Tullamore DEW Irish Whiskey New Distillery
Tullamore D.E.W, along with Bushmills and Jameson is one of the few surviving “Old Guards” of Irish Whiskey.
Irish Whiskey Tullamore DEW Special Edition
Tullamore is a large (for Ireland) market town located in the heart of the Irish Midlands on the Grand Canal which links the river Shannon with Dublin.
It has a population of 15,000 and lies approximately 100km west of Dublin. Slieve Bloom, to the north is believed to be one of Europe’s oldest mountain ranges, and to the south is Lough Boora, a vast nature reserve.
The town is connected to Dublin by the Grand Canal, an old merchant waterway linking the capital city with the mighty River Shannon in the West of Ireland. Tullamore D.E.W. is the town’s most famous export, dating back to 1829. Despite the original distillery’s closure in 1954 the town has maintained a proud association with Tullamore D.E.W. and the Tullamore D.E.W. Visitor Centre, on the banks of the canal in the town centre, opened in 2012, has become a popular tourist attraction.
The new Tullamore Distillery Still House
In the meantime, Scotch whisky, which was not handicapped by the same challenging trade environment, went from strength to strength, assisted by an influx of US Servicemen who carried the Scotch brand home to America after World War 2 where it became the default import whiskey of choice in the 50’s and 60’s.
Irish whiskey was all but wiped out in the US and in fact may have been saved because of its use in Irish coffee, which become very popular on the West Coast through the legendary Buena Vista bar in San Francisco after a local journalist was served one in Shannon Airport.
As the entire Irish whiskey production sector was rationalised, Tullamore D.E.W. then went through a number of different ownerships. It became part of the William Grant & Sons family in 2010. Today, Irish whiskey is the fastest growing sector in the spirits category, as a new generation of consumers discover its
Tullamore DEW Irish Whiskey New Distillery
The new Tullamore DEW Copper Pot Stills can be seen peeking through the side windows of the new Distillery building. Since 1954, Tullamore D.E.W. has actually been produced in Irish Distillers’ Cork based distillery. On my recent visit to Irish Distillers Distillery in Midleton, I learnt that it will not be long before Tullamore DEW ceases production in Cork when the Pot Still and Column Still Single Grain Whiskey production fully crank up allowing the Midlands most famous whiskey to once more be fully made from Grain to Glass in Tullamore town.
Adding the final E to the new Tullamore Distillery
My Tullamore Spies reliably inform me that as I write on 8th September 14, the three mighty new pot stills of Tullamore have already fired up and are producing Pot Still Whiskey Spirit in advance of the official opening of the new Distillery on 16 September 14.
The final touches are now being put to the new plant. Having followed the building of the new distillery for the last year as I pass by each week enroute to my Dublin office, I was privileged to witness the putting up of the final showcase “Tullamore DEW” Signage a few weeks ago as you can see from the attached photos. It was nice to see the final pieces of the jigsaw fall into place after a year of fun watching!
A bright new future beckons for Tullamore DEW Irish Whiskey!
Stuart McNamara (@WhiskeyBlogger) is an international Whiskey Blogger who edits several International Whisk(e)y and Whiskey Tourism sites including IrishWhiskey.com and WhiskeyBlogger.com. He is Chair of the Irish Craft And Artisan Distilleries Association (ICADA) and is an elected member of the National Council of ISME, the Irish SME Association. He is also the creator and editor of International Irish Whiskey Day which is celebrated on 3/3 or 3rd March each year and had a global social media reach in 2021 of over 20 Million. He is a Director of Portmagee Whiskey and has also acted as both a brand and product development consultant to several other Irish Whiskey and other spirits producers.
