THE HISTORY OF IRISH WHISKEY

The second came with the development of blended whiskey. Aeneas Coffey and Robert Stein set the ball rolling and tried to sell there concept to the Irish Distillers. There concept was for a far more continuous still which made cheaper grain spirit with less flavour. Coffey's commitment to the new process raised the green flag for other blenders around the world; the age for the 'Whiskey Baron' had begun.

The Irish looked upon blended whiskey with outright disdain and their export sales began losing out to Scotch blends. The situation became so bad that in 1879 the four Dublin distillers joined forces to publish a book called 'Truths about Whiskey'. The book called for the banning of blended whiskey.

A Government commission designed to sort out the "what is whiskey" question decided that grain spirit could also be called whisky provided it was matured for long enough. Irish Distillers now had an uphill battle against the Scotch producers and only Cork Distilleries seemed keen on marketing a blend.