Thanks. Ah, I prefer to let people natter away and I enjoy reading their enthusiasms. I could bore for Ireland on whiskey… And probably on a lot more besides. Best to rein in myself.
A few times in this thread, I did offer, when asked, some recommendations. A search should find those posts – I think? Will have another ponder as well.
Read a really interesting article on the massive success of Proper 12 in America in today’s Sunday Times. I presume all these new distilleries hoving are based on sales projections in North America and other markets. But you would wonder whether three dozen or so new distilleries can all thrive. Somehow I doubt this scenario. My sense is that there could be a fierce amount of whiskey casks available for half nothing in six to ten years’ time. Hope I am wrong but my gut instinct says otherwise.
You mentioned bonders – and new distilleries acting as de facto bonders before their own distillate matures. This point holds true – and there is widespread concern that people do not understand they are usually drinking Bushmills of some sort when they imbibe a new distillery’s initial offerings. Dingle used Cooley distillate at first, it seems. Waterford, imterestingly, avoided this path. So did Ballykeefe in Kilkenny.
There is a long tradition of bonding whisky in Scotland. Cadenhead’s and Gordon & MacPhail would be the leading examples. The Scotch Malt Whisky Society is also a bonder of sorts. But the Irish tradition of bonding, centred on Mitchells and on a public house bottling own label whiskey, became all but extinct from the 1970s onwards.
So far as I know, the only two actual bonders to have launched in Ireland are JJ Corry and WD O’Connell. If my gut instinct is correct, and there is a lot of whiskey going abegging in some years’ time, the great beneficiaries will be bonders.
Was discussing this exact point with two friends on a night out before Christmas. You could argue that the canniest whiskey-related business plan at the moment, with so many new distilleries afoot, would be to set up as a bonder, biding your time.
Still, the problem would be discerning which distillate represents best quality. There was a massive crisis in Scottish whisky during the early 1980s. Quite a few distilleries were shut down and never reopened. Some of the casualties – Brora, Glenugie, Port Ellen – produced superb whisky. Ardbeg nearly went for good.
Which or whether, when there were loads of Scottish casks going cheap during the 1980s, buyers generally knew the terrain. Why? Because there was an established pecking order. There were Manchester United distilleries and there were Burnley distilleries. People knew they were a lot safer buying a cask of Mortlach than a cask of Blair Athol.
Such a pecking order does not exist, needless to add, for new Irish distilleries. All remains to be seen in this regard. The process will take at least a decade and likely more. Buying a cask from these new distilleries, whether as an investor or as a bonder, will in large part be blindfolded darts.
I do not know enough about the new Irish distilleries to make, flavour wise, worthwhile recommendations. Have not drank a lot of Dingle as yet and what I did drink underwhelmed me. Waterford’s situation was just discussed at length. I did buy recently a bottle of Aldi’s Ardfallen, because I saw positive comment. And Ardfallen, at that level, does feature nice depth and texture. West Cork produce Ardfallen and so you could reckon this distillery should produce good and better than good bottlings in the fullness of time.
But all up in the air as yet, as the angels slowly get their share, all over Ireland.