The distilled spirits sector achieved accelerated growth in 2016 with supplier sales up 4.5 percent to $25.2 billion, volumes up 2.4 percent to 220 million cases and a seventh straight year of market share gains relative to beer, the Distilled Spirits Council announced today at its annual economic briefing for media and Wall Street analysts, sponsored by Spirited Funds. “The ...

By Richard Thomas Niche Drinks is taking its Irish whiskey brand, Quiet Man, from a sourced and bottled product to an in-house one by building a £12m distillery in Londonderry, the second-largest city in Northern Ireland. The distillery is slated for completion next year. When it opens, Quiet Man Distillery will be the first in Londonderry in a century, and ...

By Richard Thomas It’s only been 1 1/2 years since British drinks conglomerate Diageo left many observers scratching their heads by handing Bushmills over to Mexican tequila giant Jose Cuervo in exchange for sole ownership of the Don Julio brand plus an undisclosed sum. Now Diageo is zagging back into the booming Irish Whiskey sector by creating an entirely new ...

By Emma Briones Rating: B The Dublin Liberties Copper Alley Irish Whiskey was launched in September 2016 as a limited release, following the previous year’s Oak Devil. This is then the second expression in The Dublin Liberties line. Cooper Alley is named after one of the oldest streets in Dublin and one of the most racous, where tanners, tradesmen and ...

Expect These Unexpecteds At Your Next Whisk(e)y Tasting By Richard Thomas Let’s say you are going to your first tasting of Bourbon or Irish or Scotch or some mix therein. Or, perhaps, let’s say you are going to your first such event after a gap of a few years. You will probably find a few things, pleasant and unpleasant, that ...