Proclamation Irish Whiskey: The taste of independence

Proclamation Irish Whiskey was released just under a year ago, possibly not the most auspicious time to launch. “The last year has been all about ups and downs,” says Stephen Cope, managing director of distributor Inis Tine. “I really feel for the publicans, who have suffered greatly. We have moved to the off-trade and exports. It has become acceptable to talk to people long-distance on Zoom, instead of travelling the world to fairs and to visit prospective clients. We have a good team that adapted quickly and have signed contracts in 20 countries over the last year. I don’t think we could have achieved that in a normal year.”

He adds: “This has been a really big week for us. We won five gold medals at the prestigious San Francisco Spirits competition, including two double golds, one for our Grace O’Malley blended whiskey, the other for the rum cask whiskey. Proclamation also won a gold. I feel like the Dublin football team – and as someone from Mayo, it really hurts to say that.”

For Proclamation, they gave Paul Caris, their French blender, a brief to produce an Irish whiskey with a hint of bourbon. “We had been in New York and were astounded by the quality of the bourbons, so the Proclamation is aged in 10 per cent Virgin American oak, giving it light tannins and a tiny fraction of sherry casks to round it out. We wanted to be inclusive of Americans and produce something that was in the middle; it has gone down very well over there and they love the label.”

The whiskey and label recognise the three printers responsible for the original Proclamation of the Irish Republic. “The typeface didn’t exist on computer, so the guy who designed it had to create a new digitised font. The drawing is an original created for the project.”