Interview: Whisky Advocate Talks With John and Jack Teeling

In the late 1980s, John Teeling started the Cooley distillery, an independent, Irish-owned distillery that’s had an outsized impact on the Irish whiskey category. Cooley was sold to Beam in 2012, and John’s son Jack has started his own whiskey company, with plans to build a new distillery in Dublin. Whisky Advocate managing editor Lew Bryson sat down for an interview with John and Jack that appeared in the most recent issue of Whisky Advocate. Here are some excerpts.

Q: What exactly happened when you started Cooley?

John: In 1986, the state had closed an industrial alcohol plant in Cooley, about 60 miles north of Dublin. By acquiring the plant, I could distill grain whiskey in the columns: that was the key to the project. I quietly bought that plant, and spent six to eight months looking for pot stills and a team. I bought the old pot stills from the closed Comber distillery in Northern Ireland. The plan was to be different from the whiskey then being distilled in Ireland. In 1986, you really only had one expression of Irish, a blend of pot still and grain (whiskies). I wanted to bring back some brands from older times, as well as the different expressions of Irish that existed—double distilled, single malt, peated malt. To help gain provenance, I bought up old assets and brands, such as Tyrconnell and Millars, but in particular, the then-closed Locke’s distillery in Kilbeggan, which really is the oldest whiskey distillery in the world, distilling on the same site since 1757. We began distilling in 1989, but I couldn’t reopen the Kilbeggan distillery until 2007, using very traditional technology and an 1830 pot still. We decided to distill smooth, slightly sweet single malt and grain whiskey. Soon after, we added peated malt. The idea was to appeal to younger drinkers. Little did I know that tastes in the U.S. would move my way.

Q: Cooley’s whiskies were quite different from those from the Big Two Irish distillers: double-distilled for one thing, and a wider variety with the peated Connemara and aged grain Greenore. Why did you go so far outside what was commonly considered to be “Irish?”

John: Historically, there were multiple types and expressions. Peated was common, as there was no coal; Bushmills had peat in the 1960s. Double distilled was common, and Jameson was double distilled in the early days. There were numerous pure single malt distillers, e.g. Allman’s, in Cork. We set out to offer a suite of products, starting with a single malt, Tyrconnell. The Greenore came about when we discovered that our grain aged beautifully—we did not know this when we started. It’s the columns, which are part copper.

Q: Jack, you’ve left Cooley to start your Teeling Whiskey Company, and again barriers are breaking: poitín, “hybrid” blends of Scotch and Irish whiskies. Is there something about the whiskey market that makes a plan like that likely to succeed?

Jack: Modern spirits consumers expect a lot of choice in terms of styles and expressions. There is currently a gap in the Irish whiskey market, now that Cooley has changed their focus to develop a more traditional mass-market brand approach, creating an opportunity for the Teeling Whiskey Company. Our mission is to challenge the norm by creating alternative Irish whiskies with greater depth of personality and character than the current mass-market options.

Q: How hard is it to source stocks of aged spirit, and who’s doing the selection?

Jack: We’re lucky enough to be able to get a supply of new make and mature stock of Irish whiskey from our contacts within the industry. This gives us control of a critical part of the maturation process, and we’re working on some new styles and expressions. An example of this is our new Teeling Whiskey, which consists of hand selected grain and malt casks, which are then married in Flor de Caña rum casks. Being an independent bottler is a first step for us, but the plan is to get back into production so we can drive innovation and new expressions of Irish whiskey.

Tagged : Irish whiskey, spirits, whiskey

GET YOUR FIRST LOOK AT 2025 ESTIMATES AND 2030 PROJECTIONS FOR THE WINE AND SPIRITS INDUSTRIES. ORDER YOUR 2025 IMPACT DATABANK REPORTS. CLICK HERE.