BOPI 01IG/2022 DEMANDE D’ENREGISTREMENT D’INDICATIONS GEOGRAPHIQUES 18 Vie" - "Water of Life". Rather than using grapes and other fruits, the Irish used the local cereal crops as ingredients. "Uisce Beatha", the Irish for "Water of Life", was born. Throughout the years, as lreland became more anglicised, the pronunciation of "Uisce Beatha" ultimately evolved into Whiskey. The Red Book of Ossary dating from the early 16th century records uisce beatha being produced for consumption, but the art was still the preserve of the religious orders. lt is only following the dissolution of the monasteries in the Tudor period that whiskey ceased to be the drink of the elite. Queen Elizabeth I was known to be fond of the beverage, and she wasn't alone. lt is said that Peter the Great, Czar of Russia, mentioned that "of ail the wines, the Irish spirit is the best". The early 19th century saw dramatic growth in "Irish Whiskey/ lrish Whisky / Uisce Beatha Eireannach " from 40 distillers in 1823 to 86 in 1840. Demand grew rapidly with rising incomes and the availability of steam power led to more distilleries and bigger pot stills. A wide variety of production processes, e.g. one, two or three stills, and product types, e.g. malt, peated malt and products using varying percentages of malted and unmalted cereals were in evidence in the country. ln 1823, the biggest pot still recorded could hold just 750 gallons. By no later than 1867, Midleton Distillery had the world's largest still (a record that still stands today) with a capacity of 31,500 gallons. Between 1823 and 1900, the output of lreland's distilleries quadrupled. Dublin whiskey, with its six powerhouse distilleries, dominated the Irish and world stage, employing hundreds of workers with their own cooperages, stables, blacksmiths and carpenter shops and they exported around the globe. lndeed it was about this time that the Dublin distilleries, intent on forging their uniqueness amongst other whiskies from Scotland and provincial lreland, introduced the idea of spelling their whiskey with an e. This phase of history is regarded as a golden era of "Irish Whiskey / lrish Whisky / Uisce Beatha Eireannach ". The whisk(e)y industries in lreland and Scotland were extremely close for most of the 18th and into the early part of the 19th Century, with considerable movement of people between the industries of the two countries and some owners having distilleries in both. A major turning point in the history of "Irish Whiskey/ lrish Whisky / Uisce Beatha Eireannach " came in 1830 when Aeneas Coffey, a former lnspector General of Excise in lreland, developed and patented a more efficient method of distilling. "Coffey's Patent Continuous Distilling Apparatus" (effectively a column still) revolutionised the whiskey industry. Most of the "Irish Whiskey/Uisce Beatha Eireannach/lrish Whisky" distilleries did not embrace the new distilling technique until towards the close of the nineteenth century with the establishment of large scale double distilling facilities in Belfast, Dundalk and Derry. Dublin distillers, in particular, were proud of their distilled "Pot Still Irish Whiskey / lrish Pot Still Whiskey" which sold at a premium and traditional pot still distilling continued, usually in larger stills. A significant consequence of the new production method was that many smaller traditional pot still distillers struggled to survive against the cheaper continuous production afforded by the new Coffey still. ln some cases a 100% malted barley mash was used to produce "Malt Irish Whiskey / lrish Malt Whiskey", but most used a mash of malted barley, unmalted barley and other cereals grown in lreland to produce "Pot Still Irish Whiskey/lrish Pot Still Whiskey". ln the early 19th century both double and triple distillation took place in lreland. Towards the end of the century a majority of the pot still distillers adopted and modified the art of triple distilling whilst the balance continued the practice of double distilling. Just as "Irish Whiskey/ lrish Whisky / Uisce Beatha Eireannach " was riding a wave, the beginning of its decline was just around the corner. Recession and the onslaught of the World War I, found the Irish whiskey industry in the eye of a storm. ln 1916, the Irish Easter Rising happened along with the economic turmoil which accompanied it and in 1917, ail distilling in lreland ceased as ail barley was required for the war effort. Up to this time, the largest whiskey market in the world was the USA, which also happened to be the largest export market for "Pot Still Irish Whiskey / lrish Pot Still Whiskey". ln 1919, the Volstead Act was passed and Prohibition was enacted and overnight the single most important market for "Pot Still Irish Whiskey / lrish Pot Still Whiskey" was shut down. The Irish War of lndependence in 1921 was followed by the Irish Civil War from 1922 to 1923. As the 1930s came to a close, the Irish whiskey industry had been decimated. Further damage was caused when bootleggers during Prohibition era USA cashed in on the Irish whiskey reputation. Much of this whiskey was of such an extraordinarily poor standard that it caused every right minded drinker to treat with extreme caution anything which purported to be "Irish Whiskey / lrish Whisky / Uisce Beatha Eireannach ". By the time Prohibition had ended in 1933, the Irish whiskey industry was reeling and unable to cash in on the pent-up demand that the US market now represented. The Irish distillers had reduced their stocks of maturing pot-still whiskey, the reputation of which had been irrevocably damaged by the bootleggers, white the Scots were ready to expand with their stocks of ready available blended whiskey. To compound matters, in 1932 the recently emancipated Irish government entered into a Trade War with its former landlord and largest trading partner, Great Britain, culminating in exclusion to 25% of world markets. This meant that the remaining experts for "Irish Whiskey/ lrish Whisky / Uisce Beatha Eireannach " disappeared behind a wall of duties and levies. By 1953, there were only six distilleries on the island, mainly based on domestic demand. These were the Jameson and Powers distilleries in Dublin, Cork Distilleries Company (CDC) in Cork, Tullamore distillery in Offaly and the Bushmills and Coleraine distilleries in Northern lreland. By 1966, the number of distillers in lreland had dropped to four. This became two as Jameson, Powers and Cork Distilleries merged to form Irish Distillers, then known as United Distillers of lreland, and then finally in 1973 to one company when Bushmills merged into Irish Distillers. A new distillery
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