Amber Beverage Group has announced plans to build what it claims will be one of the largest whiskey distilleries in Ireland for the Walsh Whiskey business.
The company, which also owns the Rooster Rojo Tequila and Moskovskaya vodka brands, has lined up a EUR35m [US$37m] investment in the facility, which will be located in Dunleckney, 100km south of Dublin. Construction will commence next year, subject to planning permission, with operations due to start in 2026.
Walsh Whiskey, which owns the Writers’ Tears and The Irishman brands, was acquired by ABG almost exactly two years ago. This week’s announcement means the unit, founded by Bernard and Rosemary Walsh in 1999, will not have far to move from its current premises on a business park 20km away.
With an annual capacity of 4m litres of pure alcohol [LPA], the new distillery, “located on a historic 18th Century site by the banks of the River Barrow in County Carlow”, will also house maturation facilities for “significant reserves”. Walsh Whiskey currently sources its liquid from third-party distilleries on the island.
“The former maltings at Dunleckney is one of the finest examples of industrial heritage in Ireland’s south-east region,” Amber said. “The site of a corn mill in the 1700s and a water-powered brewery in the early 1800s, it was redeveloped as malthouses in the 1860s. The seven-acre riverside Dunleckney site mainly comprises granite malthouses between three and five storeys high, all built around a central courtyard.”
Writers’ Tears and The Irishman are positioned at the higher end of Irish whiskey’s price ladder and are available in around 50 export markets. In June, Amber credited the pair with playing a major part in driving 2022’s +18% increase in sales.
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