Cooley Distillery — County Louth Single Malt Whisky

Cooley Distillery is an Irish whiskey distillery located near Riverstown on the Cooley Peninsula, County Louth, Ireland. It was founded in 1987 and is currently owned by Suntory Global Spirits (Beam Suntory). Cooley was the catalyst for Ireland's modern craft whiskey revival, becoming the country's first new distillery in a century and, for years, its only independent Irish-owned producer.

History

Cooley Distillery was established in 1987 by Irish entrepreneur Dr. John Teeling, who converted a disused state-owned industrial alcohol plant on the Cooley Peninsula into a whiskey distillery. At the time, Irish whiskey production was dominated by a small number of large groups, and Cooley's arrival broke that consolidation, giving Ireland its first genuinely independent distillery in generations. Rather than following the triple distillation typical of most Irish whiskey, Cooley adopted double distillation, giving its spirit a character closer to Scotch malt whisky. This allowed the distillery to produce both peated and unpeated single malts, as well as grain whiskey for blending.

In 1987 Cooley also acquired the assets of the historic Kilbeggan and Locke's whiskey brands, and it later helped revive distilling at the old Kilbeggan Distillery site in County Westmeath, which resumed limited production in 2007 using spirit initially distilled at Cooley. Under Teeling's ownership, Cooley built a strong reputation for quality, winning numerous international awards, including "European Distiller of the Year" (2008 and 2009), IWSC "Distillery of the Year" (2008), and Malt Advocate "Distillery of the Year" (2010).

In January 2012, Beam Inc. acquired Cooley Distillery for around US$95 million, bringing it into a major international spirits portfolio. When Suntory Holdings purchased Beam in 2014, Cooley became part of what is now Suntory Global Spirits. Since the change in ownership, the site has operated primarily as a production facility, with public visitor access to the distillery itself now limited.

Quick Facts

• Region: County Louth, Ireland
• Founded: 1987
• Owner: Suntory Global Spirits (Beam Suntory)
• Status: Active
• Stills: 2 pot stills (16,000 litres each) and 3 column stills; double-distilled

Core Range

Cooley's distillate underpins several well-known Irish whiskey brands. The Tyrconnell is an unpeated single malt bottled at 40% ABV, with cask-finished variants also available. Connemara is a distinctively peated Irish single malt, unusual for the category, typically bottled at 40% ABV. Kilbeggan blended whiskey and Kilbeggan Single Grain (previously marketed as Greenore) draw on Cooley's grain whiskey production, alongside the 2 Gingers blended whiskey brand. Kilbeggan Distillery Reserve Single Malt is bottled at 40% ABV, and Kilbeggan Small Batch Rye at 43% ABV.