Connemara is the name of a marshy, mountainous region in the west of Ireland. Local residents have always used peat extracted from the swamps as a fuel, including for creating the right temperature when drying malt in distilleries. Whiskey Connemara was named after this region, which has preserved the tradition of producing a «smoky» drink.
History reference. The Cooley distillery was built relatively recently – in 1987. The founder, Irishman John Teeling, is today the CEO of Cooley Distillery. The idea of creating a production facility using old distillation methods came to Teeling while studying at Cambridge. Working on one of the projects, he began to dream of reviving Irish whiskey and was so imbued with the problems that he decided to achieve success in practice.
Irish and Scotch whiskey has always competed, but until the beginning of the last century, the Irish drink was much more popular than scotch. But then conflicts with Britain became more frequent in Ireland. Prohibition broke out in the USA, leading to decreased production levels; the Scots began to produce more blends and slowly oust Irish producers from the market. Only four working Irish distilleries were in the 60s of the last century. In the 70s, the number was halved due to the creation of Irish Distillers, which included Powers Cork and the famous Jameson. And in 1972, only Bushmills remained, monopolizing the market.
Monopoly is not conducive to development. The emergence of competitor Cooley Distillery has created the missing competition and the necessary conditions. The distillery on the small peninsula of Cooley is the only new distillery built in Ireland in the last hundred years. Then John Teeling bought several old brands; the Old Kilbeggan distillery closed at the beginning of the century and began to restore the positions lost by Irish whiskey gradually. And after the transition of Bushmills to the transnational Diageo headquartered in England and Irish Distillers to the ownership of Pernod Ricard with an office in France, the Cooley distillery remained the only enterprise with Irish capital.
Cooley Distillers is hugely proud of its authenticity and that it has restored the former glory of the Tyrconnell and Kilbeggan brands. But it continues to develop, offering fans new Irish single molts, one of which is Connemara.