It’s easy for us today to forget how important hardwood was to the development of civilisation.
Midleton dair ghaelach bluebell forest full#
After a few pain staking months, I was lucky enough to complete a full set of 1 to 9 but now, three years later, it is all but impossible to do so. It truly was Irish history in the making and with that, collect ability enshrouded it. It was almost romantic that we could go right to the spot where the original tree stood from a particular bottle. The fact that each barrel was then traced back to one of nine individual trees, gave us all a sense of intrigue.
Utilising premium aged whiskey, it was always going to be a winner for Irish Distillers Limited (IDL). Simply meaning Irish Oak, Grinsells wood was the first to be finished in virgin Irish oak barrels. Two Irish words that are now renowned in whiskey circles since the launch of Midleton Dair Ghaelach, Grinsells wood in 2015. The first Irish whiskey to be matured in Irish oak from County Laois, it’s as individual as it is irresistible whiskey as satisfyingly Irish as it is undeniably elegant.Dair Ghaelach. After two years, the Irish oak influence was deemed to have struck a perfect balance with the Single Pot Still character. Nosed and tasted every month, Master Distiller Kevin O’Gorman, Master Blender, Billy Leighton and Blender, David McCabe kept a vigilant watch on the liquid.
Fifteen months later, the Kylebeg oak staves were ready to be worked and yielded 42 casks, each was given a light toast to the specification laid out by Master Distiller Kevin O’Gorman.įinally, the oak casks for Dair Ghaelach Kylebeg returned to Midleton from Spain, where they were filled with a specially selected range of fifteen to twenty-eight-year-old Single Pot Still whiskeys previously matured in American oak barrels. Next, the precisely shaped and honed staves made the ten-hour journey from the sawmills to the Antonio Paez Lobato cooperage in Jerez, where they were laid out to dry naturally in the warmth of the Spanish sun. Here the wood was cut, using the time-honoured craft of quarter sawing. Once harvested from Kylebeg, the oak logs were shipped to the Spanish region of Galicia and the Maderbar Sawmills in Barralla where, for more than fifty years, the same family have been working with wood. Midleton Dair Ghaleach Kylebeg Wood release, pays tribute to the people, flora and fauna of this beautiful part of Ireland. This method of forestry has led to a reappearance of the Pine Marten to the Laois countryside, the return of this native predator has impacted the alien grey squirrel, and indirectly helped the native Red Squirrel which had practically vanished when the invasive Greys outcompeted them on the estate in the 1990’s.įollowing years in exile, the iconic Red Squirrel is now flourishing again in Ireland’s heartland, thanks to careful custodianship which respects the circular nature of the ecosystem. The space created in the canopy through the felling of these trees has allowed light to once again meet the forest floor, where newly planted saplings now rise to fill it centuries later.ĭue to this guardianship approach, much of the forest area on the estate is designated for nature conservation as a Natural Heritage Area. Under David’s astute supervision, seven trees were carefully felled to produce the finest Irish oak hogsheads for the latest chapter in the Dair Ghaelach series. Today David Walsh-Kemmis manages the stands of majestic oak in Kylebeg Wood, using a ‘close to nature’ forest management system in line with AFI best practice. Kylebeg Wood or ‘ An Coill Beag’ in the Irish language, translates as the little wood, and it was in this little wood that native Irish oak was planted in 1820 to replace trees that were felled for shipbuilding during the Napoleonic Wars.
Situated amidst rolling fields of barley, the native Irish woodland on the estate has been managed carefully and in tune with nature by the Walsh-Kemmis family for thirteen generations, since 1639.
Midleton dair ghaelach bluebell forest series#
The fourth chapter of the Midleton Dair Ghaelach series takes us to Kylebeg Wood on the Ballykilcavan Estate near Stradbally, Co.
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