Whiskey galore: Teeling reels in the visitors

Teeling Whiskey has welcomed more than 300,000 visitors to its distillery in the Liberties in Dublin since opening in 2015, generating revenues of close to €9 million for the company, its founder Jack Teeling has revealed.

“It’s been another bumper year for visitors,” he said. “We had 125,000 last year and we’re hoping to build on that, with growth of around 10-15 per cent this year.”

Mr Teeling said it was now at an “exciting stage” of its development with the first batch of Irish whiskey (three years and a day old) to mature at the distillery set to come on stream. This will be the first whiskey distilled in Dublin for more than 40 years.

The first cask of Single Pot Still from the Teeling distillery will be released in August, comprising 250 bottles, with a commercial release to follow in October, with bottles priced at more than €60.

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Some 100 bottles of the “celebratory release” will be auctioned, with the funds raised distributed to local charities.

Mr Teeling said the company sold 750,000 bottles of Irish whiskey last year. “We’re going in the right direction but we’re still small in the overall scheme of things. There are great opportunities in Irish whiskey at present.”

Whiskey tourism

To celebrate its anniversary, Teeling hosted an event at the distillery on Wednesday, which was attended by Niall Gibbons, chief executive of Tourism Ireland. Whiskey tourism is a growing business in Ireland with a large number of new distilleries having opened in recent years.

Mr Gibbons said: “In the short time since its inception, the [Teeling] distillery has established itself as an important attraction for visitors to Dublin and has been nominated for Europe’s Leading Distillery Tour at the World Travel Awards as well as claiming many other accolades.”

Teeling plans to host a number of events, called “Dublin Rising”, at the distillery to mark its anniversary. This will include a pop-up exhibition celebrating some of the local collaborations the company has been involved in over the past few years.