West Cork Distillers
West Cork Distillers was founded by three lifelong friends Denis McCarthy, Ger McCarthy & John O’Connell in beautiful Union Hall in West Cork in the South West coast of Ireland.
Ger & Denis had been deep sea trawler men whilst John was a research & development scientist for a number of large blue chip companies.
This unlikely business partnership has resulted in one of Ireland’s most successful distilleries.
As none of the founders had a background in distillation, they were unencumbered by “how things should be done” and so used their Cork ingenuity and drive to figure every part of the process out themselves, as well as making their own stills by hand or undertaking complex repairs themselves that might otherwise prove costly.
The distillery has become a huge employer and lifeline in the town of Skibbereen with barely a family in the town not knowing someone working there.
Only Irish grains are used by West Cork Distillers in the production of their spirits and they even malt some of their barley onsite.