The Dingle Whiskey Distillery was crafted and conceived by three independent spirits: Oliver Hughes; Liam LaHart and Peter Mosley. Oliver, Liam and Peter are the people behind Porterhouse Brewing Company; one of the pioneers of craft brewing in Ireland in 1996. Craft beer in Ireland in the mid-1990s was not appealing to the masses. The idea was radical to some, simply mad to the rest. The refined pallets of the then youthful Oliver, Liam and Peter had seen a love for beer. As their palates became more and more experienced to the taste of Earth’s natural ingredients, the attention turned to whiskey.
This gave the three guys another idea; an artisan distillery. Could it work? Distillation in Ireland was controlled by three major brands. How would a small, independent distillery fit into the mix? In 1996, Oliver and Liam had the stomach to take on the challenge of the big boys; to do something different. Would they have the desire to go again? You bet they did!
The Dingle Whiskey Distillery came into being in the cold winter of 2012. Ireland was beginning to come out of the greatest recession in many people’s memory. However unbeknownst to many, the most significant event in the Irish whiskey industry in decades was happening in a tin shed in the town of Dingle, Co. Kerry. Witnessed by few, the first Dingle Whiskey Casks were filled on the 18th December 2012. Three years and a day later on the 19th December 2015, one cask, Cask No. 2 was released. Our whiskey was born. Our distillery was ready.
We have always had quality over quantity at the forefront of our thoughts. We never had any interest in distilling enormous quantities of bland whiskey. We understand and respect the concept, it just wasn’t for us! We aren’t passionate about bland spirt. We are hugely passionate about flavoursome, well-crafted spirit.
To achieve the flavours we want to achieve in our whiskey, we use three distinctive, hand-crafted copper pot stills to create what we believe is the ultimate Irish whiskey. Their distinctive design, incorporating a boil ball, encourages reflux and has much to do with the remarkable smoothness and purity of our spirit. We use a small, swan neck pot still to achieve our desired effect on our award-winning Gin and Vodka.
Once again, we appear to be at the forefront of a minor revolution in that the Dingle Whiskey Distillery is the first of what appears to be – and we certainly hope will be – artisan distilleries throughout the island of Ireland. The future of the Irish Whiskey industry looks bright and we are proud to have been the first to break the mould. Long may it continue!
The Dingle Whiskey Distillery is an independent family-owned business, thanks, in part, to our Founding Fathers programme. When the Dingle Whiskey Distillery was founded, 500 casks were made available to whiskey lovers, investors and connoisseurs. Those who chose to invest in a cask are known as Founding Fathers of the Dingle Whiskey Distillery. Each of these casks is individual, painted with the Founding Father’s name, fill date and cask number. Founding Fathers had the option of maturing their whiskey in whatever wood – port, sherry, madeira or bourbon, that they wished. Now that the spirit has come of age, each investor has the option to either bottle their whiskey, continue to allow it to mature for as long as they wish, or to sell their cask back to the distillery. Each cask will be aged in Dingle as required and bottled only when its owner decides to do so. Come bottling time, whenever that may be, every bottle is numbered and given the name of its owner. If a Founding Father decides to bottle their whiskey, it is bottled into a Dingle Whiskey bottle with a one-off Dingle Founding Fathers label. What our Founding Fathers choose to do with their whiskey once it is bottled and labelled entirely up to them. Our Cask Strength release volume of 500 bottles per batch is a subtle nod to our 500 Founding Fathers.
