Slane Castle Irish Whiskey secures co-investor in Camus Cognac

Alex Mount Charles, Managing Director of Ireland’s only family-owned distillery, beside the outhouses‚ former stables to be converted into a Visitors Centre.

Internationally-renowned family-owned spirits producer and global distributor Camus Cognac has been secured as a project co-investor in Slane Castle Whiskey.

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One of the few remaining independent family-owned spirits companies, Camus’s involvement with Slane Castle Whiskey will bring investment and extensive branding as well as commercial expertise to the Slane Castle Whiskey venture.

Headed up by Managing Director Alex Mount Charles together with his father Henry, The Marquess Conyngham (and acting Chairman), Slane Castle Whiskey has already secured core funding for the €12 million-plus project and plans to raise additional capital to complete this through private investment and the launching of an EIIS scheme. 

Cyril Camus, President of Camus Cognac, commented, “This venture represents two historic families coming together to play an important role in reviving the tradition of an independent, family-owned distillery”.

The new €12 million whiskey distillery and visitors’ centre development will create 25 full-time jobs and the project, due to commence construction later this year, will see the regeneration of the estate’s 18th Century stable yards adjacent to the iconic castle. It also expects to attract up to 50,000 visitors annually.

Speaking at Slane Castle recently, Alex Mount Charles said, “The whiskey sector is an excellent growth industry as significant value is added to the finest raw materials which results in a higher value product for international export. Making whiskey can be viewed as value-added farming, something that makes sense to me as a farmer. The country’s economic future will benefit from these emerging, indigenous industries that springboard off Ireland’s superior produce, creating more money and jobs here in Ireland”.
 
Unique Qualities
Slane Castle Whiskey will use barley grown on the estate lands to take advantage of the ‘terroir’ of the fertile Boyne Valley. Field trials of different varieties are underway. 

The 2,000 tonnes of barley grown, malted and milled on the Slane Castle Estate will become a key ingredient in the production of the family-owned brand. Combined with water from the historic River Boyne that flows beneath the Castle, this will give Slane Castle Whiskey “unique qualities”.

The distillery’s first release will be a whiskey blend in 2018 to be followed by a range of traditional, authentic Irish whiskeys including Triple Distilled Single Malt and Pure Pot Still. On opening, visitors will be able to taste the maturing whiskey and purchase whole casks with a range of finishes.
 
Sustainability is paramount for the Conyngham family’s vision for the distillery which is set to become one of the greenest in the world.  With a low carbon footprint through sourcing local raw materials such as barley, the development will use co-products for onsite energy generation to lower fossil fuel consumption. Nothing will go to waste with the spent grains being fed to the estate’s cattle herd. There are also plans to produce the first ever organic Irish whiskey.
 
Originally launched in 2009, the award-winning Slane Castle Whiskey’s decision to embark on building its own distillery was brought forward when the Cooley Distillery ceased the supply of whiskey for independent operators in 2012 on being purchased by Beam Inc.

Slane Castle Whiskey aims to be the only distillery in Ireland using entirely Irish barley where possible, becoming the only truly authentic Irish whiskey where many other distilleries use imported maize.

The project has included column stills, unusual for a craft distillery, to be completely independent for both grain and malt whiskey supply and to provide the flexibility to make all three styles of Irish whiskey: Pot Still, Single Malt and Grain.

Coopering will also take place at the Distillery with the output being spread across Triple Distilled Single Malt Whiskey, Pot Still Whiskey (using a combination of malted barley, unmalted barley and oats – distilled exclusively in copper Pure Pot Stills) and finally grain whiskey made from barley and distilled in column stills.

The proportions will change over time responding to market needs but the long term focus will be on Single Malt and Pot Still.

The malting house will use a Salladin box system rather than a traditional floor malting and will experiment with roasting the malt.

Construction will commence late in 2013 and the visitors centre will open to the public in Spring 2015. New branding material will be unveiled in early 2014.

Slane Castle Whiskey will be on sale from 2018 with cask sales and tastings available from opening in 2015.

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