Glendalough distillery

Glendalough is an Irish Craft distillery in County Wicklow on the Irish East Coast. Glendalough produces whiskey, gin and poitin onsite. Glendalough is from the Irish-Gaelic Gleann Dá Loch means “valley of the two lakes”

Glendalough Whiskey

5 friends from Dublin and Wicklow jumpstart on the revival train of the Irish whiskey of recent years and realized their dream by creating the small innovative Glendalough distillery in 2011, named after one of the best known and perhaps most beautiful places of the green island in County Wicklow.

House style

How does Glendalough whiskey taste?The Glendalough Whiskey has been released as both a 7-year-old and 13-year-old single malt both are characterized by a full and balanced body with gentle vanilla oats. The distillery also offer a doublecask single grain whiskey.

As a new distillery, founded in 2014 none of the sites new make has as of yet matured long enough and so these bottles are bottled from barrels sourced from other distilleries. Their poitin is already coming from its own production. These are characterized by fruity berry notes with a peppery, spicy finish.

Production

How is Glendalough Whiskey produced? The colonic combustion plant made of copper originates from the well-known German Arnold Holstein GmbH from Lake Constance, a leading manufacturer of distillation plants, which also supplied the new distillery Shed. Of course, the clear mountain spring water comes from the Wicklow Mountains. So far, Glendalough Gin and the Irish Poitin are producing. Poitin is a once illegally fired Irish corn seed. It is made from different cereals, among others. a. Milled barley as well as potatoes and sugar beet or molasses. The mild seeklima on the east coast of Ireland offers optimal control over the maturation process of the barrels due to its resistance.

History

The first Irish craft distillery to be founded in several hundred years goes back to the circle of friends of five young men from Wicklow and Dublin. In 2011, Kevin Keenan, Gary McLoughlin, Barry Gallagher, Brian Fagan, and Donal O’Gallachoir founded the Glendalough Irish Whiskey Company, whose managing director was Barry Gallagher. Since there is initially nothing to sell after a start-up, whiskey was obtained from the Irish Cooley Distillery.

Sales started in 2013 with the supposedly simplest product, Poitin. Poitin is an Irish schnapps made from barley malt, sugar beet and potatoes. In May 2014 the distillery in the Glendalough valley was finally opened and shortly afterwards the first whiskies (still from the Cooley Distillery) were brought onto the market. In the winter of 2014/2015, work began on launching a gin series

From Dublin, you can easily plan a day trip to Glendalough, as it is only about 40 km from the town is located in the Wicklow Mountains. An asphalted path leads from the smaller lake through the moor past the impressive ruins of the abbey. From the middle of 2016, Glendalough Distillery, with its planned move to a larger production facility, is also expected to receive its own visitor center.

Glendalough factsheet

Can I tour Glendalough?

No, unfortunately Glendalough distillery is not open to the public for tours