page_title: Irish whiskey
section_title: Dublin whiskey peak
hierarchical_section_title: Irish whiskey / Process / Dublin whiskey peak
caption_attribution_description: English: View of the Bow Street Jameson distillery in 1887, from Alfred Barnard Français&#160;: Vue de la distillerie Jameson de Bow Street en 1887, d'après Alfred Barnard
context_page_description: Irish whiskey is whiskey made on the island of Ireland. The word 'whiskey' comes from the Irish uisce beatha, meaning water of life.
  Irish whiskey was once the most popular spirit in the world, though a long period of decline from the late 19th century onwards greatly damaged the industry. So much so that although Ireland boasted over 30 distilleries in the 1890s, a century later, this number had fallen to just three.
  Irish whiskey has seen a resurgence in popularity since the late twentieth century, and has been the fastest-growing spirit in the world every year since 1990. With exports growing by over 15% per annum, existing distilleries have been expanded and a number of new distilleries constructed. As of December 2019, Ireland has 32 distilleries in operation, with more either planned or under development. However, many of these have not been operating long enough to have whiskey produced on-site sufficiently aged for sale, and only one of these was operating prior to 1975.
context_section_description: In the early 1800s, Ireland was the largest spirit market in the United Kingdom, with demand for spirit exceeding that of more populous England. Therefore, as capacities expanded, Ireland became the largest producer of spirits in the United Kingdom; and Dublin, then the largest market for spirits in Ireland, emerged as a major distilling centre. By 1823, Dublin boasted the five largest licensed distilleries in the country. At their peak, the distilleries in Dublin would grow to become the largest in the world, with a combined output of almost 10 million gallons per annum, the largest of which, Roe's Thomas Street Distillery, had an output exceeding 2 million gallons per annum. By 1878, the reputation of Dublin whiskey was such that Distillers Company Ltd., a Scottish distilling firm, having built a distillery in Dublin, claimed that Dublin whiskey could sell for a 25% premium over other Irish whiskeys, and that it had a demand five times that of Scotch at the time. Although these figures are likely inflated, they give an indication of the esteem in which Dublin whiskey was held, even by Scottish distillers.
  During this period, the four largest Dublin distilling firms, of John Jameson, William Jameson, John Powers and George Roe (all family-run, and collectively known as the "Big Four") came to dominate the Irish distilling landscape. The chief output of these distilleries, known as single or "pure pot still" whiskey, was made from a mix of malted and unmalted barley, and solely distilled in pot stills. The style, having initially emerged as a means of avoiding a 1785 tax on malt, endured although the tax had been later repealed. In fact, even by the late 1880s, only two of Ireland's then 28 existing distilleries were producing single malt whiskey, the rest steadfast in their devotion to "pure pot still".
  In this period, when Irish whiskey was at its zenith, it would have been difficult to imagine that Scotch, then produced by small-scale producers, and almost unheard of outside of Scotland, would soon become the world's preeminent drink. Whereas, Irish whiskey, then the world's most popular whiskey, would enter a century of decline, with all of Dublin's great distilleries shutting their doors. So much so, that by the late 20th century, the once-popular pure pot still whiskey had almost disappeared entirely, with only two specialist bottlings, Green Spot and Redbreast remaining in existence. However, since 2010, several new single pot whiskeys have been launched.
caption: Jameson's Bow Street distillery pictured in Alfred Barnard's 1887 report on the distilleries of Britain and Ireland
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