Читать книгу Irish Whiskey: Ireland’s best-known and most-loved whiskeys - Gary Quinn - Страница 28
ОглавлениеCONTACT: Clonakilty Distillery, The Waterfront, Clonakilty, West Cork
WEBSITE: clonakiltydistillery.ie
DESCRIPTION: Working distillery, visitor centre, and shop. Tours daily.
The family-run Clonakilty Distillery is a powerful new engine at the heart of this small County Cork town. This is a place that knows the value of a brand: it’s been the home of the secret-recipe Clonakilty black pudding since the 1880s. The young distillery founded by Michael and Helen Scully is, not surprisingly, ambitious to join its famous older neighbour in the pursuit of perfectly-balanced flavours that take root in the landscape around them.
The distillery’s story emerges at the point where the ocean meets the land surrounding the Galley Head lighthouse, 200 metres above the sea and a short drive from the town. It’s a dramatic location, with the wind and waves of the wild Atlantic testing each generation of the Scully family that has tried to pull a living from the ground here.
The family are eighth-generation farmers, who had attempted to diversify their business a number of times before realizing the value of the barley they were growing from earth seeped in Atlantic sea salt and sand. An idea of a craft whiskey captured their imagination, and grew rapidly into a €10 million waterfront distillery in the town and a bonded warehouse on their land at the coast.
Head distiller Paul Corbett returned to his home county from his role in Teeling Distillery in Dublin to oversee operations, and distilling began in March 2019. As they wait for their own triple-distilled single pot still spirit to mature they have launched the Clonakilty brand using sourced whiskey they have blended and matured.
