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The Irish Whiskey Club Powered by Community

We built an Irish whiskey club that brings people together via great whiskey experiences, unique whiskey releases and remarkable cask programs.

We believe that Irish whiskey brings people together and when that happens stories are told, sips are shared and friendships are made. The Stories & Sips Whiskey Club exists to bring people together from across the world with a shared love of Ireland and Irish whiskey.

 

The details

How it works

Stories & Sips Whiskey Club is a membership-based club where Irish whiskey fans can access educational materials, gain entry to online tasting events, meet-the-makers events, in-person events and be eligible to purchase exclusive club bottlings, shares in cask programs and whiskey tasting and sampler kits.

There is no minimum subscription term and members are under no obligation to purchase bottlings, cask shares or tasting kits, but of course we think it's more fun if you do!

Upcoming Club Events

Join fellow Irish whiskey fans from around the United States and around the world at our exclusive Virtual and In-Person Club Events.

The Whiskeys

Exclusive Club Bottlings

Members have the opportunity to purchase unique, exclusive bottlings of Irish whiskey multiple times a year. These won’t be available anywhere else and true to everything we’ll do, each club bottling will involve experiences for members at every step along the way.

Through associated distillery and brand events, we'll go behind the scenes of every bottling to get closer to the process, the people and the places associated with each unique release.

The Casks

Club Cask Programs

As a club member you will have the opportunity to participate in club cask programs multiple times a year. We'll purchase casks from interesting distilleries in Ireland and maybe even a few with deep Irish connections elsewhere that you as members can buy shares of.

Maybe you just want one or two bottles at the end of a cask’s maturation period or maybe you want a few more than that. Either way you’ll get to be part of experiences throughout the cask’s maturation whether that’s the ability to visit the distillery, take a tour and see the cask, take part in online events during its maturation or hear from the distiller who’ll share its progress.

Each group cask opportunity will bring different experiences and opportunities for members to come together for a bit of craic.

The Tasters

Quarterly Tasting Events

Each quarter you will have the option to purchase a tasting pack of three unique Irish whiskeys (3 x 50ml samples) that will be shipped straight to your door in time for an exclusive tasting event with the maker of the whiskeys. Your Tasting Pack may include whiskeys from different distilleries or they may be different expressions from the same company – we’ll work with distilleries to source exclusive samples as well as those already in the market so you have a chance to try new whiskeys before investing in a full bottle.

Meet

Meet The Makers

Each month as a member you’ll be invited to join a private “Meet the Makers” event online. This is a chance to turn on your video and open your microphone and ask questions of those who make the whiskey you enjoy. We’ll invite interesting people doing interesting things at distilleries and brands of all sizes and it’s a chance to hear up close about the finer details of the whiskey making process and perhaps even get advance word of an upcoming release or project. These will be small, initimate, personal events to help you get closer to the people of Irish whiskey. Don’t get too close though, you might frighten them.

Learn

The Stillhouse

As a member you’ll get access to new behind-the-scenes distillery videos, articles, interviews and features each month that help advance your whiskey knowledge and even plan your trip to Ireland. This will all live in a members area on our website we’re calling The Stillhouse. Want more info on a certain topic or whiskey? As a member you’ll get to decide what we feature and compile. We’ll start off small and the goal is for us to grow and grow with entertaining, engaging content to deepen your knowledge and interest in Irish whiskey.

You have questions, of course.

 

Your monthly membership fee entitles you to the following:

Invite to Monthly “Meet-the-Makers” Private Event

Full Access to The Stillhouse – with new monthly videos, interviews, educational features  and articles

Full Access to Quarterly Tasting Events with Irish Whiskey Makers & Brand Owners*

Opportunity to purchase each Exclusive Club Bottling (multiple per year)*

Opportunity to participate in each Group Cask Program 

Access to in-person meetups (when held)

Partner Discounts & Exclusive Club Offers 

 

You have the option (but are not obligated) to purchase exclusive Club Bottlings, shares in Club Cask Programs or Whiskey Tasting Packs for our Quarterly Tasting Events. These will incur a separate and fully transparent charge. 

 

The following items are not included in your membership fee and are an optional extra purchase should you decide to buy:

  • Exclusive Club Whiskey Bottlings
  • Shares in our Club Cask Programs
  • Shipping charges for our Whiskey Tasting Packs for our Quarterly Tasting Events (see separate FAQ for more info on this one)

Building a club takes time and money. There are web development and hosting costs, software service costs, we pay ALL our writers and contributors (no freebies expected here!) and we will be devoting a significant amount of time to producing great video content and bringing you the best events, experiences and whiskeys. If we didn't charge a modest membership fee we wouldn't be able to offer any of this. I know it can feel like there are more and more things to pay for each month but the good news is that we have 100s of hours of free content that you can access without being a member anytime - podcasts, Lock-in livestreams and more. We will also continue to be very active in growing our Irish Whiskey Fans of America Facebook Group which will always be free. And we'll have at least one Lock-in a month so you can get your fix of music, craic and whiskey. 

Each Quarterly Tasting Event will have an allocated number of Tasting Packs (3 x 50ml bottles of Irish whiskey). This number will vary depending on the whiskey and distillery but we will endeavor to have as many packs available as are requested. 

These packs will be brought you at cost price meaning they are not marked up or priced for profit. The costs will depend on the variable freight and shipping costs. Currently FedEx charges $20 minimum for legally compliant shipment of even a single miniature bottle of whiskey within the United States. Each of our  Tasting Packs so far have cost in the region of $20-$30 landed with you. 

No, not at all. Perhaps you already have these bottles on hand or you'd like to sit in and learn without the whiskeys. As a member you can join all Tasting Events, with or without the whiskeys. 

We work with a licensed alcohol retailer in Ireland who currently ships globally including all states in the United States. 

We'd love to have you as a member of the Club, no matter where you live. Our virtual events are typically hosted at 7pm Eastern United States time (midnight Irish time) but if that's too late, we always have a recording available the next day to watch anytime. 

We'll do our best to help get you your item within our legal capabilities. Failing that we will give you a full refund on any item purchased that cannot be delivered to you. 

We won't know the exact price until we finalize shipping and freight costs, angels share, etc for each release. We expect most bottlings to be under $100 though we may also have much lower and much higher options for those who wish to participate. Most important to us is that we bring you unique, extraordinary whiskeys as cost-effectively as possible. 

In an effort to bring down the cost of Cask Program participation, the Club will purchase entire whiskey casks from distilleries and divide up the cask into a number of shares. The number of shares will vary depending on the size of the cask. Each share will be redeemable (post-maturation) for one bottle of the mature cask. In some cases the price paid for a share will include all charges and fees up to the point of handing you your bottle(s). In other cases, there may be separate shipping/bottling charges. This will ALWAYS be made extremely clear PRIOR to the sale of Cask shares. We will be fully transparent and share all available information at all times. 

1 share of one Cask Program might cost you $40 while another might cost you $80. Again, we'll make all this clear prior to the opening of each Cask Program.  

We know that not everything is a fit for everyone so if you join and you decide it's not for you, simply shoot us an email and we'll cancel your membership and return the monthly fee you paid. We'd never expect you to pay for something you weren't happy with. 

We launched our first Stories & Sips whiskey, The Story, in 2020 in collaboration with Louise McGuane, founder of J.J. Corry. This was released in the middle of the pandemic as a community project to lift spirits and connect us all across the miles at a time when we needed as bit of community and togetherness. Everyone who was part of the project contributed their time, materials and resources to this project at cost or at a loss. No profits were sought, made or expected. It was a wonderful project that we all enjoyed that would have been a commercial failure at the price point we brought it to market at if everyone involved was paid what they deserved. 

As you will appreciate and understand, we would be unable to operate a Club at a loss, no matter how much we love this community and Irish whsikey!

We will produce at least one high quality video a month (Distillery visit/Guide to Whiskey Bars etc) together with multiple articles and features that will all live in the members-only area of the Stories & Sips website known as The Stillhouse. 

It certainly will not be going away! We expect it will only get busier and more fun as more and more members take to the group to chat about tastings, videos, content etc. We will invest as much time in the Facebook community as we have ever done. And maybe even more!

Great, we love questions. Send them to us on our contact page and we'll get you a speedy answer. If it's a good enough question we might even add it to our list of FAQs here! Imagine the the thrill...