When I started J.J. Corry there were only three distilleries producing whiskey on the Island of Ireland. Today there are thirty something. As a whiskey bonder my job is to curate a library of whiskey flavours so that as we mature and blend those stocks we have a varied pallet of flavours to draw from over time. This is what differentiates us from a distillery, we have a still to glass approach, and a wide variety of flavours for the end blend. My goal is to have the most diverse collection of Irish Whiskey stocks on the Island eventually. This work will come to fruition in the coming years as our stocks diversify and our scope for blending grows. We’ve already dabbled in this by releasing The Hanson, to my knowledge the only “Blended Grain” in the Irish category to date. A very natural release for us given our approach to whiskey making. I foresee blended pot-still, blended malt, and many other iterations of this as time goes on for J.J. Corry.
Right now its pretty good fun to be a whiskey bonder, there are so many new independent producers coming online with new ideas, revolutionary approaches and counter old school Irish whiskey culture ideas. I Love It. I seek out folks who are taking a non-traditional approach to work with. I already have some pretty fantastic non-Irish Whiskey GI compliant wheat based distillate in the rackhouse and I hope to have more soon. These casks won’t be destined for release as “Irish Whiskey” but they can of course be called “whiskey” as they tick all the other boxes and that’s ok by me! Do I love a bit of innovation and disruption in the industry? Of course, I love it because it means I am part of a vibrant, evolving and modern industry and that is the kind of industry I want to work in. Does this attitude mean I eschew the past and deny tradition? No, at JJ Corry we respect tradition, but we embrace change.
So, when I chatted to Nick Ryan when he visited us here in Cooraclare I was interested to hear about his Limerick Whiskey project. In my mind its an approach based in that very whiskey specific concept known as a “Sense of Place” and it has a nice bang of terrior and heritage around it too. I tasted his pot still distillate which is distilled from Limerick Grown Grain commissioned by Nick and I knew I wanted to have it in my flavour library. I also knew that I wanted to do something special around it, as there is a very tight historic connection to what Nick is doing in Limerick and what I am doing in Cooraclare.
When J.J. Corry ran his shop in Henry Street from 1890 onwards the town of Kilrush benefited from its enviable location along the then vibrant commercial waterway of the Shannon river. Steam packets ran almost daily from Cappagh Pier to Steamboat Quay in the heart of Limerick City. They ferried tourists in the Summer and goods and sundries year-round. In J.J. Corry’s heyday of whiskey blending there were no distilleries left in Clare, the closest in terms of transport links was Thomond Gate Limerick located on the banks of the Shannon a straight run down the river to Cappagh on any given day. The steam packets of the 1890’s and early 1900’s are gone as is Thomond Gate distillery. I would argue though the spirit of this connection is now very alive and well. Nick has revived the Thomond Gate brand and although he does not have his own distillery just yet he is doing in a way that embodies the soul and the earth of Limerick by focusing on the raw materials that go into this very Limerick Spirit.
As our industry goes through its great market correction, and we begin to rebuild it from the ashes of near collapse in the early 1900’s, many heritage brands are being revived. Some have meaning and some don’t I work hard to make sure J.J. Corry stands for something and I know that Nick does too for Thomond Gate. This is why after sourcing some new make from him I called him up and suggested we celebrate it in a way that pays homage to both our brands past. I wanted to recreate the original journey that Thomond Gate Limerick Whiskey would have taken to Kilrush and into J.J. Corry’s shop and that was via the Shannon River. Initially I planned a big media event with lots of folks on the ship and a dinner and all sorts, but of course that was not possible. There are covid restricting and also we had to work with a timeline because the Ilen Ketch had agreed to transport this cargo for us and they operate to a strict schedule.
The Ilen is an historic and magnificent ship, its home port is Limerick, and it operates as a community and educational vessel, this journey brought to light the historic connections between the lower and upper Shannon. The Shannon Voyage was agreed upon for yesterday May 18th upon based on weather and tides. So yesterday the Ilen sailed into Limerick to Steamboat Quay apparently the first time its done so under full sail in 50 years, and we loaded it with an ex-bourbon first fill cask containing Limerick Spirit. After a four hour sail it docked at Cappagh Pier, Kilrush and my neighbour Paddy Harvey expertly unloaded it. It was met by quite a few folks some of whom reminisced about how vibrant the pier once was others wanted to showcase goods that would have passed up and down the Shannon in J.J. Corry’s time. It became a real community event.
It was a wonderful day and a wonderful celebration of Irish Whiskies rebirth. Nick and I are modern whiskey entrepreneurs celebrating the past whilst very much looking forward and I think this approach is the future of Irish Whiskey. I’m very glad to have Limerick based spirit as part of our library and I have some interesting re-casking plans in place for it over the coming years.
J.J. corry irish whiskey 