Cork Distilleries Co old bottle

[Joel1802]

More pictures. I had the current Mrs. Mullan put them up on her smugmug account. More bottles will follow, in due course.

http://ceallaighgirl.smugmug.com/Other/ ... &k=MwGvKDQ

[Joel1802]

The hygiene certificate was awarded to Cork Distilleries Co in Dec 1929.

[JohnM]

I have a couple of these, if anyone is interested in one.

In fact, I'm probably going trim down my collection to stuff I'll actually have time to drink, with a few exceptions. Buying a house and have way more whisky than I need...

[Joel1802]

Opened a bottle of this and I think it may be a fake. It was sealed with a driven cork, but it was not branded. The whisky itself is smoky, probably a malt/grain blend. The only way it wouldn't be a fake is if the 66 on the base is the year and it had something similar to Hewitts in it? I suppose it is possible.

[TheWhiskeyBro]

Hi Joel post a picture and I will take a look....

[Joel1802]

I'll do so after work, nothing of note on the bottle or seal. The only clue is the cork, I think. I don't think it was hard enough to remove either.

[Joel1802]

A bit late, but here are the pics, I've been away. They're the last few in this set: http://deborahmullan.smugmug.com/Other/Whisky-Porn/

[TheWhiskeyBro]

Opened a bottle of this and I think it may be a fake. It was sealed with a driven cork, but it was not branded. The whisky itself is smoky, probably a malt/grain blend. The only way it wouldn't be a fake is if the 66 on the base is the year and it had something similar to Hewitts in it? I suppose it is possible.

Hi Joel,

Thanks for the pictures, I have the same bottle and all the features are the same and is consistent of it's era. Interestingly the cork in your pictures has the imprint of the word 'distilled' as far as i can make out suggesting the cork has been in place for a considerable period. Therefore with regard to the contents we are looking at either a bottle that was refilled (possible) or the publican who filled the bottle used sub standard/cheap or even diluted Irish with foreign whiskey at the time of bottling (also very possible). However based on your comments and experience with older bottlings (this is indeed likely to be 1960s), it is likely the bottle may not contain all original cork distilleries whiskey. Interested in further comments on your tasting thoughts.

Regards TWB

[Raven]

There just might be another reason.Got a similar bottle from an old Cork pub some years
back. All the label practically was gone except a scrap at bottom that suggested it was
an old bottle of Paddy. The person who gave it to me also believed it could only have
been Paddy ( and not Hewitts ). It most definitely was an Irish Whiskey . Opened the
bottle with a friend of mine who is an Irish Whiskey enthusiast. Quite a surprise to both
of us as it was a Pot Still style whiskey but it was peated . The type of Cork was a current
Midleton style Cork but all Cork and all one piece. Had to strain some of the old cork out of
the bottle. I believe the answer is to be found in our history. We in the Republic of Ireland
never had World War 2 --- we had ' The Emergency' . During that period we were getting
in very few supplies being an Island nation except for bare essentials via the brave Sailors in
the Irish shipping line. Was Whiskey classified as an essential industry at the time to the
extent that it continued to get supplied with Anthracite or did they have to use peat
which was being dug out by the Irish army all over the country ????? In Cork they were
digging up the mountains in Nadd near Kanturk. I'm posing the question--- Because of
World circumstances and in order to keep the Stills going did we resort to Scotch style
methods for a period out of necessity and until the crisis passed Maybe old receipts
in the Midleton archives for Anthracite /Peat? could well provide the answer should they
survive.

[danny56712]

Raven,

Thank you for the below reply!! Very interesting to myself as i acquire d an old bottle of this from an elderly lady in the midlands! Her husband had the bottle with many years and never drank so held onto it with another jameson whish i also acquired. The sheer method of how i acquired it i believed the bottle could not be a fake!

Very interesting reading and my bottle is in every single way identical to the one in above pictures and will hopefully upload pics of my purchases soon.

Regards

[Raven]

Hi Danny,

Yeah I think faking is a lot more trouble than it is worth. Only ever heard of it in regards
to suspicions of a couple of bottles of Allman's in the past. When the Irish pub craze started
in the early 1990's fakes were made for shelves in those old style bars but anybody reasonable
would spot them straight away as they were not meant to deceive collectors but rather to create
a certain vintage atmosphere. When bars closed etc.in the recession certain 'leakage' of their
furniture and contents could have occurred and attempts made by latterday 'Lovejoys' to sell them
on as being something that they are not. It's a game of pass the parcel after that

Now in the Scotch industry it was quite a different matter where in the early 2000's a racket emerged
where even 'The Macallan' museum was caught out big time. All the bottles involved were very rare
Scotches which had been bought at Auction for figures not under £7,000 ---- amounts worth forging for
and not the type of money that Irish Whiskies even rare ones can achieve. Excellent article on the subject
at the time in 'the Sunday Times' 22/8/2004. 'The Macallan' called in paper experts at the time and Whisky
experts to discover that most of the bottles under question and their labels were from the correct period but
the whisky was vintage 1980's. Were there any prosecutions you might well ask ???? NO !

[Joel1802]

I'm not finding pot still notes in this as a sample again, but it is very smoky. It is a nice whisky, but not anywhere what I expected. It's be interesting to compare the contents of more than one bottle. There is an astringent note that might be a nod to old pot still, but I am far from convinced.

[JohnM]

I tried some of this, albeit from a bottle that had a bit of sediment and evaporation. I didn't notice smoke, I don't think, but it was very weak and watery, like you get from bottles with little in them left for a long time. I might have some left somewhere.

[IrishWhiskeyChaser]

There just might be another reason.Got a similar bottle from an old Cork pub some years
back. All the label practically was gone except a scrap at bottom that suggested it was
an old bottle of Paddy. The person who gave it to me also believed it could only have
been Paddy ( and not Hewitts ). It most definitely was an Irish Whiskey . Opened the
bottle with a friend of mine who is an Irish Whiskey enthusiast. Quite a surprise to both
of us as it was a Pot Still style whiskey but it was peated . The type of Cork was a current
Midleton style Cork but all Cork and all one piece. Had to strain some of the old cork out of
the bottle. I believe the answer is to be found in our history. We in the Republic of Ireland
never had World War 2 --- we had ' The Emergency' . During that period we were getting
in very few supplies being an Island nation except for bare essentials via the brave Sailors in
the Irish shipping line. Was Whiskey classified as an essential industry at the time to the
extent that it continued to get supplied with Anthracite or did they have to use peat
which was being dug out by the Irish army all over the country ????? In Cork they were
digging up the mountains in Nadd near Kanturk. I'm posing the question--- Because of
World circumstances and in order to keep the Stills going did we resort to Scotch style
methods for a period out of necessity and until the crisis passed Maybe old receipts
in the Midleton archives for Anthracite /Peat? could well provide the answer should they
survive.

There is only one problem with that theory. The main reason the majority of Irish whiskey over the centuries is unpeated is not because they did not us peat as many did but because they used closed kilns. Basically a method where the fires heated the drying air in seperated vents and only hot air dried the malt as opposed to hot smoke and air.

However it is not to say they did not source a batch of pleated malt (as thought to have been used in Hewetts) or there was a mix up in production. If there is a SPS hit off it and a smokey hit off it ...

Sounds very interesting though and indeed a mystery. Keep us posted on further thoughts.