Which Irish Whiskeys are Irish owned?

ArmCandyBaby

I was just looking there and it seems like Pernod Ricard, Diageo, Beam Inc own the vast majority of Irish Whiskey brands so which ones are actually Irish owned? And what would be the best mid-priced one?

Blackjack

ArmCandyBaby wrote: »

I was just looking there and it seems like Pernod Ricard, Diageo, Beam Inc own the vast majority of Irish Whiskey brands so which ones are actually Irish owned? And what would be the best mid-priced one?

There are none really, although there are some starting up such as Dingle. Cooley is owned by Beam now, that was the only Irish owned one that was producing any significant level.

There are some brands such as green spot and inishturkbeg which use other whiskeys as bases that the brands themselves are Irish owned, but that's about the height of it.

Condatis

I think that Clontarf Whiskey is still Irish owned.

fasttalkerchat

Even Powers isn't Irish!
Tullamore Dew is Scottish owned.

This is the closest I could find:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kilbeggan_Distillery

Shhh

Blackjack wrote: »

There are some brands such as green spot and inishturkbeg which use other whiskeys as bases that the brands themselves are Irish owned, but that's about the height of it.

Even Green Spot is part of the IDL Pernod Ricard stable of brands.

fasttalkerchat

Shhh wrote: »

Even Green Spot is part of the IDL Pernod Ricard stable of brands.

It is produced at a distillery owned by Pernod Ricard for Mitchell & Son of Dublin. If Wikipedia is to believed, it is currently the only brand specifically produced for and sold by an independent wine merchant in Ireland.

Shhh

Fraid not, it started as a brand produced for exclusive distribution to mitchells but it was always owned by pernod ricard..not Mitchells. you can buy it now other places including the airport duty free.. Nice whiskey tho..

Shhh

Just to be more constructive than negative!
http://irishwhiskeychaser.webs.com/ is a great blogger on Irish whiskey and he has a comprehensive up to date list of brands and retailer brands etc.. Who owns what etc...

Brockagh

There are no Irish-owned ones at the moment, at least not with mature whiskey. But in a few years there might be lots. Slane Castle might open a distillery, two in Dingle (http://dinglefoundingfathers.com/), one in Galway, maybe the Teelings might open one, one in Belfast, and possibly a few more in the pipeline.

The Porterhouse have John McDougall on board, and he's a very big name in Scottish distilling.

Kilbeggan, by the way, is owned by Cooley, which is owned by Beam. They were doing great stuff there with the small pot stills, but Beam laid off most of the staff last week. Not a good start at all to their ownership.

Shhh

It is exciting to think so many are possibly in the pipeline. is there any progress update on peter lavery's crumlin road distillery in belfast? Its just a shame we'll hve to wait so long to get any drinkable results from any of them!

ArmCandyBaby

Wow, I never thought things were that bad that's hugely disappointing. But I suppose things will only get better from here.

IrishWhiskeyCha

I'm not sure Irish owned should be such an Issue. I think the important thing to remember is all Irish whiskey is made by Irish People in Irish facilities using (in the main) Irish ingredients (Corn for grain whiskey has to be imported and any imbalance in the supply of barley/malt is sourced in the UK or France. Obviously some people will have issues with the ownership but they do contribute more to the economy than people realise even if large swathes of profits leave the county. However would they be as big if not for these multinationals. From a global perspective these brands require the clout of a multi national to succeed at the highest level as Jameson is doing. Cooley became successful but only on a very small scale through very very hard work however the Beam deal will open up a whole new market immediately that they could never hope to tap prior to that as well as massive advertising budgets which unfortunately is the main way to sell you product these days and get high turnover. This is the unfortunate problem with global branding. Whether that is right or wrong is another thing.

The're only a hand full of wholly owned Irish Whiskey companies still on the go and most get their whiskey from one of the big 3. Slane Castle is one but will it survive now it has lost it's source to whiskey ???? The Irishman whiskey & Writers Tears are the same company and seem to be doing well, then we Mr Lavery up north with Titanic & Danny Boy whiskey and hopefully a new distillery in a couple years time, Shane Braniff also from up north has Feckin Irish and Strangford gold but they are all really only small fry but small beginings as the say.

Clontarf is part of the Castle Brands Group which also ownes Knappopgue Castle so in my estimation that makes it an American company. The likes of Michael Collins & John L O'Sullivan are also American. The Wild Geese is a UK company. You will find that many of these have registered offices in Ireland for what purpose I'm not sure but it can be confusing.

ntlbell

IrishWhiskeyCha wrote: »

You will find that many of these have registered offices in Ireland for what purpose I'm not sure but it can be confusing.

Tax reasons I would imagine.