Whiskey
Respecting Tradition. Disrupting Convention.
While I respect and am awed by the skill of the master distillers that have gone before, I believe perfection is an aim within reach. Perhaps it is my father’s voice that whispers in my ear - he was a man for whom nothing was impossible. Obstacles were there to be moved, a ‘no’ was an invitation to try harder.
If I take anything from him, it is his drive, his eye for detail and his refusal to accept anything less than perfection. In applying these qualities to whiskey, I’ve looked beyond the status quo. Rules and accepted procedures are there to be broken in the name of perfecting the craft of whiskey and elevating the final product beyond the limits of imagination.
Barrel Craft
This refusal to accept the status quo is behind our award-winning whiskeys. When I started learning all I could about the whiskey process, questions began to pop up in my mind. Why did distilleries fill their casks to the very top, when that meant waiting 2-3 years for the ‘angels’ share’ to evaporate enough to gain headspace in the barrel, allowing oxidation to trigger maturation? Why did they cask at 63-68% knowing they would have to add water at the end? Why use larger barrels when the wood to spirit ratio is lower and extracted less flavour? The majority of the flavour comes from the wood, so why were distilleries scrimping on this stage? Why were brands waiting for a rounded ‘age statement’ like 10, 15 or 30, when a whiskey could have reached perfection a year earlier? To me it seemed the accepted way was waiting to be disrupted.
The finest ingredients
Like a Michelin-star chef, we start with the very best ingredients - the freshest barley and the purest spring water to create the best distillate. But just like the chef, it’s what we do next that can make or break a whiskey. Just as a craftsman can take a roll of leather and sculpt it into a Louis Vuitton handbag, but in less-skilled hands that same roll could become a poor high street copy, so it is with our whiskey. Our distillate is the foundation underpinning the whiskey, but it’s what comes next that turns a good distillate into an exceptional whiskey.
While many distilleries lean heavily on their distillate, it accounts for a small percentage of flavour in the final whiskey. So while it’s undeniably important to start with great spirit, much like the high quality paint and canvas that were important to Michelangelo, it’s the final skill and craft that brings the beauty. Just as Michaelangelo took those high-quality paints and used his skill to create masterpieces, so it is with our whiskeys.
Anyone can fill a cask with whiskey and leave it in a warehouse for 20 years before bottling and claiming they “made a whiskey”. But it’s only through truly understanding the process of ageing and maturing that you can make world-class whiskeys. Knowing the humidity levels of the maturation warehouses, understanding the type of wood, when to disgorge and change that wood. Deciding on which size barrel to use, the type and whether to use a virgin barrel or one that has previously held a liquid like sherry or port. Knowing when to move locations in the warehouse or relocate to another climate zone, having an expert palate for whiskey and to be constantly tasting it and making these decisions. This continuous tasting and awareness of how the phenol compounds of wood have been drawn into the whiskey is key. This is where the craft of whiskey begins to come into play.
Carefully sourced barrels
The majority of the phenol compounds that add flavour to the whiskey come from the wood. So how a distillery treats that wood is crucial. And it’s here that my experience in running a BBQ restaurant and winning BBQ competitions has come into play. When it comes to wood, there’s so much to consider in order to craft the perfect whiskey.
How dry is it? What is the grain structure? How was it dried? Has it been toasted or charred? What size are the barrels? Has the whiskey been in just one barrel or rotated? Should I half fill the barrel to get more oxidation and deeper maturation but then lose out on half of the flavour the wood could have given?
At The Craft Irish Whiskey Co. we deep stave toast our barrels slowly, caramelising the wood sugars to draw out more of the vanilla lignin flavour compounds that add such warmth and rich sweetness to the whiskey. Where most wood is kiln dried, we’ve assiduously tested and found that yard seasoning removed harsh tannins and produced a better whiskey. We source the best casks from around the world. We choose cask styles and sizes based on where the whiskey is at in its maturation cycle. No expense is spared when this is the most important part of crafting whiskeys with unrivalled flavour profiles.
Under-filling
While it’s certainly more expensive, we don’t fully fill our casks. Under-filling a barrel allows the oxygen to get to work straight away, creating oxidation and giving better maturity at an earlier date. Much of the skill comes from knowing just how much to fill the cask. You need it to be at a level high enough to draw out the flavour compounds from the wood and imbue the distillate with those rich notes from day one. But to fully fill and wait for the Angels’ Share to evaporate before oxidation and maturation could begin never made sense to me. So we’ve reinvented maturation to put taste at the forefront. And it’s already turning heads. Multiple awards won within six months of our first release speak for themselves; in disrupting and perfecting the process, we’ve reimagined the potential of Irish whiskey, elevating it beyond what has come before.
Adding water before maturation
Where others add water after maturation to bring the whiskey down to the accepted 40-46% ABV, I saw that adding it before would allow the water and the spirit more time to mingle. More time in the barrel would encourage the water to absorb the rich, deep flavours of the wood. Where adding water after maturation simply dilutes those flavours, adding it before makes the water a part of the process. Our whiskeys emerge at a perfect ABV, without the need for dilution, and with an exceptional smoothness, viscosity and extraordinary depth of flavour.
Age is just a number
Whiskey is a living, breathing entity. The volatile compounds that give the whiskey its flavour can fluctuate over time and over the course of a spirit’s time in the barrel, the quality of its flavour can vary. That’s why we test our whiskeys more frequently than other distillers. Throughout its maturation we taste the whiskey every two to three weeks. During its finishing period we taste it every other day. We’re not obsessed with age statements as so many others are. Waiting until a whiskey has reached 10 years or 15 years seems to me to be a case of waiting for waiting’s sake or for marketing purposes. Our inaugural release, The Devil’s Keep, was bottled at 29.9 years. We could have waited another two weeks to reach 30 years old, but it had reached perfection. Had we waited those two more weeks, I have no doubt that the flavours would have been out of balance, and the whiskey would have missed out on the multiple gold medal awards it’s since won.
The proof is in the tasting
It may be a more expensive and time consuming way of producing whiskey, but there’s no doubt the end result is worth it - with multiple awards from panels of acclaimed whiskey aficionados, the proof is in the tasting! Gold medals and higher from every competition we have entered for our inaugural release, The Devil’s Keep. Two Master medals for The Brollach from the only two competitions it’s been entered into so far, The Spirits Business Irish Whiskey Masters and Luxury Spirit Masters; my obsessive perfectionism is seeing results in awards and records, and placing Ireland once more on the map for our finest creation.