In November 2019 I stood in the lobby of the Aloft Hotel in the Liberties area of Dublin city. For the first time in more than 70 years the roofs and buildings of four operating Irish whiskey distilleries could be seen - Pearse Lyons Distillery, Teeling Distillery, Roe & Co and the focus of this week’s podcast, the Dublin Liberties Distillery. In fact as I marveled at the return of distilling to Ireland’s capital, right on cue, a truck full of barley arrived, ready for Master Distiller Darryl McNally to turn it into single malt irish whiskey and I watched as its contents were magically emptied from the truck straight in through the wall of the Dublin Liberties Distillery. Darryl has spent his whole working life in Irish whiskey and the Dublin Liberties Distillery is his chance to put his very own stamp on whiskey that he’s been keen to make for years. In this episode of stories and sips, I have the pleasure of chatting with a master of his craft and a mentor to many up and coming young distillers. I was not going to let a chance to chat with a Master Distiller of Darryl’s calibre go to waste and made sure to dive deep into such topics as: - What Darryl believes makes for a good Master Distiller - What he considered when building his whiskey portfolio at Dublin Liberties Distillery - What it takes to build a distillery from the ground up - What a career at Ireland’s oldest distillery, Bushmills, taught him about single malt and running a distillery - What the DNA of his own whiskey is.
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51:09
Ernest Cantillon: Cork’s Bar, Restaurant and Whiskey Entrepreneur
Irish whiskey has a fascinating past - we’ve had many great conversations about the rise and fall and rise again of Irish whiskey on this podcast. One of the most fascinating aspects to me of Irish whiskeys past is the role of whiskey bonders and bottlers - those middlemen who purchased casks of whiskey from the distilleries and bottled under their own label or matured the whiskeys further, selling the whiskeys on in their own pub or distributing to others to sell.
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47:04
Alex Loudon – Ireland’s Rainwater Whiskey Maker
In October this year, Ireland had 34 operating Irish whiskey distilleries. As we settle in to November, we now find ourselves with 36 distilleries on the island of Ireland producing Irish whiskey. The newest distillery, Glendree Distillery, is located in Glendree in East Clare, on a winding mountain road on a slope of the Slieve Aughty Mountains, at the family farm of founders Paul and Alex Loudon.
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45:49
Dave Mulligan: Ireland’s Proud Poitín Purveyor
Before Irish whiskey as we know it today, there was a different spirit, the precursor to whiskey, the spirit that every house in Ireland had a drop of or participated in the making of. I’m talking of course about Poitín (pronounced pot-cheen). If you think the story of Irish whiskey is the greatest rollercoaster ride in the history of Irish spirits, then you’ve not yet heard the turbulent, thrilling, story of Poitín.
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54:52
John O'Donovan – Irish Whiskey's Global Retailer
For every whiskey business, there are hundreds of ancillary businesses that, working together, help us get the whiskey into our glass wherever we are in the world. One of these businesses is IrishMalts, an online spirits retailer founded in 2018 by two brothers from Cork. You see, the story's already good! Robert and John O'Donovan have been busy supporting the growth of Irish whiskey since founding their business, finding ways to make it easier for smaller whiskey companies to list products for sale and distribution, and by offering a service that not only helps distilleries and brands sell their products more easily but by getting that product into customer's hands and bellies around the world faster.
Stories and Sips is hosted by Irishman and self-professed Irish whiskey ambassador Barry Chandler, introducing unsuspecting Americans to the joys of Ireland's extraordinary whiskeys, their history and their stories.
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