Palace Bar re-launches own whiskey

Willie Aherne of the iconic Palace Bar in Dublin’s Fleet Street teamed up with Cooley Distillery to launch the pub’s own whiskey brand recently, the first pub in Ireland to do so since the mid-70s when it’s believed that the Brian Boru ceased bottling its own whiskey.

The official media launch of ‘The Palace Bar 9 Year-Old Single Malt Whiskey’ was held in the selfsame pub where Willie’s grandfather and his great-grandfather both bottled their own whiskies — and Willie has the bottles replete with labels to prove it.

Although originally founded in 1826, The Palace has been in Willie’s family since 1946 when whiskey was regularly bottled under the Palace Bar brand – a common enough practice among pubs throughout the ‘40s, ‘50s and ‘60s.

However with the development of on-site distillery bottling this practice disappeared only to be resurrected by Willie himself today.
The Palace Bar hosts the largest selection of Irish whiskies in the country, attracting whiskey connoisseurs from far and wide and offering over 100 brands for devotees to savour.

Willie hand-picked the particular 9 Year-Old single cask single malt through a panel of tasters comprising faithful customers with a keen interest in whiskies. 

As a result, the single cask of single malt containing 44 crates of whiskey was chosen and Willie is now supplied with this via bottles of cask-strength (46 per cent) whiskey by Cooley.

The bottle’s label depicts the exterior of the bar and pays homage to its great literary past.

Former patrons of the establishment include Flann O’Brien and Brendan Behan.