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Crafting Dair Ghaelach Kylebeg Wood
The process of creating this rare whiskey is centred around a journey to Kylebeg Wood on the Ballykilcavan Estate, near Stradbally in Co. Laois. The great Irish oaks chosen to house this release of your Midelton Very Rare Dair Ghaelach collection were decided on with care and expertise. Only the right Irish oaks could weave the desired flavours through this whiskey. The oaks that were chosen are not just special because of the whiskey they helped create, but because of their origins—planted after the last trees in their place were felled to build ships during the Napoleonic Wars over 200 years ago.
Once harvested from Kylebeg, the oak logs were shipped to the Spanish region of Galicia and the Maderbar Sawmills in Barralla where, for more than fifty years, the same family has been working with wood. Here, the wood was cut using the time-honoured craft of quarter sawing. Next, the precisely shaped and honed staves made the ten-hour journey from the sawmills to the Antonio Paez Lobato cooperage in Jerez, where they were laid out to dry naturally in the warmth of the Spanish sun. Fifteen months later, the Kylebeg oak staves were ready to be worked and yielded 42 casks, each was given a light toast to the specification laid out by Master Distiller Kevin O’Gorman.
Finally, the oak casks for Dair Ghaelach Kylebeg returned to Midleton from Spain, where they were filled with a specially selected range of fifteen to twenty-eight-year-old Single Pot Still whiskeys previously matured in American oak barrels.
The process behind this whiskey is a special one, but the taste is even more special.