While the adjoining pub of shared ownership is still closed and indeed has said it will not be reopening with its current tenants; a full conventional pub licence is used here to give flexibility compared to other options.
The tour here starts with a whiskey and an AV presentation, presented primarily by the late Pearse Lyons - his final caption with his birth and death years leading to one of the other visitors on the tour to become somewhat upset - followed by a tour of the graveyard. Yes, graveyard - the distillery is in a former church.
After entering the church you are shown the standard distillery kit and then lead to the tasting area if you have paid for a further tasting; this including gin in most tasting options as well as various ages or cask treatments of whiskey.
A notable thing on this tour is that the staff are both aware of and fully open about where products that are older than the distillery are obtained from. Plenty of new Irish distilleries have products with age statements going back to over 30 years old in some cases, with huge numbers offering a 10 or 15 when they are only trading for three or four; and while Alltech are no different here the staff will tell you whether a product is Cooley or Bushmills sourced. Alltech are one of the older of the new distilleries, having initially run product at a temporary plant in Carlow from 2012 prior to the Dublin site being available, so far more of the offered whiskey is actually their own, which may lead to this openness.
The duty distiller was also willing to give the mash bill percentage for the product going through the stills at that time; which was a partial oats mix; and they are not just willing to say where they buy their malt and grain from - they have the branded bags on show.
As with the other touristic options, this is a very good time to visit - there are plenty of spaces available on tours, which are limited in numbers for social distancing purposes.
No comments:
Post a Comment