When Jameson, the best-selling Irish whiskey in the world and the fastest-growing published the latest results in the first half, there is a lot to drink.
After the record 2021-22, overall sales increased by 11 percent. And the figure for the US – which accounts for 40 per cent of the market – is up 8 per cent.
For the following new producers, cracking the US market has long been considered “the holy grail”, said John Cashman, head of brand and new product development at the five-year-old distillery, Powerscourt. “It’s like Sinatra, if you can make it, you’ll be anywhere.”
The reason is simple: the US is the largest market for the “emerald spirit” and, according to new data, Irish producers have a better shot than ever in their ambition to overcome the sales of Scotch whiskey there, by volume, by 2030.
More than 6.1 million 9-liter cases of Irish whiskey were sold in the U.S. last year, an increase of more than 1,150 percent in the past 20 years, according to the Distilled Spirits Council of the United States.
That translates to $1.4bn in sales value. Sales in the US – where the prohibition of the last century did serious damage to drinks that had dominated the market – Irish whiskey could exceed 1 billion euros in exports for the first time.
It was “an important milestone in the renaissance of Irish whiskey”, said William Lavelle, director of the Irish Whiskey Association.
Irish whisky, considered the favorite tipple of Elizabeth I and Russia’s Tsar Peter the Great, still has some way to go to close the global gap with Scotch, which reports record exports of £6.2bn by 2022.
But “Irish is growing faster than any other major whiskey type between 2016 and 2021,” said Humphrey Serjeantson of drinks market consultancy IWSR. “We expect that growth to continue.”
A dozen years ago, there were only four distilleries on the island of Ireland, with global sales of less than 5 million cases.
The number of distilleries has increased tenfold and worldwide sales now exceed 14 million cases. Although Northern Ireland – home to the famous Bushmills distillery – is part of the UK, whiskey is open as an industry across the island.
To meet the forecast demand, 3.5 million barrels have been matured across the island and distillers are increasing their production to produce premium and innovative products.
“You have to be innovative and experiment all the time – that’s important,” said Roger Duggan, general manager of Powerscourt, which won two gold medals at the Irish Whiskey Awards last year. Despite its relative newcomer status, when it set up a distillery it also bought old stock to be able to offer old whiskey, a standard practice in the industry.
Jameson, the world’s best-selling Irish whiskey and part of the French Pernod-Ricard group, dominates the market. It sold 6.4 million cases in the first half of this year, including 2.5 million in the US, after a 22 percent increase in 2021-2022 recorded sales of 10.4 million cases.
But Powerscourt, located in the rolling hills near Dublin in a historic estate owned by the Slazenger family, is one of the new generation of distilleries that try to give Irish whiskey a younger, hipper image of its tweedier cousin across the sea. Distilled with three Irish whiskeys, proponents claim, it creates a mellow drink that can be used for cocktails as well as sipping.
The milder climate also imparts its own flavor, experts say, and some are still made using the traditional “pot still” process — copper pots originally used to ferment raw barley to avoid the 18th-century tax on malted wheat that was imposed. England.
Paul Corbett, manager of the Powerscourt distillery, said that “global tastes are changing and Irish whiskey has the flexibility to adapt to these new tastes”.
The focus on expensive products has also helped Irish whiskey carve out a niche. The Distilled Spirits Council said consumers wanted a “trade-up” and that sales of US premium and super premium Irish whiskeys had increased by “1,050 per cent and 2,769 per cent respectively”. [in volume terms] since 2003.
“The premium-and-above segment has a higher share of total volume in Irish whiskey than in Scotch,” Serjeantson said.
Although Irish whiskey is a long way behind Scotch in global sales, according to IWSR data, it has an edge in the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Zambia and is much faster than its competitors almost everywhere.
“It’s easy to grow quickly from a smaller base,” says Fionnán O’Connor, author A Page Two: Irish Single Pot Still Whiskey. “But it continues to grow, which is amazing.”
Irish distillers have not been able to compete with their aging stocks of Scotch whisky, which can command very high prices.
“So I think Irish will overtake Scotch in the US by 2030,” Serjeantson said. “But in volume, it’s definitely doable.”
Besides the US, Nigeria has emerged as another high growth market, led by an expanding middle class. Experts say the recognition of established brands such as Jameson, Tullamore Dew and Bushmills is helping newer distilleries gain customers.
However, the war in Ukraine will probably knock 7 percent of total Irish whiskey sales going to Russia and Ukraine.
“The US and Europe are still the anchor markets,” O’Connor said. “But Ireland looks beyond those two strongholds.”
“I always think the best is yet to come.”