Irish Whiskey Distilleries toured and tested

BUSHMILLS

Bushmills near Coleraine. Niall took us around this distillery on a private tour, both Liz and I were impressed with this tour, the distillery and staff as a whole. They are really impressive, an excellent whiskey tasting room, food and drink and grand shop, we didnee want to leave actually, many thanks to Niall for arranging this private tour “at the drop of a hat”.

COOLEY’S

Visit here – a closed to the public distillery as yet, though plans are in hand to “open” it up. They make single malt, blends and grain here! Its a grand tour I had with Raymond, who has been there over 20 years, and it shows. No a pretty distillery but thats ok, its what I like to see; a real working distillery for the product, no for the tourist, a really good day and drams; tasted approx 7 drams at the pub, och aye, Eddie gave us a bottle of whiskey each to take away, good man so he is! 10/10

JAMESONS

Dublin, very touristy and smart, you get a grand selection of whiskies after your distillery tour. You can also get special tours, which I have taken, they are what’s worth going here for, they are superb and the staff, as you would expect in Dublin, are hilarious.

KILBEGGAN

I’ve never been to a distillery like this ever! The museum was excellent, seeing old cog wheels turning, throwing water along, so much history here, its a superb tour. Then to the “new” bit where they actually make whiskey, a good tour again and boy, what a small still.  I am taking tours again to both of these distilleries next year and cannee wait to go back, loved both of them and I urge you to sample their award winning whiskey’s. 10/10

MIDLETON

Midleton near Cork; Jamesons. A really good tour taken here, although wee bit disappointed that we only saw the museum side of things, no actual whiskey distilling seen. Though there is a great deal to see including the huge pot still!

SLANE CASTLE

Aye, went here also, good tour of the castle, sampled many whiskies! They are planning to build their own distillery on site, cannee wait, due to being let down by Cooley, as were others.

THE GREAT NORTHERN DISTILLERY, Dundalk

John Teeling was going to take our tour  but a board meeting came up so we had another guy, who knew nothing. They have column and pot still runs, though all they do is make new spirit, sell it on. They run 24 hours x 5 days a week – the train station is right beside the distillery in Dundalk which is really handy.  You can see the pot stills from the station car park (Laura PA to John Teeling was my helpful contact here, a true LFC supporter!). John Teeling, also known as the founder of Irish whiskey renaissance, used to own the Cooley Distillery. In 2013 he acquired the GND after selling Cooley to Suntory a year earlier, he now supplies new make and grain to other distilleries and own labels. This is a huge site, former Diageo (Harp brewery) it’s a 5.5 hectare site of which 2 are used now.

TEELLINGS, Dublin

A complimentary visit (thanks) led by Ruard, who knew his stuff (makes a change for some distillery guides),  all the staff here are young, very young and I wonder what they actually know about whiskey? Our welcome at reception? Not good, they didnee wish to know, too busy chatting to each other. We were told “take photos anywhere”,  so we did, the pot stills come from Italy, Sienna, 19^th century design/shape.  There were NO padlocks on the spirit safe, they have 5 distillers on a rotating basis, the small batch 80% corn, 20% barley. We tasted 3 drams; grain, small batch and single malt (a 6 wood job 9year old). Overall impression; very touristy, hard line whisky tourists would be bored, it’s more a tourist destination than a distillery. We headed into Temple Bar, some grub and some cultural research (drinks).

TULLAMORE

Another museum, but had a very good VIP tour with drams, the new place is really grand, plans afoot to build a distillery on site, so far, just museum and visitor centre.

We have a list of Scottish Distilleries for you to visit or sample their excellent whiskies as part of a whisky tour.