Tullamore D.E.W: "May the roof above never fall in, and friends below never fall out"

In a stately lounge room, Kevin Pigott, Global Brand Ambassador of Tullamore D.E.W., prepares cold brew Irish Coffees, whilst educating on the finer details of the world-famous beverage. The name itself is mysterious, the often mis-interpreted D.E.W. referring to the initials of Daniel Edmund Williams, one-time apprentice and later owner of Tullamore Distillery. They’ve been making whiskey since 1829, with the current incarnation being the first new distillery constructed on a greenfield site in Ireland in over 100 years, and the first to operate in Tullamore since 1954.

After serving the perfect Irish Coffee- one part Tullamore D.E.W., three parts coffee, half a part sugar, topped with cream, a perfect balance of flavour in a six-ounce Georgian style stem glass - Kevin toasts - “May the roof above never fall in, and friends below never fall out” - flicks a switch and Bond-style, the wood-panelled wall slides back to reveal the Still House, complete with hand-beaten copper stills, constructed from Zambian copper and forged in Forsyth’s of Scotland.

Safe to say, the Tullamore D.E.W. Distillery Experience Tour is magnificently different. Numbers in each guided tour are purposely limited, so that all visitors can be looked after like VIPs and get to ask as many questions as they like, in a relaxed and homely atmosphere. The action-packed tour includes a welcome Irish Coffee, a visit to the Still House, a premium whiskey tasting of three expressions of Tullamore D.E.W., a chance for experimentation in the blending lab and the wonderful chance to taste whiskey straight from the cask in the Secret Warehouse Snug - the marvellously named ‘Dip-the-Dog’ experience.

To sample the latter, Kevin draws open a pint-sized door, through which we step, into a gargantuan warehouse, crammed with casks and casks of whiskey, fifty thousand to be exact, stacked from floor to ceiling. It’s a wonderful sight, think the final scene of Raiders of the Lost Ark and smells good too – whiffs of oak, cedar, honey, smoke and spice. Wandering amongst the towering stacks, Kevin informs that this is just one of ten similar on-site warehouses; so, by simple calculation, that’s half a million barrels on site – Whiskey Galore!

We emerge, slightly dazzled, into the warm Offaly sunshine, the resident gardener whizzes by on a ride-on lawnmower, tasked with tending flora and fauna amidst the site’s five thousand trees, planted on top of a quarter of a million tons of peat, extracted when Tullamore Distillery was constructed. It is a splendid feat of engineering, which encourages husks of hares, a gaggle of swans, waddling ducks and bizarrely intrepid chickens to make the grounds of the distillery home. As we stroll beneath buildings influenced by Japanese pagodas, Kevin explains that each year, over twenty-three million bottles of whiskey are dispatched from this rolling, green estate, spanning across almost sixty acres.

The Tullamore D.E.W. Still House

Later in a cross between an alchemist’s laboratory and gentleman’s club amid scents of musk, citrus, sea salt, green apple and pear; we sample Original Triple Blend Irish Whiskey, Tullamore D.E.W. Honey, 12-Year-Old Special Reserve, XO Caribbean Rum Cask Finish, 14-Year-Old Single Malt and 18-Year-Old Single Malt.

All this mighty stuff makes for a perfect afternoon in the home of the second largest Irish whiskey in the world. That’s some boast, considering there are over five hundred worldwide brands and the fact that Irish whiskey accounts for almost ten percent of global whiskey sales. It’s an enchanting place, this Tullamore Distillery, producing all three components (pot still, malt, and grain whiskey) of its Tullamore D.E.W. Triple Blended whiskey; then maturing it in thousands and thousands of casks, made in their own cooperage; finally bottling it in their own bottling plant, stamped with their groovy Irish Wolfhound logo; all under the shadow of the Slieve Bloom mountains, where the sacred water, that sparks the entire process, springs from.

Located just 90 mins from Dublin and a halfway point on the road to Galway, Clare or Limerick; the Tullamore D.E.W. Distillery Experience Tour makes for a perfect two-hour visit to the home of this sensational, world-class whiskey.

• You can book ahead online at tullamoredew.com.

The new edition of Best Of Ireland is available to pre-order now – also featuring Vogue Williams, Evanne Kilgallon, Niall Quinn, Andrea Mara, Robert Grace, Demi Isaac and more...