Ireland: Dublin – Temple Bar
Irish whiskey is the quintessential, if not paramount, part of Ireland. In fact, the word “whiskey” come from the Irish “uisce betha” (“water of life”). The whiskey was invented by monks in Ireland as far back as the 12th century and fist fully documented in 1405. In the 18-19th centuries, whiskey was the most popular drink in the world, with 60% of world supply produced in the small area of Dublin triangle. More then 1000 distilleries came and went in Ireland, with the industry going into steep decline so that by 1972 only one distillery was left as a complete monopoly. This monopoly was broken in 1985 by the Irish academic and entrepreneur John Teeling who bought a schnapps factory and converted it to a state of the art whiskey distillery (later bought by Suntory for a massive premium). The Irish whiskey industry exploded after that and in 2015 John Teeling’s two sons launched the first new distillery in Dublin – Teeling Distillery – which in 2019 claimed the title of World’s Best single malt whiskey. So we had to come and tour and sample this! And… drumroll – we go to actually meet and chat with the legendary John Teeling himself, full of energy and charisma at his 76. John Teeling, besides breaking the whiskey monopoly in Ireland, also launched 10 companies listed on London stock exchange! I wanna be like him when I grow up – what an honor!
