that uses corn as its principal grain. Inishowen is a peat-smoked blended whiskey, while the Tyrconnell and Locke’s Single Malt are their non-smoked single-malt lines. The rest of their blended whiskeys include Millars, Kilbeggan, and Locke’s. Since the Cooley Group is still a pretty young distillery, they have not yet made a habit of producing benchmark releases or specific vintages.

As for the rest of my travels along the Ireland Whiskey Trail, those will have to wait for a future post in the interest of saving space. I am planning on having a tasting with some of the whiskeys acquired during my trip, so all interested parties should send me a message indicating as such so you can be included in the planning process.

Now, I realize that it had been more than three weeks since my last Blog entry, and for that I apologize. The Ireland trip had me incredibly distracted leading up to it, but since my return I’ve decided to impose upon myself a hard deadline of one post every week-and-a-half. And even though my Ireland trip is still fresh in my memory, the next two Blog entries will deal with Charlotte whiskey venues, since this is after all supposed to be a local Blog. After that, the plan is to have another post dealing with a “101” type general whiskey topic before returning to my travels on the Emerald Isle. So if I fail to come through on any of these self-imposed commitments, feel free to call me out on it.

Salud.

American Whiskey History 101

In honor of Independence Day, here’s a brief introduction to whiskeys produced in the United States.
In the beginning, Scotch and Irish immigrants in the late 18th century had a hard time distilling the spirits they were used to back in their native countries because the barley that grew in such abundance back home wouldn’t take where they settled in western Pennsylvania. Fortunately, the German immigrants who were also settling into the area had a long history of distilling rye into schnapps, and eventually rye-based whiskey became the dominant spirit distilled along the northeastern United States.
Around the turn of the 19th century, many distillers fleeing from the revenuers following the Whiskey Rebellion settled in the newly formed Bourbon County in the Western regions of the Commonwealth of Virginia. Named for the Royal House of France as a gesture of appreciation for their assistance during the American Revolution, Bourbon County was eventually assigned to the newly formed Commonwealth of Kentucky. Distillers there found the water to be particularly clean due to the limestone shelf that the regions rests on naturally distilling the water, and that the dominant grain growing there was corn, and thus the spirits distilled from them were quite distinct from what was made back East.
Distillers who sought to distribute their product at the time had to rely on the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers for transport, this predating the railroads and highway system, and in order to identify their port of origin, casks from the region had “Bourbon County” impressed upon them. At the same time, distillers also began charring the inside of the barrels (either by design or by industrial accident, depending on whom you ask) the spirits were shipped in. By the time the whiskey reached New Orleans and all points beyond, the spirit had mellowed in the barrel, and imbibers, knowing a quality beverage when they tasted it, began to specifically ask for “Bourbon whiskey”. Shortly thereafter, around the middle of the 19th century, distillers in Lincoln County, Tennessee learned that filtering their spirits through maple charcoal before barreling made for an even mellower flavor, thus establishing Tennessee whiskeys as a distinct product.
American whiskey was a healthy and prosperous industry until Prohibition ended the party for everyone. Some distilleries continued to produce moonshine illegally; some were licensed to produce “medicinal” whiskey, but most simply repurposed themselves or closed entirely, never to produce another drop again. When prohibition was repealed in 1933, Bourbon and Tennessee whiskeys were eventually able to compete with the blended Scotch whiskies that had gained favor during the dark years, but the rye whiskeys of the Northeast never fully recovered.
Riding the coat-tails of the Single Malt Scotch movement in the late 1980s, Bourbon producers began marketing Single Barrel Bourbons to compete in the super-premium whiskey market. Kentucky distillers who had produced rye whiskey periodically for niche markets found renewed interest in historical techniques and recipes by the early 21st century, and thus a renewed demand for rye whiskeys. Shortly thereafter, craft brewers in the U.S. began experimenting with spent wort and distilling it into spirits, kick-starting what looks to be the next trend in American whiskeys.
Happy Independence Day, all.
Salud.