antiquesandartireland.com

A bottle of pot still 1916 whiskey from the long vanished Allman’s Distillery in Bandon, Co Cork comes up at the James Adam history sale in Dublin on  April 19.  Founded in 1826 Allman’s had a huge reputation.  It survived the famine and Fr. Matthew’s total abstinence campaign to become one of the most celebrated Irish whiskey producers. When the influential English journalist Alfred Barnard came to visit in 1886 he described it as the most successful rural distillery in Ireland. Barley was plentifully supplied by local farmers and the distillery had an internal village of around 200 employees including coopers, carpenters, coppersmiths and maltmen. The distillery imported specially sherry-seasoned casks from Cadiz. This is now common practice but Allman claimed to have been one of the first distillers in Ireland to do so.  The malting facility was second only to Guinness in Dublin. At a time when Irish whiskey was outselling Scotch by three cases to one Allman’s whiskey earned a popular following in Scotland and was a key brand there during the 1860’s.

According to Adams this particular example, bottled by the Nun’s Island Distillery in Galway,  may be the oldest unopened expression of Irish single pot still whiskey. The style called “Irish pot still” or “single pot still” whiskey is a uniquely Hibernian variety. It is defined by the grain ingredients, a mixture of malt with a fine grist of “green” unmalted barley for texture and spice.   Whiskey made in a pot still without the green barley is not, by this definition, “Irish pot still whiskey”. Originally introduced as a means of dodging the Malt Tax, the use of raw barley has been a feature of Irish whiskey since the 18th century, became ingrained in the taste and was retained even after the tax was repealed in 1880. Barnard describes how the distillery separated its barley into raw gristing and malting facilities and ran them through two distinct runs in order to make “both Old Pot Still Whisky, designated Irish, and Pure Malt Whisky, both of a superior quality”.

War, prohibition and competition from cheaper and more rapidly produced blended whiskeys meant Allman closed in 1925.  Trading as “Allman, Dowden and Co.”, its agents continued selling off stocks until 1939. In Bandon the Old Still Bar (converted from the distillery offices) proudly retained a bottle until 1971.  Most of the contents boiled away in a tragic fire that struck the pub that year.  This bottle is estimated at 6,000-10,000.