Recently I got the chance, on a fairly cold day, to visit the New Midleton Distillery in Midleton, Co Cork, Ireland. This is a very big facility and happens to be home to a few of the cornerstones of Irish Whiskey: Jameson, Powers, Paddy, Redbreast, Midleton Very Rare, Green Spot & Yellow Spot and of course a lot of contract distilling including names like Tullamore Dew and many more.
Now when you visit there are a few different kinds of tour you can take part in. All well and good, in fact a few years ago I did the historical tour which if you’re a random tourist who’s semi-interested in whiskey there are worse ways to spend your afternoon.
If however you love whiskey and already have a bit of experience as to how whiskey is made then you should go with the “Behind the Scenes Tour” or the “Distiller’s Apprentice Tour” these are the ones that take you behind the scenes and into the main production and storage warehouses.
I was invited there by Jameson and we were taken around by John Madden who honestly was a fantastic guide with a very in-depth knowledge of how the place runs and who’s who in the Irish whiskey world. We started off having a look at the historical distillery which like I say is interesting but more in a tourist attraction kind of way. Then we were quickly at the Method and Madness craft distillery where all of the new experimental liquid is coming from. If you look closely you’ll also see the original gin still from when the original distillery first opened.
Then we went on to the main part of the show: the first stop was the Irish Whiskey Academy. We got a much more in-depth look at modern whiskey production and got to try different kinds of new make, from different grains and of course in different strengths. All very polished and very interesting.
After around 30 minutes and a quick tasting of the Black Barrel and Green Spot we headed on to the main distillery. Wow this is a one off in Ireland just because of shear scale and technical prowess. Sadly no pictures of the still room but you’ll know that from visiting other distilleries, they’re never too hot on having the heart of the production photographed. At the moment they’re very close to full production and are making a staggering 150,000 standard barrels per annum! …. and this brings us onto the next part of the tour. The barrel warehouses. 42 of them in total and full to the brim with beautiful whiskey. I’ve added a few photos and a video but honestly, seeing it live gives you the real idea of the scale. The thing that hit me wasn’t just the scale but the distance. We drove past warehouse after warehouse after warehouse and were told about the expansion plans for the coming years, all that whiskey that’s being produced day and night has to be matured somewhere. I did mention that I have a bit of space going in my basement in case they get stuck, let’s see…
The highlight came next though: a grand bit of cask opening. I was treated to a fully matured 16 year old ex-bourbon single pot still which was great but then the trump card was packed out: a 21 year old ex-port pipe. I could try describing it but any tasting notes I’d write wouldn’t do it justice because with all whiskey the atmosphere plays a huge role and with that our tour slowly came to an end.
Thanks again to my guide John Madden, Adam at the distillery and my Pernod Ricard representative in Hamburg, Raffael Koch.
