Finally. An Irish whiskey for me.
Hamish pays a visit to his local Rademon Estate Distillery in Northern Ireland.
TL;DR - I’m in. This promising distillery betrays a future that stands in bright contrast to the large corporate mediocrity that’s been the recent standard.
In July this year, my friends Archie & Tony and I were looking forward to a distillery tour that wasn’t another visit to Bushmills. It was something different. As all three of us come from Northern Ireland, we now have a new local whiskey place to frequent over the coming years.
About 16 miles southeast of Belfast City on the outskirts of Crossgar town, in Co.Down you’ll find the Rademon Estate home to Shortcross Irish whiskey and Shortcross gin. Of course, we were here with an eye on the whiskey and were greeted by our host, co-founder and head distiller David Boyd-Armstrong.
It was a bright day when we arrived and as we pulled into the large distillery car park, we were met with a lovely view of the large, glass-fronted building, which allowed us a view into the beating heart of the distillery itself; the large copper pot and the beautiful column stills standing tall, with the Shortcross sign above them both.
The name comes from the translation of the town Crossgar from the Irish an Chrois Ghearr meaning 'the short cross'. A nice nod to the surrounding area and locality in which the distillery finds itself. Their emblem is the Shortcross penny and this large painted emblem in the distillery car park can be seen from Google Maps.
Credit: Google Maps
The distillery sits among the large and beautiful Rademon Estate which was purchased by the family of David’s wife and distillery co-founder Fiona Boyd-Armstrong. It’s made up of more than 500 acres of land which dates back to 565 AD, with the original estate house built in 1667. The grounds feature a large and grandiose obelisk in honour of the 19th Century estate manager, William Sharman-Crawford. It was also home to Queen Elizabeth II during World War 2.
Both David and Fiona are incredibly enthusiastic about wine and spirits. Sadly the climate in Northern Ireland doesn’t lend itself to the successful production of wine, so they both initially turned to producing Shortcross gin. While I’m not a gin fan, many of my US-based colleagues request that I bring this brand back anytime I head over for work.
David and Fiona took their inspiration for opening a distillery and transitioning into Irish single malt from the model applied by many in the American craft spirits movement. They were also the first Irish members of the American Distillers Institute. Prior to building the distillery, the couple made their way to various distilleries and wineries in North America to see the craft distilling movement for themselves.
There’s something that’s apparent when walking through the distillery with David; a passion and knowledge that manifests in his actions and phrasing; you can see how eager he is to make the best spirits possible. There doesn’t seem to be any expense spared throughout the distillery and it’s an impressive establishment.
Just before we kicked off our tour, the three of us took a seat in the tasting room and drinks’ hall where the distillery shop is located and where bottles of gin and whiskey are proudly displayed along the surrounding walls. Furniture art, built from recycled steel taken from various repurposed buildings on the estate, sit among impressive casks and various whiskey and distilling awards. It’s a comfortable backdrop to enjoy a drink and sit back to have a chat with friends.
Photography in the bottling room and cask warehouse was off limits, but we were still able to snap pictures of the distillery, visitor centre and still room. The layout is modern and remarkable in how close each operating and process room is to each other. Rademon is an accessible and compact distillery footprint compared to the likes of Bushmills or the impressive and pretty huge distillery at Hinch.
Entering the bottling room, it’s clear we weren’t simply walking into just another room as part of the paid tour - it’s clearly a working distillery scene with desks and apparatus laid out neatly, complete with detailed charts, stacks of bottles, hydrometers, measures and a whole stream of impressive stainless steel.
The still room was next up on the tour and the smell as we entered was superb; an enticing and sweet mixture of peat smoke, oats and doughy bread. Huge bags of peated malt were situated to our right as we entered and we were able to nibble a little of it; a nice accompaniment to the aromas of the still room.
I took notes as David took us through their own procedures and blueprint for whiskey making. They have around a six-seven day fermentation using various combinations of peated malts, non-peated and rye malts which makes up the main character of their Rye & Malt Single Malt release; a belter of a dram. The malt is all sourced from within Ireland.
Their washbacks feed two beautiful and recently added copper stills from Italian maker Frilli, which increases their production to 50,000 lpa per year. Rademon perform double distilling with only a little triple distillation.
David didn’t allude to additional distilling staff to assist with the spirits made, which suggests it’s his influence in every step of the process.
Their approach and attitude to distillation is “low and slow”, to quote David. The ABV is roughly 68-72% when the whiskey comes off the stills and each run would fill only about one and a quarter casks.
Toward the back of the distillation room is another 1071 litre copper pot still that’s used for their rum and Poitin. The source of water used at Rademon is 60m+ below the distillery, as the building is above an aquifer, which assists with sustainability and the overall character of the liquid itself. This water is used for distillation and reduction, bringing that final liquid to 46% bottling strength - an important aspect in my opinion.
As whisky enthusiasts, the main event is always tasting the whiskey and we were filled with anticipation as we were brought into the cask warehouse. More of that fragrant, delicious aroma filled the air, but here it was dialled up to 11.
Racks of casks were all around us, including ex-bourbon, virgin oak and a mixture of wine casks. David poured us a sample of their pot still whiskey and their peated seven year old; both at cask strength. I wasn’t able to take a sample home to dissect these further, but I can say that the liquid is very promising and unlike any Irish whiskey I’ve had.
The pot still had layers and a mouthfeel I’d never experienced before, while the peated was an absolute champion. The fragrance and captivating aromas around us were apparent in the liquid we tasted and I hope these will be released as part of the core range. It would be great to have cask strength versions available. It was magical and something that makes me very excited about the future of this distillery and their maturing stocks.
We ended our walk around with a pour of the core range Malt & Rye, along with their beautiful Poitin. Again, sipping whiskey in such an open plan tasting room rounded off a fun and detailed tour of the distillery and operations.
A huge thanks again to David for his time to take us around the distillery and talk to us about their craft, process and for letting us sample some of the exciting liquid. It was a fabulous experience to taste their core range whiskey with the head distiller himself.
Archie picked up a bottle of the Rye & Malt cask strength and the three of us did a bottle split which will be an upcoming review from Archie and I, as well as a look into some of their other releases that I’ve enjoyed.
With such expansion and innovation for Irish whiskey over the past decade, if you find yourself in or around Belfast, there are now more experiences to take part in that are a welcome departure from those typical Bushmills tours that have, by comparison, become a little perfunctory. Instead, get yourself down to Crossgar.
It’s a fabulous compact distillery in beautiful estate grounds. You’ll be guided around by an enthusiastic and passionate spirit maker who is striving to produce the best whiskey he can, and you can taste their products today, alongside their ever-popular gin range.
It’s a distillery I’m enthused about and proud to live close to. I genuinely can’t wait to see what else they have in store. Finally, this Northern Irishman has a whiskey to be excited about that isn’t Scotch. It actually comes from the island of Ireland.
Big shout out to Archie for organising this for the group.
HM
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