Copyright © HT Digital Streams Limit all rights reserved. Richard de la Poer Beresford and his family’s estate in Curraghmore, Southwesternelland. Photo courtesy of Curraghmore Estate Summary Curraghmore produces some of the world’s highest quality barley that makes the Irish whiskey unique “How does one address a spade?” Was the thought that swung through my head when I waited to meet Richard de la Poer Beresford, the Earl of Tyrone and heir of the title Marquess of Waterford. It turns out that I don’t have to worry too much about it, because 37-year-old Earl introduces himself as Richard when he walks into Pickwick’s at Delhi’s Claridge’s Hotel with a duffel bag bullying with Irish whiskey and just as many stories about his family. The family estate is Curraghmore in southwest Ireland, which is known for producing some of the world’s highest quality barley that makes Irish whiskey unique. The estate was part of the land award made in 1167 by Henry II to his ancestor Sir Roger le Puher. It is the oldest family home in Ireland and the largest privately owned property in Ireland running up to more than 3,500 hectares. Since Richard’s father, Henry Waterford, the current and 9th Marquess of Waterford, inherited the estate in 2015, several Irish whiskey headers have approached the family with requests to build a distillery on the site. Richard has always been a whiskey enthusiast and collector and the idea therefore intrigued the family. After all, Ireland is the original house of whiskey, they have grown barley on the estate, and the Irish whiskey has become popular for the past ten years. In February this year, I visited the Powerscourt Distillery, located in the Powerscourt Estate in Enniskerry near Dublin, which makes the lovely Fercullen Falls -Whiskey. The Estate’s Powerscourt gardens were arranged by National Geographic in 2010 as the third best gardens in the world, to Versailles in France and the Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew in the United Kingdom, and attracts more than 300,000 visitors per year. When I toured the visitor center, I understood the strategic nature of the location of the distillery, surely a reasonable part of the visitors to the gardens themselves. It is this kind of thinking as well as the focus on the revival of traditional techniques that have made the Irish whiskey a striking on the world scene over the past year. That Ireland is the first place where whiskey was created is a fact that even the Scots will acknowledge resentment. It is believed that Irish monks only made it in the 12th century and then transferred the knowledge to their Scottish brothers. Irish whiskey has historically used oats that add a creamy scent to the spirit. The Irish also choose for triple distillation instead of double as the Scots do, which will apparently lead to a smoother spirit. By the middle of the 19th century, nearly 100 distilleries were registered in Ireland, but the industry had deteriorated. Apart from the impact of world wars, a major reason for the slump in the US was one of the largest markets for Irish whiskey in the early 20th century. Irish independence from Britain in 1922 also affected access to the British market. When I first visited Ireland in 2008, there were only two operational distilleries, the Jameson Distillery in Middleton and Cooley’s Distillery in County Louth. When I returned in February this year, I found almost 50 distilleries producing Irish whiskey. All of this, along with the desire to diversify estate operations and increase cash flow, encouraged Richard and his father to start a whiskey business on their own in 2016. In the same year, they created Curraghmore Single Estate Irish Whiskey, a limited release pot, still from the history of the estate and an ‘estate-to-bottle brand’. Their whiskey uses barley and oats grown on the estate, which is ground and then sent to the great northern distillery to become in whiskey. Noel Sweeney, a 2017 whiskey Hall of Fame, is their master distiller and a blender with over 30 years of experience. Richard is eager to explore India as a market for his whiskey after his regular trips to India over the years to play Polo in Jaipur, Mumbai, Jodhpur and Delhi, giving him very influential friends to help his case. Flora, his wife, worked as a doctor in Tamil Nadu, so India is a well -known area for both. And the size of the market and the promise it has is also a draw: The export of Irish spirits to India was € 15.1 million in 2023, an increase of 105% over the previous year, with the bulk of this whiskey. Earlier this year, Richard introduced his second whiskey, the Mad Marquess – and he has a story to do with that he assures me is true. Henry de la Poer Beresford, the 3rd Marquess of Waterford, was a second son and never expected to inherit. Therefore, with none of the pressure of a title, he could afford to be a little party animal. One night in 1837, he and his friends returned home to the race on the horse one day. As he paid the toll, the Marquess saw a little red paint and decided to drop it over the toll gate, the toll holder and his friends as a Lark. They entered the city and hit paint on the houses and passers -by, ‘literally the city of red paint’, laughs Richard. With a story as good as it hidden in the family archives, it doesn’t need much for Richard to give his whiskey the name Mad Marquess, an accessible Irish mixed whiskey that one wants to see in shops and pubs in India soon. Vikram Achanta is founder and CEO of Tulho, a liquor training and consulting company, and co-founder of 30BestBrarsindia. Also read: Banu Mushtaq’s recipe for Gobi Manchurian catches all the business news, market news, news reports and latest news updates on live mint. Download the Mint News app to get daily market updates. More Topics #Features Read Next Story
The story of an Irish whiskey painting the city red
