When you set off on a project like Lough Gill, as in any venture, you have a series of thoughts, plans, and ideas about where you want to get to, and how to get there. From the outset, we were focused on “the place” and the fact that we thought, in Sligo, and more specifically in Hazelwood, we had found the perfect location in which to distill and mature whiskey. In fact, our whole brand is based around the idea of our place, its location, its climate, its water, its heritage, its buildings and the change we are bringing to our historic 300-year-old Estate. That’s what Athrú means – it’s the Irish word for change or transformation.

But the next piece of the jigsaw is community. We want people to follow what we are doing and become directly involved in the project.

Over the last six years, we have built up a community of investors, consultants, workers and friends. We will shortly extend that community, by launching our cask purchase program. This will allow members of the public to buy new and aged whiskey, with 10% of the sale price going to the restoration of Hazelwood House and sustainability projects at the estate.

We hope that these people will join us on a journey to discover the world of whiskey in its purest form. But, moreover, a personal journey into the longer-now, the idea that long-term thinking is better than the instant gratification that today’s society seems to covet.

Imagine your son’s or daughter’s wedding, future retirement, or a future significant event. Imagine presenting a present that you set in motion many, many years previously. Imagine the reaction when they realise the thought and effort that went into it. That’s the longer now.

When Owen Wynne II set about building Hazelwood House in 1731, he was 67. That was in a time he had no family (hence the Estate went to his nephew when he died in 1737, a mere 6 years later). He was building a house, not for himself, but for generations to come. That’s the longer now.

In 2020 we started to lay down whiskey in our warehouse, which will be ready to drink eight or ten years hence. It can’t even be legally called whiskey until it is three years old.

We continue that process in 2021 and beyond. All of our new make spirit is triple-distilled single malt made using barley from the Hook Head Peninsula and water from Hazelwood itself in three beautiful pot stills we personally designed and distilled under the direction of our head distiller, Ollie Alcorn.

We only use the finest Bourbon and Oloroso barrels which are then stored onsite in our bonded warehouse, one of the few in the country to be co-located with the distillery.

As a cask owner, you will have the joy of watching your own barrel mature in parallel with ours, joining us on that journey. You will have exclusive access to our team, the distillery, the house, and of course, your barrel and samples thereof. Finally, at a time of your choosing, you will be able to able to bottle your whiskey, now 5 or 8 or 10 years old (or whatever), and enjoy it yourself or present it to that special person.

Lough Gill Distillery is unique and our cask program will be unlike any other, allowing the owners to join us on the journey of the resurgence of Irish whiskey and the restoration of a piece of Irish heritage. A nod to the future and a nod to the past.

You can register interest in the Athrú Cask Program here

Founder Update - Announcing the Athrú Cask Reserve Program

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