JJ Corry, The Gael Whiskey, 70 cl

In the 1880s, in the nearby port town of Kilrush, there lived a grocer and whiskey bonder named J.J. Corry. At the time, there were hundreds of distilleries in Ireland and grocers who were legally bonded whiskey wholesalers would arrive at the gates, fill their own casks with spirit, age it in rackhouses, blend it and sell it. J.J. Corry was a particularly enterprising bonder who experimented with finishes in the barrels he could acquire at the harbour - Bordeaux casks, port pipes, sherry. In the 20th century, Irish whiskey bonding declined along with Irish whiskey, until by 1975, when there were only two distilleries left on the island, no whiskey bonders and very few master coopers. Louise McGuane has revived the lost art of whiskey bonding, becoming the first licensed bonder in Ireland in living memory. She ages new-make spirit in the rackhouse on the family farm, located just six miles from the ocean on the west of Ireland’s Wild Atlantic Way.