BRC S2 E4 - The Irishman and his Writers' Tears with Bernard Walsh

Transcription

00:00:02

It is 05:00 somewhere, and you've tuned into season two, episode four of BRC. For those of you who'd like to watch this episode, I highly recommend it. We're live and in person on the Emerald Isle. You can view season two on our website, YouTube, and spotify in today's whiskey whereabouts. I meet up with Bernard Walsh at the famous Tweenies pharmacy in Dublin, Ireland.

00:00:20

We catch up on everything going on since the lockdown, including why he wanted to meet at a pharmacy, and what that pharmacy has to do with author James Joyce. And lastly, we get to taste some wonderful drams. Stay tuned. DRAM Diaries is up next.

00:00:39

There are many famous people who come from Ireland. One of the most notable is author James Joyce. James Joyce was born on February 2, 1882, in Brighton Square, a suburb just south of Dublin. James was the oldest of ten children and had somewhat of a comfortable childhood, even though his father, John Joyce, drank a lot and was irresponsible with money. Joyce's mother, May, was Catholic and ten years younger than his father.

00:01:01

She died in 1903, when James was only 20. In 1904, James met his future wife, Nora Barnacle, who he stayed with his entire life, but never married until 1931. Joyce, longing to live in Europe, took Nora with him, and they began their lives in Italy. For ten years, he and Nora lived in trust, where he developed a pattern of life similar to his father. He was always in debt, always borrowing money, and he drank heavily.

00:01:24

Chamber Music, joyce's first collection of poems was published in 1907. In 19 nine, he returned to Dublin with his son and retained a contract for the publication of his short stories called Dubliners. Unfortunately, publishing the short stories would take several years. It was said that the publishers found the stories crude and too personal. Even many of Joyce's acquaintances, which several of the characters were based on, objected, saying that they were portrayed in a poor light.

00:01:50

In 1912, James left Dublin for good and went back to Italy. In 1913, he had a letter from Ezra Pound, who offered James help to get his work published. This was a turning point for Joyce. Dubliners was finally published in 1914, which was the same year that the Joyce family moved to Zurich due to the war. In 1915, Miss Harriet Shaw Weaver took over a magazine that serialized one of Joyce's earlier works, a Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man.

00:02:15

Weaver decided to publish the full book, since no one else would, and started to support James for years to come. While in Zurich, James's eyesight started deteriorating and would gradually worsen for the rest of his life. In 1920, Ezra Pound had paved the way for the Joyce family to move to Paris. At the time, Paris was a lively center for the literary world. At a bookshop named Shakespeare and Company, james met Sylvia Beach, an American who ran the shop, she took to Joyce and would become key in his future publishing and selling of his works.

00:02:47

It was through Miss Beach that James Met, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Hemingway and many other literary greats at the time. Although Joyce had already started publishing Ulysses in a serial form in a New York magazine called The Little Review, it was not yet published as a novel. Unfortunately, in 1920, complaints about the series began trials and censorships regarding the book that would go on for the next 20 years. However, the book was published on a subscription basis by Sylvia Beach in 1922.

00:03:14

The public's reaction to the book was both obscene and a work of genius. After the subscription release, James began writing Finnegan's Wake, which he completed in 1938 and published in 1939. On January 13, 1941, James Joyce died of a perforated ulcer at the age of 58. To learn more about James Joyce, visit Barrelroom Chronicles.com and read the show notes for today's episode. Up next.

00:03:40

I'm live with Bernard Walsh at Sweeney's Pharmacy in Dublin, Ireland. In today's whiskey. Whereabouts.

00:03:49

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00:04:14

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00:04:51

Hello, good evening, and good afternoon to those watching and listening from wherever you're finding our show today. I'm here in live and in person at Sweeney Pharmacy here in Ireland, in Dublin, Ireland, with the great, great, great Bernard Walsh. Thank you, Kerry.

00:05:10

I love to play with my toys. Yeah. Lovely to be here. And because for the first season you were in the US. I was here.

00:05:18

It was COVID, so we couldn't actually sit across the counter with some nice whiskey, so we had to improvise. But we carried it off. Okay. I think we did. So, so many things have happened since last we spoke.

00:05:31

So I know that the Irishman has rebranded that's correct. Definitely new bottles. Love them. Look at these. Look at these.

00:05:42

Beautiful, beautiful. And I'm finally going to get to try the redhead that he's been telling me about. For so long because I could never get it in the state. So I'm very excited about that. So tell me what new and exciting things have been going on with Walsh Whiskey since last we spoke?

00:05:58

Well, where do we start? So obviously we got through COVID, but it was an incredible time for whiskey through COVID. And we found at Walsh Whiskey, people were actually trading up to try better drams and it was fantastic for the smaller boutique whiskey companies out there like ourselves. So we really enjoyed that. It was almost a more intimate time with people where there was a lot of video conferencing tastings done, which normally you wouldn't get a chance because traveling, there's only so many places you can be at one time.

00:06:37

So we really connected with a lot of people in the different continents where we market our whiskeys. I suppose the first thing to say is in November last year, so we would have spoken in the summer last year and had that first episode in November last year. We were approached by quite a large drinks firm called Amber Beverage who loved our whiskeys so much they bought us and after 22, now 23 years on the road, it's been an amazing journey and it's now kicking on to a whole new level. So that's opened up so many opportunities for us at Watch Whiskey and delighted also for all the guys and gals who worked with us and continue to work with us. Everybody just got a lift from that and if you like it's like thumbs up, you're doing a great job.

00:07:36

Amber Beverage really believe in us and very entrepreneurial company and they've opened up a whole new world to us so we can talk more and on about that. So that's been really exciting. Then we had hatching, actually, I remember in our first episode we tasted or we had a small reference to the Irishman and it was the old pack. And I hope you like the new bottle. I do, it's gorgeous.

00:08:00

So it's bespoke especially commissioned for the Irishman.

00:08:07

It's been two years in the making. COVID was a challenge to get it through, but if somebody said, well, what were you doing during COVID This is what we were doing, working on new designs, new plans, and to not only have a beautiful bottle, but also have something that we can get down the production line, a bottling line. People don't think about this but handling bottles. And this bottle is slightly tapered, so people say, oh, it's going to fall coming down the line. And we had to where's the counterweight on this?

00:08:41

And so forth. But the Irishman, if you like, was our first baby, the first whiskey we brought to market. So very dear to us and we really wanted to tell more of the story. Simple cues on the bottle, but for the first time we have braille. I don't know if you can see that here but braille on the label.

00:09:03

And that's just a connection to, I suppose, my introduction to whiskey, which at a very young age, my grandparents enjoyed a drop and I distinctly remember as a kid growing up, unfortunately my grandfather was blind and my grandmother would take him for a pre dinner walk up the avenue. We leap down a long lane in the middle of Tipperary so every day this constitutional walk up and down and then sit down by the fire and he'd have his little drop and I always got the little lickings at the glass at the end. That was my first wheat taste of whiskey and I wanted just to reflect that by putting the braille on there because growing up there was always braille, the globe, the books, everything you could touch and feel and it interested me. So what does the braille say on here? The braille says the Irishman.

00:10:01

Nice. Yeah, very nice. And giving more detail because when we started out 22 years ago, there wasn't a lot of detail put on bottles. The demand was not there for that. The enthusiasm that we have now for whiskey did not exist then to the same level.

00:10:22

So now people are more inquisitive and want to know, so we want to tell more and that's what we try to do on each of our bottles now. I love them. They're gorgeous. Gorgeous. So that's the new packaging for the Irishman.

00:10:36

Yes. I hear you also have something Irishman related, coffee related and Dingle related.

00:10:46

If I hear right, you were spotted in Dingle recently? I was, I was in Dingle at a at a pub called Dick Max. Dick Mac, one of my favorite pubs anywhere World. I always love getting down to Dingle and to Dick Max and it's run and owned by Finn McDonald and he does just super job along with his colleagues. And there Peter White.

00:11:08

They've created a fantastic whiskey collection if you really want to find some unusual Irish whiskey drums. They have everything, they've got everything and little tinctures and bottles is just superb. For the last while, every year we try to do something. We love the beers that they make and we've carried out some collaborations in the past where they had a Seaweed IPA beer. It was absolutely gorgeous.

00:11:41

Wow. And we took the Barrel and for that it was a writer's tears, so it was a writer's tears maturation where we do a finish with their beer bell, so we bring down our Barrel. So they're getting the benefit of either the writer's tears in the barrel or the Irishman in the wood. I mean, and then they return after their beer has matured and ready for Bottling. And typically it starts this time of year, in the autumn last year it was a brown berry ale and just divine, just divine.

00:12:20

Very fruity. Lots going on and there was a real success for them. It sells out very quick down there, so it's fresh beer and you got to be in early. Peter and Finn drove up the road in their little car with the barrel in the back and dropped it to ourselves where we filled it and left it there to rest for for a year or so. And, yeah, the results are stunning.

00:12:50

Unfortunately, we never have enough.

00:12:55

This year, most of the bottles were made available to a Whiskey Society in Carlo. We've done the Irish Whiskey Society in previous and the Dick Max Boys, so we try to be fair. And each year allocate it maybe to the different societies loyal to Irish whiskey. So it's a great project. One of my favorites was a coffee stout, which we did, and it was the Irishman finished in a coffee stout barrel and that was absolutely gorgeous.

00:13:32

Still to this day, probably taste wise was just the most stunning. It was the most difficult one, though, however, to bottle because it was quite cloudy and murky. You can imagine what's coming out of the wood with the coffee with a stout. And it took us an age to clean up, of course, and each time you're losing strength. Exactly.

00:13:53

So we got to a certain point and we said, if we keep going at this, yeah, it'll be clean, but we'll have lost a lot of flavor. But at the moment, I'm not going to put this on the shelf because people will say, oh, there's something wrong. Right. The Whiskey Society put a hand up straight away and said, no, we love this, we'll take this. And yeah, we went with it and it was just the most gorgeous ram.

00:14:13

That's great. So working with Dick Max, we love it. We're now hatching plan for the current brew that they're working on. So watch this space. So how do you get to can somebody call you up and say, hey, next time I want to be on a waiting list to get one of those bottlings.

00:14:32

How do you do that? Well, because it's only one barrel, it's not going to go far. So typically we sort of do it within the Irish community here as a thanks for supporting Irish whiskey. So give them something that's not widely available. If I start putting a couple of cases into the US and a couple into Canada, it's not going to satisfy anybody.

00:14:58

Right. But, yeah, listen, people always call us and then we discuss and if we can, we'll help out. Great. So let's talk about writers tears a little bit. Yes.

00:15:11

What is new with writers tears and well, also the reason why we are here today in this pharmacy. Yes, an unusual place. It is an unusual place. I got a call from your people and they said, we're going to meet at Sweeney's Pharmacy. And I thought, a pharmacy?

00:15:29

And then I got here and I'm like, this looks like a bookstore, I'm so confused. But now I get it. So please do tell me about the relationship with writers Tears and Sweeney's Pharmacy and James Joyce. We are in this landmark sweeney's Pharmacy here, just on Lincoln Place in Dublin. Any of your listeners and

00:15:51

If you're in Dublin, drop in here, meet PG and the Gang super people. But the history here is reeks of history. And you can tell when you come in the door, the smells, the bottles, the tinctures. There's some old prescriptions and drawers here, the old ledger books. It's almost like 1st Reel Entertainment when they walked out of the Pharmacies.

00:16:16

And I'm going to say February 2009, the Pharmacist closed and it's been running for hundreds of years. Pharmacy was a pharmacy until just a few years. Exactly. But this pharmacy is well known because of its links to Joyce, joyce's time in Dublin and the book Ulysses, where Mr. Bloom, the main character in Ulysses, actually comes in here to Sweeney's and he's obviously sent on an urn and forgets what he's here for and ends up going out with a bar of lemony soap.

00:16:55

And I think we have somewhere here look at that. Well, you can even smell a true lovely old wrapper. Look at that. Wow. So if you come in here, you have to leave with a bar of lemony soap.

00:17:07

Well, that smells delicious. But when the Pharmacist closed in Nine, a lot of Joyce enthusiasts, scholars, you name it, came together to say, no, we need to rescue this place. We need to keep this. This is culturally very important for the Irish and they were very brave people and they have been in here ever since, selling amazing books, not just Joyce. It's a great place to come and spend some time, buy a book, support the cause, even buy a little bar of lemon soap.

00:17:49

But things got tough and we, through a mutual friend, got in touch with PJ and the guys here at Sweeney's. And so we've stepped up and we're helping them pay the rent and keep everything as it should be, because this Sweeney's is a gem, needs to be protected. It's great. It's really cute. I walked in and I was like, I just stepped back in time.

00:18:13

This is so fantastic. Yeah, it's great. And they are open 365 days a year. On Christmas Day, you can come in here and you can have a drop of riders tears from under the counter. They've always got a wee bottle here, so don't forget to ask.

00:18:28

So when we got here, I walked in, I was looking around, I met PJ. And then right after that, this French couple came in. PJ starts speaking French and then he starts singing in Gaelic. And I was like, man, this guy's got he's at least three languages in five minutes. Then he left and this crowd of people came in and did a book reading.

00:18:47

And I was like, Is this what happens here every day? This is fantastic. Every day a book reading and you can come and join. You can read a line, a paragraph, or just sit and listen. Everybody can partake.

00:18:59

It's wonderful. You're going to meet Japanese, American, Italian, you name it. Polish people, you'll meet them here. And I must yeah, I think there are some French here as we talk. And the French have been great supporters.

00:19:15

And in fact, President Macron was in here only last year. Oh, really? Yes. Wow.

00:19:24

Shine looking all over.

00:19:35

All right, so are we going to taste these bad boys? I think so. I'm going to start with the redhead, because you've been waiting a long time. So now riders tears. Redhead is now in the US.

00:19:49

Which last time we spoke, we were just about getting it out on ship. COVID didn't help us, but we got it there. It's there. So you need to taste. Yes, I do.

00:20:00

Waiting so long for this. I can't wait. And it's a beautiful red color too. Thank you. Oh, yeah, look at how nice and red that is.

00:20:11

So of course, the redhead, the red hue coming from the sherry. You can smell that sherry. Yeah. Coming from the sherry barrel that it spends. So it's entirely matured in sherry butt.

00:20:25

And so this is not a finish. It is slightly stronger than roastier's copper pot. So this is at 46.

00:20:36

Here we go. Welcome, Sweeney's.

00:20:43

Fantastic. Oh, that's so good. That is going to be do we just say cut now and we'll cheers. Drink, drink.

00:20:56

Oh, that's great. I am a big sherry person with the whiskey. Isn't that just really this might be. My new favorite sherry. A sherry whiskey?

00:21:07

Yeah, which, you know, there's there's a lot of sherry twiskeys from maybe the Scottish side, not so much from the Irish side. There's a number of finishes from the Irish side. But we wanted to showcase what a great Irish whiskey can be fully matured in sherry, and being very conscious that we want the Irish whiskey to shine more than this is not a sherry bum. We want the Irish whiskey to shine. So you really get that lovely that Riders Tears signature in there, but you've got those lovely sweet notes and the red hue.

00:21:41

That's great. Yeah. Okay, what's next here? Now, this is new as well. So you asked what were we doing since we last met, so yes.

00:21:49

Now you've got redhead in the US since we last met, we've now shipped to the US as well. And the riders tears single pot still. Okay. So this is a lovely weedram. And the reason why I went with the redhead first is because this bad boy here is a little bit more spice in here as a full single pot still.

00:22:11

So I didn't want to overshoot the taste buds. There we go.

00:22:22
Thank you.

00:22:31

Voila. The nodes is quite different from each from the last one. So again, it's a little pep in the step here with 46 so single pot still, your trademark bourbon cask, but for its last year PX. So Pedro Jimenez. And we think this is a lovely combination.

00:23:00

I love the spicy notes you get in pot still, but my sweet tooth always is harky. Let's try and give it a little sweetness, right?

00:23:13

Oh, wow. Very different body. This is a big body Twisky. It's got an earthy, earthy grassy flavor. Yeah.

00:23:30

Oh, it's so smooth. It's like I'm putting cream in my mouth. Yeah. Oh, that's fantastic. If we had the tasting glass, you would see it clinging to the side a little bit more as well.

00:23:42

Clawing. Oh, wow. Isn't that so you're getting the spicy notes that you were associated with a pot still. The PX gives it that love. Very, very creamy and oily on the balance and then a little spice kick in the back.

00:23:57

Yeah, it's fantastic. Yeah, I love the balance in that. And these are so riders tears. Single pot still and redhead are now in the US. Fantastic.

00:24:07

Yeah. We've finally gotten there from inception. When we talk about these concepts with you and then we taste from the barrel, then we have it bottled. It's a whole other thing, getting it to market and getting it on shelf. Especially the last three years.

00:24:21

I'm sure half of it's still sitting in the ocean liner outside of the port of La.

00:24:28

I can tell you both have landed and they went into Oakland and they are now making their way around to shelves across 50 states. So there's not a lot when you see it. Maybe I need to head back to Oakland and go say hi to the family and say, excuse me, I've got to go get a few bottles. Okay, so let's talk about the Irishman. Now you changed the bottles.

00:24:50

Did you change anything else with the liquid? Do you have any new expressions here? Yeah, a bit of both.

00:24:57

The Irishman whiskey is a super whiskey, but we always felt maybe that the package never maybe did a service. So somebody said to me, listen, you've got RollsRoyce liquid there in the Irishman, but the Volkswagen car is not really helping. And I push back against that because I love the old tradition look and the Irishman majored on that because single malt is its focus and it's traditional and it's old style. But eventually, eventually it got to us and we said no, okay, let's do something special and give it a special bottle. But this is laying down roots for the Irishman.

00:25:42

This is a serious investment in in new brand because it's a bespoke bottle specially. So we and we've got embellished the glass with some text here on the Irishman. On the back, we've got the date established, 1999. And again, I mentioned earlier and I'm going to have to put my glasses on, it helped. So do they all say the same thing on the bottom here?

00:26:07

They do, yes. Same on the back. I'm trying to we're showing our age with our glasses. I know the need of our glasses. Once you turn 40 people, this is what happens.

00:26:19

Yeah. So you're talking about barley, which you would assume, but not everybody knows that. Or whiskey. And in this case, it's the Irishman single malt is made from and distilled from 100% barley. The casks used bourbon and all or so sherry, so approximately half and half of each.

00:26:38

And the type of oak, which is American oak.

00:26:45

For each expression, we try to give a little bit more detail. And you've got there, which is a new release, which is now, again, in the US. Fresh off the boat. So the Irishman Caribbean cask has actually landed in the US. So we're really thrilled to get a new expression of the Irishman range into.

00:27:06

Market again, I'm heading to Oakland right now. A fantastic collaboration in St. Lucia. The St. Lucia Distillery.

00:27:15

They make brands and rum like chairman's, reserve, so beautiful, aged rums. And they were kind enough to work with us on this. And again, through COVID, we managed to be doing things while we can't get out. But the guys over in St. Lucia arranged for us to pick up some casks.

00:27:36

We brought them to Ireland and we finished the Irishman in these beautiful casks. And the taste, it's got a hint of the Caribbean. Nice. Again, not overrun, but we just want that hint. So maybe you'll have a little drop.

00:27:50

Sure. Yeah. So tell me about the eye up here. I'm assuming this is for Irish. That's right.

00:27:58

This is a new logo guy. And then I also noticed I don't know if you guys can all see this. Let's try this. But it's on the bottom of the bottle. Yeah.

00:28:08

So this is a new icon. We never really had an icon for the Irish man and riders. Tears has its teardrop, which you'll all be familiar with. And now some coconut on the nose.

00:28:23

I don't usually get coconut on the nose. I mean, I know it's Caribbean, but yeah. Such fun with this. Okay, here we go.

00:28:37

Wow.

00:28:40

The rum note is there. The rum note, it's like a raisiny rum note.

00:28:47

You're right. It smells like coconut, tastes like raisins. And then it's got a very subtle pop finish of spice, but it takes a while to get it's like a lingering finish that all of a sudden, like, way later you feel this is. A real for fall, for autumn. This just sits really well with me.

00:29:07

Yeah. Delicious.

00:29:12

And how long have you had that expression? This is out over a year, but again, it never made it to the US. Because of COVID and delays, but we finally have it there. Fantastic. Yeah, we're really thrilled.

00:29:29

So a lot of work gone on over the past couple of years and and even when I spoke to you last summer, 2021, I'm always slow to tell you what's coming down the line, because sometimes it just, for whatever reason, whether it's the barrel doesn't work out or the ship doesn't land. So I'm always slow to over delivering. You my address and you just send it straight to me. Yes. Nobody will tell the authority for sure.

00:30:01

There's going to be a few bottles making their way from Oakland to your address. Yeah. All right. Now we've got the last one, the single malt Irishman. Last but not least.

00:30:11

So as part of the rebranding and everything, we wanted to reemphasize the Irishman's focus on single malt. We all know our friends across the pond in Scotland do a wonderful job with their single malts. And for the last 30, 40 years, they've really elevated single malts to be just a jewel in their crown. We wanted to challenge that in a nice way that hold on a second. We've been making single malts here in Ireland for as long and some people say even longer.

00:30:43

Yeah. We actually went to Kilkenny Castle this morning to look for the Red Book of yes. And they said it's not there, but that is proof that the Irish were first. Yes. The Red book of Honors was discovered here at Kilkenny Castle.

00:31:04

It's an important book for the whiskey world because it's the first written word with recipe for the precursor of whiskey. So the age old question, where did whiskey begin? Scotland or Ireland is now answered. It's Ireland. Unless, of course, Scotland comes up with something.

00:31:23

We'll see.

00:31:29

The Red Book of Austria is actually here in Dublin. Yes, that's what they told us. It's here in Dublin. So, yes, you can arrange for a special viewing one on one. It can be done.

00:31:39

But next year, 2024, will be the 700 year anniversary and the Red Book will be brought back to Kilkenny. So please put it in your diary. But yeah, so 1324. I think we've got quite a few years on the Scots on that one. I think so.

00:31:59

But we again back to the Irishman focusing on single malt, you know. Well, let's let's show the world what we can do at the Irish in single malt. So we've got a beautiful single malt here, triple distilled, double bar, bourbon and sherry. So just a lovely balancing of the whiskeys here. And then through the range, we ladder up to a twelve year old, which is predominantly first fill.

00:32:27

We go on to an amazing 17 year old Irishman. I don't know if you had tried that, but it's something that we have to bring for the next edition. The 17 is 17 years minimum in sherry. And it's a dream. I wouldn't know.

00:32:42

I'd love that. It's a dream. And we're working on we've got a few more single malt releases coming down and I'd love to talk more about them, but I think we'll wait till the next episode to talk about that. Okay, let me pour and stop talking. I think.

00:32:59

Now, is this one that was available in the US. Already? Yes. It's hard to say when you change the label. I can't recall.

00:33:05

Yes. No, it's the Archman. Single malt is a mainstay. This is the one I've had. Yes, I think I told you last time when I was working on a show in Atlanta, I went to this salage.

00:33:19

There was a little liquor store. I would take those lime scooters or whatever they have. I took a scooter because I didn't have a car. And I went scooted my way over, and I get to the liquor store, and I don't know why it was so cheap. They had Irishman for, like, $23.

00:33:36

And I was like, wow. Yeah. And I said, okay. No, I've had this before. It's nowhere close to $23.

00:33:42

I was like, is this Miss Marked? And then I was like, okay, well, I'm just going to take a couple of these. I took, like, three bottles. This has got to be Miss Marked. So I took three bottles.

00:33:51

I was there for four months. And then eventually I needed they found. You and they wanted their money. No, eventually I needed more bottles because I was sharing with the crew. I went back and I'm like, It's still mismarked.

00:34:03

I don't know what's happening here, but I'll take it. So that's all I had the whole time I was in. Where do I go? Somewhere near kind of sort of near the aquarium in Atlanta, Georgia. Wow.

00:34:15

Yeah. I don't remember the name of the place. Well, the Archman Single Malt will be somewhere south of $50. It's got a slight bubble gum on the nose, which I'd not noticed before. Or strawberry, as some might think.

00:34:33

That's kind of an inside joke with the cameraman. I'm going to go with sort of wild strawberry. Yeah, like a bubble gum wild strawberry. Oh, I just noticed the little knitman back there with the glasses. That's adorable.

00:34:47

This shop has so many intriguing, interesting items. Have you seen as well? Did the writers tears the special edition? Yes, I saw that. I have not seen a Navy.

00:34:58

I was going to ask you about that. I have not seen a Navy label. This year is the 100 year anniversary of Ulysses, the publishing of Ulysses. And again, sort of in support of the guys here and the whole Joycen movement, we released rudders copper pot just in a special wrap. It was only a handful of bottles.

00:35:23

Some did make their way to the US. But not many. Mainly here. Just like when the first publication of Ulysses, I think added 2000 books, maybe 500 ended up going to the US. 500 in the shop.

00:35:37

But those 500, I think, were impounded and burnt because it was well, yeah. I heard them reading earlier. It was a little scandalous. They were kind of, like, getting embarrassed when they were talking. They were like.

00:35:54

This is just how I remember it. It's smooth, it's easy to go down.

00:36:06

People are ever questioning Irish single malt. You just need to pick up the Irishman single malt. It's a super DRAM, never lets you down. And for us, this is how we start to show off how good Irish single malts can be and then we take it from there into different expressions. I just went back to this one and now I'm getting a coffee note on the nose.

00:36:30

I don't know if I'm burning my hairs or something, but.

00:36:37

Yeah, more like a coffee liqueur.

00:36:42

Kind of coffee liqueur. Calypso coffee? Yes, calypso coffee. But it doesn't taste like that. No.

00:36:50

Tastes like earth and grass and loveliness and raw barley. Who would have think that? And this is a very exciting piece on Irish whiskey. We're in the middle of a renaissance. We at Welsh Whiskey are here 22, 23 years, we're still in the middle of our renaissance.

00:37:08

There's so much more work for us all to do. And I mean, all the Irish whiskey distillers and companies, there's so much work in broadening out the taste profile for Irish whiskey, for single malts, for single pot stills, because for 100 years, it's been sort of put in a closet. Now we need to experiment and push that out. And each time you see me or some of the other Irish whiskey guys. You start everyone's like, oh, you're going to Ireland?

00:37:33

I said yeah. And they said, oh, what are you going to do there? I said, I'm focusing my podcast for season two on Irish whiskey. If I had done this, like four years ago, I would have been able to hit every distillery or maybe eight years ago, but now I can't. Unless I'm here for two months, there's no way I could cover everything.

00:37:51

And it's fantastic. And I've seen so many different variations and everything coming out of everyone's distillery is just so good and so Irish, and I'm so proud to have my heritage from here. It makes me very happy. Yeah, it's it's phenomenal to change in in 22 years, when we started three distilleries to now over 40 plus, it's been an amazing journey and literally from almost pulling the shutters down in Irish whiskey to yeah, we're back and yeah. And it's back with a vengeance and.

00:38:23

It'S but it's built on amazing foundations. You travel Ireland, you've seen what the other distillers are doing. There's a lot of blood, sweat and tears going into it and writers tears.

00:38:37

The foundations are really solid and there's so much work to be done. So stay with us. Yes. So where do you do all of your aging and your your maturation? Maturation down in Kilkenny.

00:38:52

Okay. Yeah. So that's where we should have gone. There yesterday or this morning. That's where we came from this morning.

00:38:59

Yeah, we came from Kilkenny this morning. Okay. Yeah. No, it's a super city and it's only stonestro from Carlo, so it's home from home. But with the explosion of Irish distilleries all around the country, there's huge demand now for storage, and it is a pinch point.

00:39:21

We heard there's a particular construction company that's now specializing in making warehouses for people. Yeah, there's one company who's building quite a few of them. And, yeah, I think, unfortunately, we need more now, which is great. It's great, but we need to get a move on because I don't have my 17 year old here, but I had it at an event last night and I was asked, listen, we really do need more. And unfortunately, the answer is, you should have asked me.

00:39:57

17 years. Exactly. So what we need to do now is more warehousing, lay down more, lock a, throw away the key, and there we go. Yeah. Well, Bernard, it's been so fantastic getting to actually meet you and see you in person without masks, and I'm so grateful that you brought us to this pharmacy.

00:40:13

Sweeney's is great. PJ, you're great. Thank you so much for letting us stay here, and I can't wait to see what happens with you next year. And we'll follow up again. The journey continues on slancia.

00:40:28

Stay tuned for our next episode, where I visit Connor Lennon at Jack Nealon's Irish Pub in the north inner city Dublin, where I do a pub crawl through all his Dublin bars. For more information about Walsh Whiskey, sweeney's Pharmacy, or anything else you heard on the show, visit barrel room chronicles.com. For today's show notes.

00:40:46

That does it for today's show. To read notes on this episode or learn more about our guests, please visit Barrel Room Chronicles.com. Want to interact with the show or have questions for our guests? Then ask them on our socials or send us an email through our website. Or better yet, leave us a voicemail on our website and your recording might be played in our new Speakeasy segment.

00:41:03

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00:41:29

Until next time, solangeva barrel Room Chronicles is a production of 1st Reel Entertainment and is distributed by Anchor FM and is available on Spotify, Apple, Google, I-heart, Radio, Amazon, or wherever you listen to your favorite podcast.