Connemara Peated Single Malt Irish Whiskey.

Connemara – Peated Single Malt Irish Whiskey

A tribute to an Irish whiskey making tradition.

Connemara is a wild, mountainous region on the west coast of Ireland, lying between the Atlantic Ocean and Loughs Corrib and Mask. The majestic mountains, lakes, streams, glens and rain soaked peat bogs create a landscape of unique natural beauty. The peat bogs of Connemara are major fuel sources to the region and have played an important role throughout Irish history in the evolution of energy and as an employment source.

Connemara Peated Single Malt Irish Whiskey is a tribute to this region. Its complex characters and peaty taste revive a tradition that in recent years has been forgotten by Irish distillers throughout the country. A forgotten tradition recaptured by Cooley Distillery with Connemara Peated Single Malt.

Development of Peated Whiskey: in Ireland

In 1661 heavy taxes were imposed on all whiskey made in Ireland, which led to an increase in the number of illicit distillers throughout the country. These distillers took to the bogs, glens and hills of Ireland to produce a whiskey that generated much needed money for its makers.

Connemara was a prime business location for these new entrepreneurs. However, the illicit distillers in the region had one big problem, which was the drying of the malt. It was common that sacks of grain were left to dry in different places throughout his home so peat was then used in aiding the quick drying of the malt. Any whiskey produced in Ireland with a peaty aroma and taste was called "poteen flavoured" as it was not left to mature for lengthy periods.

In the rural wilds of the West of Ireland, Connemara in particular, there was ample evidence of illicit distilling. A nineteenth-century observer Arthur Barnard said of the area that "No men understood better the localities that could turn out good spirit, and this fact may be seen to this day when we find many of the oldest distilleries existing upon sites which have been well-known to have been chosen by smugglers of old as places where the purest mountain streams, flowing over moss and peat could be used to distil and produce spirits of the finest description."

Fall from grace….

As many of the distilleries in Ireland were located alongside a canal, the transport of coal to the distilleries became far easier and cheaper. Over time peat was then substituted with coal in the distilling process. This temporarily killed the tradition of peated whiskeys.

The Rivival..

The Cooley Distillery has resurrected this process and recreated the Connemara Peated Single Malt Irish Whiskey to revive this lost tradition

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