Review: Roe & Co Irish Whiskey
Roe & Co Irish Whiskey has an amazing story that starting in 1757 when Peter Roe built a small distillery on Thomas Street in Dublin, Two years later Arthur Guinness set up his brewery across the street. By 1887 the Roe family had expanded the Thomas Street Distillery to 17 acres. They were producing 2 million barrels of whiskey each year. At the time they were the largest distillery in Europe and one in four Dublin residents worked in a brewery or distillery. In the late 19th century and early 20th century things changed. Competition from Scottish blended whiskey, Prohibition in the US, the Irish War of Independence, and a trade war with Britain caused most Irish whiskey distilleries to close. In 1926 the Thomas Street Distillery itself closed. In 2014 Diageo sold the Bushmills Irish Whiskey brand. By 2017 they got back in the Irish Whiskey game with the release of a new Roe & Co Irish Whiskey, and the construction of a new distillery at the old Guinness power house on Thomas Street. That distillery opened in 2019. While their own distilled whiskey is barrel aging Master Blender Caroline Martin and five elite Dublin bartenders tasted 120 different prototypes before selecting Number 106. Prototype 106 is a blend of over 100 blended malt and grain whiskeys aged in bourbon barrels and non chill filtered before bottling at 90 proof. Read more