Irish Distillers has announced it will honour the 200-year distilling heritage of Midleton Distillery with a schedule of celebratory whiskey launches and events throughout 2025.
Midleton Distillery is the home of award-winning whiskey brands including Jameson, Redbreast, Midleton Very Rare, Powers, the Spot Whiskeys, Method and Madness, and Knappogue Castle.
"As we look to the future, and in the 200th year of Midleton Distillery, we want to pay tribute to our rich distilling tradition by celebrating our home, our history, our people, our brands and our craft," said Nodjame Fouad, CEO, Irish Distillers.
"In the coming year, we will celebrate 200 years of distilling tradition by sharing what it means to us – we look forward to bringing you on a journey over 200 years with us and to celebrating many more milestones and memories in Midleton in the future.”
The distillery was first acquired by the Murphy family in 1825, eventually becoming part of the Cork Distilleries Company following the amalgamation of local distilleries in 1867.
In 1966, the Cork Distilleries Company merged with John Power & Son and John Jameson & Son to form Irish Distillers. In 1975, the Midleton site was expanded to facilitate the move of the two famous Irish whiskey distilling houses to their new home.
This year, to mark the 200-year anniversary, Irish Distillers will bring its archive to the public, with the stories, people and whiskeys that have shaped Midleton Distillery throughout its journey.
Throughout the year, important labels in the distillery’s history will be brought to life digitally and visually on Irish Distillers social channels, bringing viewers on a journey through time with the expert guidance of Carol Quinn, head of archives at Irish Distillers.
Additionally, later in the year, Barley Purchase Books from Midleton Distillery dating back to the 1820s and 1830s will be available to search on Ancestry as part of Irish Distillers’ ongoing partnership with the genealogy company. The records demonstrate the enduring roots of the distillery within the local agricultural community.
The year will also see the release of the sixth and final chapter of the Midleton Very Rare Silent Distillery Collection, Ireland’s rarest and oldest ever whiskey collection. Beginning in 2020, the distillery began to release one chapter annually over six years to culminate in 2025, to coincide with the 200th anniversary of the foundation of the Old Midleton Distillery, an intrinsic part of the distillery’s history, which operated from 1825-1975.
The final release, Chapter Six, a 50-year-old expression from this collection, ranging in age from 45 to 50 years old, will yield the very last drops of this spirit from Old Midleton Distillery before the distillery went silent forever.
"We are extremely fortunate at Irish Distillers to have records created by the firms of John Jameson & Sons, John Power & Son and the Cork Distilleries Company in our archive in Midleton," said Carol Quinn, head of archives at Irish Distillers.
"This year, we are delving into the company archive to bring to life historic labels of Midleton Distillery from 1825 to the present day."
