Bishops Water Irish Whiskey

03/06/2020

Over the coming weeks we will be shipping samples of McCarthy's Irish Whiskey to the UK and Europe, so watch this space!
From the team at McCarthy's Irish Whiskey & Irish Whiskey Assets
Interesting article in the Irish Times https://www.irishtimes.com/business/agribusiness-and-food/irish-whiskey-sales-near-milestone-of-12m-cases-a-year-1.4266977

Jameson remains market leader, but McGregor’s Proper No Twelve becomes fourth biggest brand in global sales

18/04/2020

Bishop's Water Distillery was an Irish whiskey distillery which operated in Wexford, Ireland between 1827 and 1914. The distillery was named for a stream which ran along the back of the distillery, the Bishop's Water, said to possess "various occult properties derived from the blessings of the sainted Bishop of Ferns".

18/04/2020

Bishops Water Irish Whiskey
Bishop's Water Distillery was an Irish whiskey distillery which operated in Wexford, Ireland between 1827 and 1914. The distillery was named for a stream which ran along the back of the distillery, the Bishop's Water, said to possess "various occult properties derived from the blessings of the sainted Bishop of Ferns".

This was a small enterprise, was opened in 1827 by a consortium of local businessmen. Nicholas Devereux was one of these gentlemen and by 1833 he had acquired outright control of the business. The consortium which traded under "Devereux, Harvey, and Co., Distillers", comprised a number of local businessmen, including Nicholas Devereux, his father John Devereux, and Maurice Crosbie Harvey. John Devereux had previously operated a small distillery in the area in the late 1700s, but will little success. In 1830, one of the partners, Maurice Harvey, was accidentally killed at the distillery by an excise man who was taking aim at some birds flying overhead. A few years later, in 1836, the partnership was dissolved at the mutual consent of the remaining partners, with Nicholas Devereux taking sole ownership of the distillery, after which the distillery traded under the name Nicholas Devereux & Son. On his death in 1840, operation of the distillery was taken over by his son Richard. Nicholas Devereux's granddaughter, Mary Anne Therese was also deeply involving in the distilling industry. She married John Locke, founder of the larger Kilbeggan distillery, and successfully took over the business operations of the distillery on his death in 1868.
Nicholas Devereux died in 1840 and was succeeded by his son, also known as Richard. By 1881 the distillery was in the name of Nicholas Devereux and Company with an annual output of 100,000 gallons of spirit.

The Devereux family was one of Irelands better known and wealthiest families, being the most powerful of the first Norman settlers in Wexford, their name taken from the town of Evreux in Normandy. By the 19th Century Richard Devereux, brother of Nicholas, owned the largest fleet of sailing ships in Ireland and brought the first cargo of Indian corn to Wexford during the Great Famine of 1847. As a gesture towards famine relief he also closed the distillery temporarily during that year to ensure distilling grain was used for food. Another brother, John Thomas, was MP for Wexford Borough from 1847 to 1859.

Bishops Water was one of Irelands smallest distilleries, yet throughout its nearly 90 years of existence it appeared to have been very successful. Their whisky was supplied to Wexford and surrounding counties, and due to its east coast location and proximity to Wexford harbour, was also exported to London, Liverpool and Bristol. It was too small, however, to compete with the big Dublin distillers, like Powers and Jameson, and given the difficult trading conditions of the early twentieth century the company went bankrupt and distilling ceased in 1914.

Bishops Water was constructed at a cost of £30,000 (Irish Pounds), the distillery was reported to be “reckoned the most perfect and complete of the kind in Ireland”. In 1833, just a few years after it opened, the distillery recorded an output of about 200,000 gallons per annum . However, output had fallen to just 110,000 gallons per annum in 1886, when the distillery was visited by Alfred Barnard as recorded in his seminal 1887 publication "The Whisky Distilleries of the United Kingdom". This was amongst the lowest output of any distillery operating in Ireland at the time, and far below the potential output of 250,000 gallons per annum reported when the distillery was offered for sale as a going concern in 1909. The distillery's whiskey, Barnard noted, was highly appreciated locally, and in the British cities where it was exported.
In the early 20th century, with the Irish whiskey industry in decline, Bishop's Water distillery, like the majority of distilleries in Ireland at the time, suffered serious financial difficulties, and entered bankruptcy. Following its closure, the distillery was initially converted into an iron works (Pierce Ironworks). However, much of the site was later demolished, and little evidence of the distillery still remains. Some mementos can still be found in locals pubs, while a stone archway known to have been extant in 1903 and now bearing the inscription "Casa Rio", possibly in reference to the location of a Pierce ironworks office in Buenos Aires, marks the entrance to the site where the distillery once stood, on Distillery Road.

According to Alfred Barnard, the British journalist who visited Bishop's Water in the 1880s, the distillery produced triple-distilled "old pot still whiskey", which was sold locally in Ireland, and also exported to London, Liverpool, and Bristol. At the time of his visit, the Malt Warehouses on-site contained over 16,000 barrels of pure malt. In addition, upwards of 3,000 casks of whiskey were undergoing maturation at the distillery. Whiskey from the distillery is also noted to have been used in the production of blended whiskeys in later years.

In the early 20th century, the distillery suffered financial difficulties. In 1907, an attempt was made to appoint a receiver, and in 1909, the distillery was put up for sale, but no takers could be found. In 1914, distilling eventually ceased at the site, and the remaining stocks were sold off.

Edermine House, the ancestral estate of the Powers family, to the ruins of Nicholas Devereux’s Bishop’s Water distillery, to the largely forgotten site where John Jameson’s younger relation Andrew Jameson once built a distillery
The buildings then stood idle for many years until around 1930 when the famous Wexford agricultural engineering firm of Phillip Pierce acquired the buildings and established a bicycle factory. Pierceʼs bicycles are immortalized as the favoured mode of transport of Michael Collins. This business, however, proved unsuccessful and it was closed during World War II. The complex lay abandoned for years. The main distillery buildings were demolished in the 1940ʼs and 50ʼs, the last structures coming down in the 1970ʼs. Today almost nothing remains except the entrance gate and part of the old distillery wall.
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Not only was Bishopʼs Water the smallest distillery in Ireland but it can also lay claim to being the only legal distillery where the owner was shot dead by an excise man. Customs and Excise men inspected distilleries on a regular basis. On one such occasion, Michael C Harvey, one of the original consortium, was accompanying an excise man who was carrying a loaded shotgun, not an unusual practice as birds were constantly attracted by the easy supply of grain. Seeing something fly overhead, the excise man swung his shotgun upwards. In so doing he shot Mr Harvey through the heart. The inquest determined that the shooting had been entirely accidental thereby reinforcing the public view that one should never mess with an excise man.

Early this year 2019 we have being in a unique position to be able to bring back the history of the ounce renowned brand Bishops Water Whiskey and produce a new Whiskey which is surrounded by this old historic back story.

22/03/2020

22/03/2020

22/03/2020

22/03/2020