Cooley Distillery wins top award

Wednesday, 19 November 2008

Cooley Distillery was named World and European Distiller of the Year at the 2008 International Wine and Spirit Competition Awards banquet in London last night.

Cooley Distillery, Ireland's only independent whiskey distillery, won the European category and subsequently collected the ultimate award, World Distiller of the Year. This is the first time an Irish distiller has ever won this award.

The awards were accepted by David Hynes, Managing Director, at the 39th IWSC awards ceremony at the Guildhall in London.

In the European Distiller of the Year category, Cooley emerged as the winner from a shortlist that included Zwack Unicum plc (Hungary), Freihof Destillerie (Austria) and Thomas Hine & Co. (France).

As the winner of the European region award, Cooley advanced to the overall World category along with the other regional winners: Inverhouse Distillers Ltd (Scottish Distiller of the Year), Chivas Brothers (Global Distiller of the Year) and Distell Ltd of South Africa (Rest of the World Distiller of the Year).

The IWSC trophy for World Distiller of the Year is awarded to the producer who demonstrates the highest quality across a range of spirit brands.

Cooley have quickly established an international reputation for quality and diversity and this was acknowledged in 2008 when they won an unprecedented nine gold awards in this years IWSC competition, seven of which gained the further accolade of "Best in Class".

David Hynes, Managing Director of Cooley Distillery, said, "This success has been built over 20 years by our focus on innovation and quality. This focus has led to new products, new finishes and the reintroduction of the concept of peated malt to Ireland."

"As an independent company, we cannot compete with the large multinationals in terms of marketing and advertising spend but in terms of whiskey we produce the best in the world a fact that has been recognised by our peers," continued Hynes.

Every single Cooley whiskey entered into the IWSC received an award, which enabled the Louth based distiller to become the first Irish company to take the coveted title of Distiller of the Year.

John Teeling, Chairman of Cooley Distillery, said, "This is an amazing achievement for an independent Irish distiller. We are the first distiller in the 39 year history of the IWSC to win 9 gold awards and are honoured to be the first Irish distillery crowned as the World Distiller of the Year.

"The awards belong to the Cooley staff, all of them, who have created a world class Irish owned venture."

Source: Cooley Distillery