Sign in. It’s quick, free and it’s up to you.
An account is an optional way to support the work we do. Find out more.
THE GROWING GLOBAL popularity of Irish whiskey has prompted a major expansion at a Cork distillery, with 60 new jobs created at the plant.
The Jameson distillery at Midleton, Co Cork is currently operating at full capacity with some 3.4million cases of Jameson sold worldwide in the 12 months to the end of June.
Its owners, Irish Distillers Pernod Ricard, today announced a €100million expansion of the facility to meet the growing demand. The company said 60 new jobs would be created in the expansion – 30 at the distillery and 30 at the firm’s Dublin bottling plant.
Around 250 jobs are also expected to arise from the construction process. The distillery upgrade will include environmental improvements, with a reduction of one-third in energy used per litre of alcohol distilled, the company said.
IDPR chairperson Anna Malmhake said the expansion was “confirming Midleton, where the tradition of distilling dates back to 1825, as the global centre of Irish whiskey production.”
She added: “Jameson is now in its twenty-third consecutive year of growth and is experiencing double-digit growth in forty markets.”
Artist’s impression of the planned new stillhouse at the Midleton distillery (Photo: IDPR)
To embed this post, copy the code below on your site
Well done Jameson. Think I’ll have an Irish coffee this morning
Nice to start of the day with some good news.
Well done Irish Distillers! Great news during these dark times…
Wish more buildings were built to modern standards like that!
If i ever build a house im building a huf haus http://www.huf-haus.com/en/home.html
Just downloading app for it now. Going to design my own little. Dream home
Some good news, yay! Fair play to them.
Great news for my local town.
Looks like an amazing new building too.
The head line “forced” makes it sound like a bad thing!
@Jamie Murphy-Grand Designs did a Huf Haus build a few years ago, check the C4 archive. Beautiful design and build quality.
Yep, I remember that. It was a pretty impressive build project, and the results were well worth it.
The really big news is the returning emphasis to traditional style of Irish Whiskey which is generally known as “Pure Pot Still” but to which they now call “Single Pot Still” (American gov doesn’t like Pure been used to describe whiskey!). They launched two new “Single Pot Still” whiskies earlier this year. One is a “recreation” of what Powers use to be like before they turned into a Blended whiskey in the 1970′s. The biggest SPS at the moment is Redbreast, it’s basically “unblended Jameson” or basically Jameson as James Joyce would have drunk it.
Thanks Paul.
Very informative. All this talk of whiskey. . . . . .mmmmmm.
Mine’s a Black Bush please. :)
Wow I never knew that! So we can say “single pot/pure pot” along side with “malt”, “bourbon” etc to describe what we have behind a bar! Fab! Ya learn something new everyday!
Just to put in context the difference with a “Single Malt”, in Malt whiskey all the Barley is malted (eg. Germinated) before been distilled in a pot still. With “Pure Pot Still” only a portion of barley was malted the rest was left unmalted. This was tradition means of making whiskey in Ireland and was dominate up until 1970.
The other way to make whiskey is to use a “continous still” which can run 24/7 and is considerably cheaper to produce whiskey with, however it tends to be lacking somewhat in flavour etc. Generally such “Grain whiskey” is blended with either Malt whiskey or PPS (pure pot still) to produce a milder whiskey. Jameson/Paddy’s/Powers as we know them now are all blended whiskies. The fact that Irish distillers only started producing “blended whiskey” in 60′s/70′s was one of reason’s they lost their crown. In 19th century Irish whiskey is where Scotch is now. However combination of shifting taste (to blended whiskey) and the trio of “War of Independence”/Prohibition/”Economic War” saw Scotch eclipsing Irish whiskey.
However there is a renaissance going on at the moment and this expansion is one of the effects of that.
To say : Redbreast, it’s basically “unblended Jameson” is so untrue it’s like comparing an apple with an orange. Bottles of PPS Jameson have been produced in the past, totally different than redbrest. Three different types of Redbrest SPS are on the market at the moment, 12 year old single Cask Redbrest is my favorite at the moment much better than any Jameson for Christmas.
Anna Malmhake said the expansion was “confirming Midleton, where the tradition of distilling dates back to 1825, as the global centre of Irish whiskey production.”
Where else on the globe is Irish whiskey produced?
Antrim (Bushmills). West Meath (Kilbeggan). You obviously don’t drink whiskey.
OK my hair-splitting friend, where other than Ireland is Irish whiskey produced?
@Penn just because a product has the word irish on it does mean that it has been produced fully in Ireland, there are plenty of stories of meat being shipped in and packaged here, or how Waterford crystal craft the glass in Poland yet box them in Waterford just to allow them to keep using the name.
I hope that the cork drink company retains full production of it in Ireland, from distilling, bottling, printing and packaging.
and I’m happy to say that I bought a good few bottles of Jameson in France last year. (three bottles in France equal cost of two in Ireland.
Dont forget Cooley in Louth.
I’m not sure anywhere outside Ireland makes ‘irish’ whiskey’. Perhaps we should get a DOC on it (like balsamic vinegar or parma ham).
@Pen.
They are trying to claim that Midleton is the heart of Irish whiskey production. They have stiff competition from the Bushmills distillery, (which I suppose some like to say is in the UK). Kilbeggan is good too, but a smaller distillery.
Great to see some good news and a home grown Irish product as well even if it is now owned by a global giant, Other Irish companies should try and follow the lead, many Chinese and Indians are fond of a whiskey plenty of market potential in these countries.
Whiskey’s always been a very well-respected product worldwide, but up until now the Scots have been more active in promoting what they produce. (high end) Irish whiskey is just as good as our neighbour’s, we just haven’t been shouting about it so much. Nice to see that this is changing. I’d always choose a decent Irish over a Scotch, but never drink a cheap whiskey, it’ll put you off for life. You get what you pay for…
Interesting fact: the Scots actually patented the original spelling of Whisky, so Irish whiskey manufacturers had to add the ‘e’ for two reasons. One in order to sell abroad, and the other to make the spelling the same as American whiskey (aka burbon) to appeal to Irish Americans. But of you look at early whisky ads for brands from Ireland like DWD, they spell it whisky.
There’s one that’ll make you look like an expert next time you’re half way through a nice bottle of Tyrconnell :-)
I always thought it was because our landlords at the time couldn’t pronounce Uise Beatha (water of life) and would pronounce it more along the lines of whiskey, around the same time it split into two versions one became legal Whiskey and the other was not so legal Poitín or Poteen made from whatever you could get your hands.
The e was put into whiskey by Irish distillers (a sort of patent). To disassociate it’s product form cheaper and so called subordinate Scotch whisky at the time. The Scots were using coffee stills to produce cheaper/quicker blended whisky. Irish distillers wouldn’t even recognise it as a whisky hence the e.
I would love to see how many Irish construction workers in Cork who are currently on social welfare will benefit from this new build.
I’ll be celebrating this good news with a drop for myself!
The visitor centre in Middleton is superb but it isn’t well known at all. If you’ve a few hours to spare and in the area it’s worth going to. They realy could advertise it better I think
have your say