The Kilbeggan Distilling Company

“We started in Cooley with a workforce that had never distilled whiskey, that knew nothing about it, a management that knew nothing about whiskey, and we have won 300 awards over 20-odd years. This is a huge source of satisfaction.” John Teeling on the success of the Cooley project.

Competition is a driving force for growth and innovation, but from the time Bushmills was bought by IDL in 1973, just one company controlled all the whiskey distilleries in Ireland. It was hardly ideal.

For this reason, businessman John Teeling deserves some of the credit for the healthy state of the Irish whiskey industry. In the late 1980s he took on the IDL monopoly by buying a Government-owned industrial alcohol production plant on the Cooley peninsula and installing two pot stills purchased from Northern Ireland and two column stills. The Cooley Distillery was born and everyone was forced to stay on their toes.

Teeling’s strategy was to provide something different to Midleton and Bushmills, opting for double-distillation rather than triple. With the help of Scottish distiller Gordon Mitchell, the stills were set up to produce a mellow, honied and fruity distillate. By plan or by fortune, they also started producing a peated spirit, almost unheard of in more recent Irish distilling history.

Cooley set about buying up old brand names of long disappeared, but not quite forgotten whiskeys. He added the names of Tyrconnell, Lockes, Kilbeggan and Millars to the stable, creating instant heritage. But the real coup was the purchase of the old Lockes Distillery at Kilbeggan, Co Westmeath.

The Locke’s Distillery is Ireland’s oldest and can trace its foundation back to 1757, but, like most distilleries in the country, it had fallen on hard times and ceased distilling in March 1957. But locals realised the value of having such an historic cottage industry style distilling operation in the area and preserved the building and most of its equipment, maintaining the license to distill too.

The success of the Connemara and Tyrconnell brands got Cooley through a few scrapes, including a take-over by IDL in 1993 that fell foul of the Competitions Authority.

And in 2007, the Locke’s Distillery started making whiskey again. A small old pot still that originally came from the old Tullamore Distillery had been unearthed in storage. A second identical one was made to order and now a small boutique style operation is in full flow at Kilbeggan.

In December 2011 the company that comprised Cooley and Kilbeggan was sold to Beam Inc for €71m. The new operators decided to focus the branding on Kilbeggan. Beam, in turn, was taken over by Japanese distilling giants Suntory earlier this year.

John Teeling had always seen a powerful distribution network as key to accelerating the growth of Cooley and its brands, and now they have that with Beam and Suntory. So it’s not unreasonable to assume that the best is yet to come from Cooley and Kilbeggan. There are some interesting things maturing, hidden away in their warehouses, some of it in our own Celtic Whiskey Shop casks...

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The Kilbeggan Distilling Company


Connemara 12 Year Old

70cl

The 12-year-old edition of Connemara single malt has a full, rounded and complex flavour that is bot..

€80.00 Ex Tax: €65.04

Connemara Peated Irish Single Malt

70cl

Connemara is rare amongst Irish whiskey, its hook being the smokiness associated with the malts prod..

€46.50 Ex Tax: €37.80

Kilbeggan Black

70cl

A welcome addition to the Kilbeggan range, Ireland's oldest continuous distillery! Kilbeggan Bla..

€39.50 Ex Tax: €32.11

Kilbeggan Single Pot Still

70cl

Exclusively matured in ex-Bourbon barrels, the Kilbeggan Single Pot Still is comprised of unmalted b..

€66.50 Ex Tax: €54.07

Kilbeggan Triple Cask New In

Kilbeggan Triple Cask

70cl

A delightful release from Kilbeggan that is matured in three different cask type..

€47.50 Ex Tax: €38.62

Kilbeggan Whiskey

70cl

Kilbeggan is the flagship blend from the Kilbeggan Distilling Company (previously called Cooley Dist..

€32.95 Ex Tax: €26.79

Tyrconnell Madeira Finish

70cl

This was originally released as a limited edition but proved to be so popular that is made a permane..

€72.00 Ex Tax: €58.54

Tyrconnell Port Finish

70cl

The Port Finish bottling of Tyrconnell is sweet and fruity with delicious flavours of fruit and nut ..

€76.00 Ex Tax: €61.79

Tyrconnell Sherry Finish

70 cl

The Tyrconnell Sherry Finish was a deserved top prize winner at the 2010 World Whiskey Awards and ag..

€78.00 Ex Tax: €63.41

Tyrconnell Single Malt 43%

70cl

A revamped edition of Tyrconnell that has moved up in strength from 40% to 43%. This is now the stan..

€50.00 Ex Tax: €40.65

Connemara Distillers Edition Single Malt

70cl

An excellent expression of Connemara peated Irish single malt whiskey, presented as their Distillers..

€80.00 Ex Tax: €65.04

Connemara Turf Mor 46%

70cl

A welcome return of Turf Mór, Connemara's even peatier stablemate.This is intensely smoky..

€95.00 Ex Tax: €77.24

Lockes 8 Year-Old

70cl

Lockes 8 year old single malt was first released in 2000 and is double distilled in traditional pot ..

€44.99 Ex Tax: €36.57

Lockes Liqueur Whiskey

Approx 50 cl

Most likely dating from the 1950's, and around the time the old Kilbeggan Distillery closed. Thi..

€600.00 Ex Tax: €487.81

Lockes Single Malt 1 of 5000

70 cl

A rare limited edition Lockes Single Malt that was bottled using some of the earliest spirit made at..

€100.00 Ex Tax: €81.30

Tyrconnell 15 Year Old Madeira Finish

70cl

The Tyrconnell 15 Year Old Madeira Finish builds on the high reputation of it's sister bottling ..

€85.00 Ex Tax: €69.10