From crisis to consolidation: How Irish Distillers saved Irish whiskey
The roots of Irish Distillers date back to 1825, when brothers James, Daniel, and Jeremiah Murphy founded a distillery in Midleton, County Cork. The Murphys were merchants with extensive trade contacts and a clear ambition: as early as 1854, they installed the world's largest copper pot still at the time in the old Midleton facility—with a capacity of around 143,000 liters. What followed was a golden age for Irish whiskey, which was abruptly interrupted by the First World War, US Prohibition, and the decline of export markets. When Irish whiskey was in a deep structural crisis in the mid-20th century and distillery after distillery closed, a radical step was necessary: in 1966, the three remaining distilleries in the Republic of Ireland—John Power & Son, John Jameson & Son, and the Cork Distilleries Company—merged to form Irish Distillers Limited. In 1975, the entire production moved to a newly built, state-of-the-art facility right next to the old Murphy distillery. In 1988, Pernod Ricard acquired the company and brought with it a global distribution network and investment capital—the foundation for the Irish whiskey renaissance.
Pot Still, Pot Still, Pot Still: Craftsmanship and scale in Midleton
The New Midleton Distillery unites under one roof what is barely imaginable elsewhere: pot stills for classic Irish Single Pot Still and column stills for grain whiskey—two technically and stylistically completely different production lines that are operated in parallel. The Single Pot Still is considered the most genuine Irish whiskey style: for it, a mixture of malted and unmalted barley is distilled in copper pot stills—triple-distilled according to Irish tradition. The water comes, as it has since 1825, from the Dungourney River, which flows through the grounds. With a capacity of several tens of millions of liters per year, Midleton is the largest Irish whiskey distillery in the country, without sacrificing the craft of cask selection and maturation. Since 2017, the experimental Method & Madness micro-distillery has complemented the complex—a laboratory for new styles and maturation experiments. In 2022, further major investments for an additional distillery at the site were announced to meet the ongoing demand.
Jameson, Redbreast, and the diversity of a house
Some of the best-known Irish whiskey brands come from Midleton: Jameson as the best-selling Irish whiskey worldwide, the Spot range (Green, Yellow, Red, Blue Spot) as historical bonded merchant bottlings, and Midleton Very Rare—a prestige edition released annually since 1984, which is composed by the Master Distiller from hand-selected casks and bottled individually numbered. The centerpiece for connoisseurs, however, is Redbreast: the house's most famous Single Pot Still whiskey, matured in ex-bourbon and sherry casks, with round fruit aromas, spice notes, and a long finish. Serving temperature: 18–20 °C, neat or with a drop of water. Anyone who wants to get to know Irish whiskey beyond the blend will find one of the most complete cross-sections of the style and history of an entire whiskey nation in the Midleton range.
