The total yield of 29 casks were lightly toasted before being shipped to the Midleton Distillery in Cork. Here in Jerez the staves lay in the natural warmth of the Spanish sun for 15 months before they were worked on and turned into casks. The cooperage may sound familiar to regular whiskey buffs, it is the same cooperage that creates sherry butts that eventually make it to Midleton for the Redbreast family of whiskeys. These staves then made the 10 hour journey from the sawmill to the cooperage of Antonio Paez Lobato in Jerez. No guesses as to where it got its name! The selected trees were felled and shipped to the Spanish region of Galicia and the Maderbar Sawmills where, under the watchful eyes of Ger Buckley, Midletons Master Cooper, they were quarter sawn into staves. In May 2013 the IDL team headed to Castle Blunden Estate in Kilkenny where 6 individual 130 year old Oak trees were selected in the Bluebell Forest. They are doing their part ensuring that Irish oak is replanted and that it is making a comeback. Apart from it being conditional for a felling licence in Ireland, sustainability of Irish oak is important to IDL. The Dair Ghaelach project is all about sustainability. So now you’re asking…wheres he going with this? Is he about to launch an attack on Irish Distillers for cutting down trees? Absolutely not. It should give perspective on how important it is to protect Irish oak and ensure its survival. So why am I boring you with all the history? Well it should give you an idea of how important Irish oak was to our ancestors. It wasn’t until the Forestry Act of 1946 that we saw any conservation of trees in Ireland. During World War 1 further deforestation continued with the need for fire wood and building materials. Our own population demands caused it to be felled to make way for farm land. The great fire of London in 1666 required a massive amount of timber for rebuilding, a lot of which came from Ireland. With formation of the Royal Navy in 1660, huge amounts of Irish oak were harvested for use in shipbuilding to make it one of the most formidable in the world by 1690. Over the years, especially the 1600s, these trees were obviously used in abundance. The island was covered in thick forests, the majority of which were oak. Go back a few hundred years and what was used? Oak which, if we rewind 2,000 years, was plentiful in Ireland. Today we have steel to brace buildings and rivet into hulls of ships. It’s easy for us today to forget how important hardwood was to the development of civilisation. 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.
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