Angels Whisky Club Interview with Cooley Global Brand Manager John Cashman

1. JOHN; how pleased are you about all these awards? There are MANY now… It’s always pleasing to be recognised by your peers for the quality of what you do. Over the past few years we have been named European Distiller of the year for 3 consecutive years as well as World Distiller of the Year in 2008 and Malt Advocate’s Distillery of the year in 2010. We don’t make whiskey to win awards, we make whiskey to be enjoyed and savoured by whiskey drinkers around the world; awards are a nice bonus.

2. You obviously have a great team working with you, (we know a few) … Yes the quality of our whiskeys are testament to that. Cooley is a small operation and the team led by David Hynes started distilling in 1989. It has always been a work in progress with many learning their trade on the job. To think that in less than 20 years these dedicated people have been recognised as some of the best in the world at what they do is phenomenal. Our team also extends to our distribution partners all over the world who knock on doors and sell the whiskeys on our behalf.

3. Have you any plans for any special bottle releases soon? We are interested and I know my friends in Germany hang on for news – This year we have released two 18yr old whiskeys. Kilbeggan and Greenore. We are very excited by these releases and our focus is on getting distribution for these limited batch whiskeys. We have recently started distilling Single pot still whiskey in the traditional Irish way of malted and unmalted barley and we hope to release some new spirit as a potcheen later in the year. Paul’s note; my cousins make their own potcheen

4. How do you see Irish whiskey in relation to Scotch? Irish whiskey is a completely different category to Scotch. We have been distilling whiskey longer than in Scotland and for a long time up until the beginning of the 20th century Irish was the dominant force. I don’t like to generalise when it comes to describing whiskeys; there are variants in all categorys. I don’t class one as superior to the other; there is plenty of room in people’s glasses for Scotch, Irish, American, Canadian or Japanese.

5. You are the only Irish drams that double distill, is there a reason? There is no law in Ireland dictating how many times a whiskey should be distilled. By nature Irish whiskey is soft and mellow and we feel that double distillation keeps some of the extra flavours that can be distilled out with a third distillation run.

 6. Do you have any road shows or events lined up for this year? We met you in Holland at Whisky Live and hoping to see you again at Chester, sorry we cannee make Dublin whisky live, next year;  We are always on the road! We all travel quite extensively attending shows and events across the globe. Recently we have taken on some brand ambassadors in the United States and Germany who can attend many events on our behalf. In the next few weeks we have Whisky Live Dublin; the first event of its kind ever held in Dublin and at the beginning of June a large 5 day Food and Garden event run by the Irish Food Board in the Phoenix Park also in Dublin.
 
7. IF there is one whiskey you like best from your range, what is it and why? Always difficult to choose just one; different occasions and different moods call for different whiskeys. However since you are insisting (WE ARE JOHN, NAE HIDING FROM US) I would go for Connemara. I think Connemara has the perfect balance of all what is great about Irish whiskey; slightly sweet, balanced and mellow. All of these flavours are then wrapped up in a lovely light peating; a taste of how Irish whiskey used to be many years ago.
 
Paul McLean
Angels Whisky Club
www.angelswhiskyclub.com