Founded in 2012 by Oliver Hughes, Liam LaHart and Peter Mosley the trio behind the legendary Porterhouse Brewing Company. Dingle was the first purpose-built whiskey distillery in Ireland in over 200 years. While Cooley reopened the door to independent Irish whiskey, Dingle was the one that proved a small, craft, independent operation could do it properly from a standing start.
The Vision of Oliver Hughes
Oliver Hughes had already pioneered Irish craft beer in 1996 with the Porterhouse, taking on Guinness and Diageo when everyone said it couldn't be done. By the late 2000s, with the craft beer scene properly humming, his attention turned to whiskey.
A former sawmill (and before that, a 19th century corn mill) on the edge of Dingle town was converted into a distillery, and the first spirit ran on 29th November 2012. To fund the build, Hughes launched the Founding Fathers programme 500 casks sold up front to whiskey lovers, investors and enthusiasts, each one painted with the buyer's name, fill date and cask number. It was crowdfunding before crowdfunding, and it built one of the most loyal communities in Irish whiskey.
Oliver sadly passed away in 2016, just before the first whiskey was bottled. His son Elliot now leads the company, and his spirit lives on in everything Dingle does.
The Stills
Dingle uses three hand-crafted copper pot stills, designed by legendary Scotch consultant John McDougall. The setup is a 5,000L wash still, a 3,500L intermediate still and a 2,500L spirit still, all featuring boil balls and long lyne arms to maximise reflux and copper contact. The result is a uniquely smooth, pure spirit.
Everything is triple distilled, the traditional Irish method, and there's a separate pot still affectionately known as "Oisín" that handles the gin and vodka production. Crucially, there's nothing automated. Cuts are still made by hand. Water is drawn from the distillery's own well at 70 metres depth.
The Whiskey
Dingle produces both Single Malt and Single Pot Still Irish Whiskey, all triple distilled, all using unpeated Irish malt:
- Dingle Single Malt – The flagship. 100% malted barley, matured primarily in ex-bourbon and PX casks. Now in its multiple-batch core release.
- Dingle Single Pot Still – The traditional Irish style. A mash of 60% malted and 40% unmalted barley. The fourth release was crowned Whisky of the Year at the London Spirits Competition 2021, beating entries from 70 countries.
- Wheel of the Year series – A nine-part limited edition series following the Celtic calendar — Samhain, Bealtaine, Imbolc, Lúnasa and so on — culminating in Lá an Dreoilín (Wren's Day), a nod to the Dingle festival on St Stephen's Day that gives the distillery its Wren Boy logo.
Redacted Whiskey 003: Dingle x Dick Mack's
When the chance came to bottle an 11 Year Old Single Cask of Dingle Single Malt distilled on 14th December 2013, first matured in an ex-bourbon barrel, then re-casked in 2021 into a Sauternes cask we knew it deserved something special. So we partnered with the legendary Dick Mack's Pub in Dingle to create our third Redacted Whiskey release: a single cask, distilled in the Gaeltacht, finished in Sauternes, and bottled at 52.3% ABV with natural colour and no chill filtration. Just 223 bottles in total.
The label is the first ever Irish whiskey bottling presented entirely in Dingle Gaeilge every detail of the spec, in the local dialect with artwork by Cork-based artist Silvio Severino capturing the otherworldly feel of the Dingle Peninsula.
This is Dingle in a glass: the land, the language, the people, and one hell of a cask.
A rare piece of Irish whiskey history and very much worth the wait.
Sláinte.
