Analysis: Ireland is the birthplace of whiskey, but very little growth occurred in the sector until relatively recently
By Kieran Kilcawley, David Mannion and Thomas Kelly, Teagasc; Christine O'Connor and Chioke Okolo, TU Dublin
Ireland is the birthplace of whiskey. Records date back to 1405, although it is thought that Irish monks learned the art of distilling as far back as the 11th century. Whiskey production in Ireland peaked in the eighteen hundreds with an estimated 90 distilleries in operation. However, only two distilleries were active on the Island of Ireland in 1975 - Irish Distillers in Midleton, Co. Cork, and Bushmills Distillery in Co. Antrim.
Apart from the establishment of the Cooley Distillery in Co. Louth in 1987, very little growth occurred in the sector until relatively recently. The value of exports increased from about €200 million in 2010 to over €1 billion in 2022. A number of factors are responsible for this growth, but a key aspect is the ability to produce more flexible or diverse products than competitors.
Today, over 40 distilleries are in operation, most of which are craft distilleries but some are large-scale operations. The main export markets for Irish whiskey are the USA (42%) and the EU (22%), with others anticipated to increase more rapidly in the future. Irish whiskey is subdivided into four main styles; Irish Malt Whiskey, Irish Pot Still Whiskey, Irish Grain Whiskey and Irish Blended Whiskey. Irish Blended Whiskey is by far the largest category making up over 90% of all sales. Irish Blended Whiskey is actually a blend of mainly Grain whiskey with added Malt whiskey and or Pot Still whiskey.
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A unique blend
Irish whiskey received geographical indicator (GI) status within the EU in 2016. GI status gives the consumer a guarantee of authenticity, quality and distinctiveness linked to origin, while at the same time providing protection for producers from exploitation of their reputation, know-how and tradition. For Irish whiskey to be recognised as both a spirit drink and of Irish origin, it must comply with certain legal definitions, under EU Regulations (EU 2019/787 and 2021/1235) and the Irish Whiskey Technical File. In addition, Irish whiskey must be produced and matured on the island of Ireland.
Whiskey production at first glance can appear as a relatively basic process; malting, kilning, mashing, fermentation, distillation, maturation and blending. However, minor alterations in the process have significant impacts on the sensory characteristics of the final product and this is what differentiates the styles and brands of Irish whiskey.
There are several unique aspects to Irish whiskey production. These mainly relate to the ability to use exogenous enzymes to enhance the conversion of starch into fermentable sugars, the use of wood other than just oak in the cask maturation process, and the specific style or category, Pot Still Irish Whiskey.
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Pot Still Irish Whiskey
Pot Still Irish Whiskey is an old style of whiskey produced in a copper Pot Still but derived from a mash bill of more than just barley, making it distinct from Single Malt whiskey. According to the Irish Whiskey Technical File the mash bill of Pot Still Irish Whiskey must consist of a minimum of 30% malted barley, a minimum of 30% green (unmalted) barley and 5% other cereals.
This diversity within the mash bill enables a greater variety of whiskey congeners in the distillate or new-make spirit prior to cask maturation. The term congener is a term used uniquely to describe flavour-active compounds in alcoholic beverages. The congener profile of a whiskey is formed from the combination of ingredients, and each part of the process. Thus, the potential flavour diversity of Pot Still whiskey is greater than Grain or Malt whiskey. This aspect is exploited in Blended whiskey which, as mentioned, is mainly composed of Grain whiskey, but contains added Malt and or Pot Still whiskey to create characteristic flavours or blends. Irish Blended Whiskey is by far the greatest volume category of exported Irish whiskey.
Sensing spirits
Teagasc, in partnership with the Technological University Dublin (TU Dublin), initiated a project in 2021, focused Identification of Biomarkers to Authenticate Irish Whiskey and to Safeguard against Fraudulent Practices. A major component of this project was to create a database of key volatile congeners in Irish whiskey that could be used to better understand flavour development within the different styles of Irish whiskey in order to identify quality biomarkers for industry but also for authentication purposes.
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These volatile congeners are effectively fingerprints of the process, as some are associated with the cereal (mash bill), malting, fermentation, distillation and maturation (cask choice and age). We have developed new methods to extract and identify as many of these volatile congeners as possible in whiskey and new make spirits using advances in gas chromatography mass spectrometry.
This work was recently presented at the Worldwide Distilled Spirits Conference in Edinburgh, Scotland, organised by the Institute of Brewing and Distilling and is currently being used to generate a database of volatile congeners in new make and mature Irish Malt and Pot Still Whiskey. In tandem, colleagues in TU Dublin are investigating the possibility of using robust non-destructive spectroscopy techniques to rapidly identify outliers in production or in retail samples for quality control or authentication purposes, funded by the Irish Research Council ("Building an Irish Brand: Whiskey profiling for Product Development, Quality Control and Authenticity").
Kieran Kilcawley is a Principal Research Officer at Teagasc Food Research Centre, Moorepark. David Mannion is a Food Chemistry Technologist at Teagasc Food Research Centre, Moorepark. Thomas Kelly is a Teagasc Walsh Scholar, Teagasc Food Research Centre, Moorepark. Christine O'Connor is Head of Environmental Health and Safety Management, School of Food Science and Environmental Health, Technical University of Dublin, Grangegorman. Chioke Okolo is an IRC PhD Student in the School of Food Science and Environmental Health, Technical University of Dublin.
The views expressed here are those of the author and do not represent or reflect the views of RTÉ
