In November 2019 I stood in the lobby of the Aloft Hotel in
the Liberties area of Dublin city. For the first time in more than
70 years the roofs and buildings of four operating Irish whiskey
distilleries could be seen - Pearse Lyons Distillery, Teeling
Distillery, Roe & Co and the focus of this week’s podcast, the
Dublin Liberties Distillery.
In fact as I marveled at the return of distilling to Ireland’s
capital, right on cue, a truck full of barley arrived, ready for
Master Distiller Darryl McNally to turn it into single malt irish
whiskey and I watched as its contents were magically emptied from
the truck straight in through the wall of the Dublin Liberties
Distillery.
Darryl has spent his whole working life in Irish whiskey and
the Dublin Liberties Distillery is his chance to put his very own
stamp on whiskey that he’s been keen to make for years. In this
episode of stories and sips, I have the pleasure of chatting with a
master of his craft and a mentor to many up and coming young
distillers.
I was not going to let a chance to chat with a Master
Distiller of Darryl’s calibre go to waste and made sure to dive
deep into such topics as:
- What Darryl believes makes for a good Master Distiller
- What he considered when building his whiskey portfolio at
Dublin Liberties Distillery
- What it takes to build a distillery from the ground up
- What a career at Ireland’s oldest distillery, Bushmills,
taught him about single malt and running a distillery
- What the DNA of his own whiskey is.
About the Podcast
Stories and Sips is hosted by Irishman and self-professed Irish whiskey ambassador Barry Chandler, introducing unsuspecting Americans to the joys of Ireland's extraordinary whiskeys, their history and their stories.