Tyrconnell's 250th anniversary

[IainB]

I'm being slightly facetious in the title of this post but I just noticed all my tyrconnell bottles say est. 1762. Whiskey labels really mean nothing but fair play to cooley for not having a fake 250th anniversary.

[DavidH]

An impressive feat of observation and mental calculation!

[TheWhiskeyBro]

Hiya Iain,

Sorry to burst your bubble, but 1762 is not a fake anniversary but a real one!

The Watt family, creators of Tyrconnell, established their Wine & Spiris store in 1762, they were also dealers in grain & provisions. What we would have called one of those pub shop combinations so beloved in the country where you could get almost anything.

They bought into Derry's Waterside & Abbey St distilleries in 1830, Aeneas Coffey installed his column still in Abbey St in 1833 (possibly the first commercial column still in Ireland), by 1854 they had full ownership of both distilleries and the co. was named A A Watt & Co., in 1876 they entered their chestnut colt into the "National Priduce Stakes" and of course he won at 100-1, the horses name, Tyrconnell of course. The rest they say is whiskey!

So either you change the title to Watts 250th anniversary or Tyrconnells 136th Anniversary or there will be

Enjoy...

[DavidH]

Sorry to burst your bubble, but 1762 is not a fake anniversary but a real one!

I'm sure he's not denying stuff happened in 1762, just that it has nothing to do with today's bottle of Tyrconnell. Different distillery, different location, different company, different whiskey, different name...

[IainB]

Sorry to burst your bubble, but 1762 is not a fake anniversary but a real one!

I'm sure he's not denying stuff happened in 1762, just that it has nothing to do with today's bottle of Tyrconnell. Different distillery, different location, different company, different whiskey, different name...

Indeed I was aware that the brand did go back some time. I didn't have the details but I was happy that 1762 was a real date. I suppose the use of the word "fake" was incorrect - I should have said "unrelated".

It's just as David said - different distillery etc. etc. I would be no more outrageous though for Cooley to claim 1762 than it is for Bushmills to claim 1608.

So I'm torn really......

Do I congratulate Cooley for not trying to celebrate a fake birthday?

Or do I bemoan the chance missed for a big whiskey party?

[TheWhiskeyBro]

Of course you can be purist about it, but it is a rare thing where a brand, business, distillery & whiskey remains unchanged for over a century

Iriscot rose out of the ashes of the closure of the Derry distilleries by DCL when several directors of the now defunct firm used Watt’s former headquarters at Shipquay street, which had extensive storage, vatting, blending an bottling facilities. Iriscot performed remarkably well, despite losing the Watts brand to big Scottish blends in the 1940’s. The end finally came when their premises became yet another casualty of the “Troubles” in 1970. Iriscot bottled Tyrconnell for many years after the closure of the Abbey St & Waterside distilleries.

McCarter & Teeling famously discussed setting up a distillery in Ireland back in 1971 in the Plough & Stars in Boston.

Willie McCarter purchased the Watts brands Tyrconnell & Inishowen in the 1970s afaik and subsequently through his lot in with John Teeling back in 1988, thereby continuing the lineage of the Tyrconnell brand.

If you study the US industry in particular, you see brands change hands all the time along with the distillery that produces the contents.

So I would respectfully counter that the lineage of Tyrconnell has been preserved down the years. Subject for a blog post perhaps

[DavidH]

Certainly all that history is worth remembering and we wouldn't be mentioning it at all if Cooley hadn't put the name and date on their (rather great) whiskey. OK, I'm convinced. This anniversary must not pass unmarked!

[JohnM]

They should produce a specail bottling as a celebration, preferable something distilled between 1762 and 2009, just so it's whiskey.

They have more right to the date than Bushmills have to theirs, that's for sure.

[IainB]

I suppose we could also point out that Midleton certainly hasn't been producing Jameson since 1780!

Just to be clear - I'm not in any way criticising Cooley for putting 1762 on the label. It probably has almost as much ligitimacy as 1780 and more than 1608. I'm more raising the point that, in fairness to them, they haven't made a big deal about it. Then again it's only March. Maybe they have something planned for later in the year. Maybe we should ask "distiller".

Or Zoltan, who seems to spend a lot of time in Riverstown and Kilbeggan.

[varizoltan]

Or Zoltan, who seems to spend a lot of time in Riverstown and Kilbeggan.

Just chatting with Noel Sweeney, they are all busy with the take over, so we have to wait till things settled, and then we see what happens.
maybe a nice and flashy single cask, nicely packed in an old style decanter?

[IainB]

Or Zoltan, who seems to spend a lot of time in Riverstown and Kilbeggan.

Just chatting with Noel Sweeney, they are all busy with the take over, so we have to wait till things settled, and then we see what happens.
maybe a nice and flashy single cask, nicely packed in an old style decanter?

See I knew Z would have some insight. No better buachaill, as they used to say.