A Whisky Lover And An Irish Whisky Brand Ambassador Walk Into A Conference...
Stop me if you've heard this one before
Hey there,
If you’ve been reading this newsletter for a while now you’ll have noticed that I’ve been all over the place with the kind of drinks I talk about.
And that’s sort of the point.
Every country has something unique and wonderful to put into a bottle and writing about this stuff means I can broaden my horizons (and hopefully yours) with new perspectives and categories.
Ireland’s a grand example of a historical drinking culture and I must confess I’ve been on a bit of an Irish whisky kick lately.
I blame Michael Carr, the brand ambassador for the Pearse Lyons whisky distillery in Dublin. (Clearly he’s great at his job).
I met Mike at the Northern Restaurant and Bar Show in Manchester and over some tasty whisky tastings we agreed to set up an interview.
Mike was kind enough to give me a virtual tour of the Pearse Lyons distillery (which is why there’s a reference to a graveyard in this interview)
Here’s the result!
Best,
Jamie
What’s your background with whisky and how did you become involved with the Pearse Lyons distillery?
It's a relatively convoluted story. I studied science in college. But I never really enjoyed working in the industry and I worked for a couple of pharmaceutical companies for a short period of time.
All the way through college, I'd worked in bars and at the time there wasn’t much interest in Irish whisky. I worked for a guy who had something like 15 Irish whiskies in his collection and he got me a book by Peter Moore called Irish Whiskies.
I read it and it sounded like a historical novel. I was hooked and I eventually found myself training in a whisky ambassador programme at Dublin airport. The training was exceptional and by the end of the training I actually knew what whisky was.
From there, I spent a few years as a whisky ambassador and a brand developer for Pernod Richard handling their whole portfolio. Also worked as the operations manager of the Irish Whisky Museum in Dublin and then I went back to Pernod until the opportunity at the Pearse Lyons distillery came up.
It’s a stunning place to work and has a very personal story connected to Irish whisky.
What are the styles and characteristics of the whisky in the Pearse Lyons portfolio?
We started off focusing on single malt. Dr Lyons, our founder wanted to make the kind of whisky he liked to drink and we started off at our distillery in Kentucky.
We then started distilling in Carlow and moved to Dublin in 2017.
We source our grain whiskey. Currently, we use two types of grain whiskey at the moment, which is corn and wheat.
In the Pearse range, we have our five-year-old, a blended malt whisky matured in bourbon barrels that we use to hold stout. We’re lucky because we have access to amazing bourbon barrels at our sister distillery in Kentucky.
Our seven-year-old has malt that’s been matured in Oloroso sherry casks, and then some bourbon barrel ale casks and that gives it a luscious sweetness.
And then we have our 12-year-old, a sourced single malt that Dr Lyons personally chose for putting into casks and has some great sweetness to it.
We also have our Ha’penny Irish whisky that’s very accessible and provides a great blend of flavours.
The distillery has interesting stories behind it and read that the owners were drawn to the history of St James Church and the Liberties. How has that location been incorporated into the story of the distillery?
The area certainly defines our whisky. The idea started with Dr Lyons and he would’ve wanted to have a whisky distillery in Dublin and the building appealed to him.
When he started doing his research, he realised that seven members of his family were buried on the grounds.
He wanted to distillery to become a legacy to the Pearse family and to his history. The church is prominent in our branding.
I also wanted to point out that there are plenty of other people who’re important to the history of Ireland who’re buried on the grounds e.g. those who died in the 1916 Rising on the British army and Republican sides.
So, the area truly is central to everything we do.
Why do you think Irish whisky has become so popular?
The romantic answer is destiny. You have to remember that Irish whisky would’ve been the drink of the upper classes in the 19th century and Irish whisky was booming in the 1860s – 1880s.
In the modern day, we forgot how to sell Irish whisky but that started to change when Pernod Ricard came in. They focused our industry on exports because we're too small a country to really just sustain an industry indigenously.
There are also people like John Teeling coming in and challenging the status quo and pushing innovation.
I also wanted to put things into context. Most of the Irish whiskey distilleries are foreign owned. Bacardi, William Brands and Diageo have a presence here and they are continuing to push everything forward.
When you think of the words premium and craft in whisky, what do they mean to you?
Am I able to use expletives?
Yep, go for it.
It’s all bollocks. They are just words with no legal definition. Like small batch. What is small batch? The big distilleries can small batch a million bottles. A small batch for us is something like 200 – 300 bottles.
Premium to me means expensive. It doesn’t mean good. Craft means you’re just making excuses for not having good whisky. I think that’s what Irish whisky stands for. That it’s great no matter what you pick up.
I’m not a fan of those labels. For us, we have our expensive and accessible range and every single whisky is excellent.
What other styles of whisky do you enjoy and do you see any momentum in those categories?
The industry is very interesting at the moment. There's huge growth in English, Welsh, Australian and American whisky right now.
The small guys are innovating and I think we’re going to see world whisky as a category continue to go from strength to strength.
What are the challenges of being a brand ambassador?
Well, it’s a cool job but I suppose the hardest part of it in Ireland is that everyone has their own favourite whisky. It’s a mature audience and trying to get them to experiment can be difficult. But there’s always ways around that and that is a fun part of the job.
I’d also say the travel is one of the biggest challenges. You’re on the road a lot. Some people love that. But you don’t really get to spend much time in the places you visit and you fly straight back after the job’s done. It can be draining.
Then there’s having to explain what you do. So, trying to justify yourself as a brand ambassador can be a little tiring but on the other hand, you do get to hang out in graveyards (laughs).
Yep. When you’re hanging out in graveyards that is living the dream. Thanks Mike. That’s great information. My last question is where would you like to see Irish whisky as a category go in the next decade?
I would like to see a little bit more balanced growth of Irish whisky. I think our growth as an overall industry is going in the right direction but a lot of it is driven by one brand: Jameson’s.
What I would like to see is instead of Jameson’s being 80% of the growth is them being 50% of the growth and some of the other big guys and smaller guys like ourselves making up the rest of that growth.
I want to see Irish whisky reclaim its place as at the table of the highest regarded whiskies in the world along with the single malt scotches, spectacular bourbons etc.
Definitely check out the Pearse Lyons Distillery website and if you’re in the area, why not book on for a tour?
https://www.pearselyonsdistillery.com/
Hanging out in graveyards is absolutely the dream.