THE PURSUIT OF PATIENCE
Powerscourt Distillery Managing Director Alex Peirce tells Siobhán Breatnach about the art of making whiskey
This dark sense of humour, coupled with a beautifully romantic view of whiskey-making, has led the Dubliner to his latest, and most spirited, venture yet at Co. Wicklow’s Powerscourt Distillery. “The first few years of a distillery are brutally difficult. It’s massively expensive with plenty of wobble moments,” he says. “You need a strong personality and to be very sure of where you’re going long term. What you have to do is lay down the best spirit you can today and build roads for the future, which can be 10, 20, 30, 40 years away.
“You know what you’re doing is good, you just don’t know how it’ll take expression or who’ll be enjoying it or what the context will be. There’s something very rewarding about that.” Sentimentality is non-negotiable when it comes to whiskey. “If you don’t have that you’re in the wrong industry,” he adds. “Some of our oldest casks come from oak trees that are themselves 100 years old and the barrel itself could be 50 years old.”
“You take huge sentimental pleasure in being in the warehouse and knowing you’re only a few feet away from liquid sitting in barrels for 21 years.” Managing Director at Powerscourt Distillery since its formation in 2016, Peirce – along with co-founders Ashley Gardiner, Gerry Ginty, and Powerscourt Estate owners The Slazenger family – have set about to create a product and story worthy of
Irish whiskey’s centuries-old reputation of excellence. Peirce’s own whiskey story goes back to his student days in Edinburgh when, through a university society, he was introduced not just to its taste to the fascinating process that goes into making the perfect dram.
Having arrived in the city to interview for a place at veterinarian school (he went on to study commerce which is another tale in itself) Peirce quickly fell in love with the place. “I went to Scotland back in the early 90s. Like the next eejit off the plane, I didn’t know the first thing about Scotland at all but having had a very enjoyable afternoon post-interview, I decided, whatever happens, I’m coming back here.”
Having joined the Water of Life Society – it was the bottles of whiskey on their stall that enticed him - together with friends he would visit local distilleries and enjoy the various lessons and stories. This in turn saw him introduce his father to the delights of the craft, who then, equally enthused, invested in a distillery on the Isle of Arran on the west coast of Scotland. A break in distilling
An awful lot of what we do … the harsh truth is, we probably won’t see it. But funnily enough, it’s that spirit that keeps bringing you back,” jokes Alex Peirce.
followed when Peirce moved to the United States to work in IT in 1996. “It was a lovely time in life,” he says. “Then 2001 happened and by 2003 I was between two different visas, not insurmountable, but I decided to come back. I had family back home, nieces and nephews growing up.”
On his return, he resumed his IT working life – though there was a brief stint helping a friend in the UK to set up a vet practice in Maidstone, Kent. (Some dreams never die!) His focus now, however, is firmly on making Powerscourt both a commercial and critical success. “What we’d seen in Arran, if you’re distilling whiskey, you need a whiskey distiller,” he says. “We wanted to get an expert distiller, somebody who would complement the location because it deserves it. It was always going to be Noel Sweeney (an award-winning master distiller and expert blender) if we could get him. We met for what was supposed to be a one-hour interview, about eight hours later and several cups of tea - and it was tea because he was driving – and really he interviewed me. We did the same the following Sunday and it was obvious we both wanted to work together and we had a match.”
With the legendary Noel in place and a plant build underway, with equipment from Forsyths of Rothes, the distillery soon produced its Fercullen range, which is currently being sold across Europe, Canada, China, and South Korea. “We acquired some aged whiskey that Noel himself had formerly distilled and figured that would see us through the first few years,” Peirce says. “We wanted something credible and genuinely authentic. We liked the idea of him releasing it as an expression of Irish whiskey, which is what we’re currently doing.”
Their own liquid was then put in barrels in August 2018 and in August this year, the first three-yearold spirit will transition from spirit to whiskey. “It’s a very exciting time,” says Peirce. “I don’t use the word passion. It’s a tired expression that’s lost all meaning. Our people are genuinely interested in doing what they do and making it as good as it can be.”
With dozens of new distilleries cropping up across
Ireland in recent years, Peirce is someone who worships at the altar of patience. “I think Ireland will always have something special,” he says. “Whiskey isn’t something you can just suddenly jump on. There are so many lessons on so many levels that have to be absorbed, applied, and perfected. Over the next decade, we’ll have an increased depth of newer Irish whiskey that’s had time to develop and mature, which will lead to its own levels of interest. “You have to be patient and understanding of the nature of the product you’re trying to create. That goes on long after the moment of distillation,” he says. But he jokes: “The truth of the matter is you have to be slightly mad too.” Yes, mad about the art of whiskey-making.