Winemaker to roll out barrels for French Tom
THOMAS ‘French Tom’ Barton was a true adventurer. A proud Irishman, he explored the Mediterranean before setting up a shipping company in Bordeaux in 1725 to export wines to Ireland and the Netherlands. He quickly became the most important wine merchant in the region, having built an unrivalled reputation all over Europe.
His grandson and successor, Hugh, teamed up with a local businessman in 1802 to create Barton & Guestier. It is now known as Bordeaux’s oldest wine merchant.
Now a chance encounter on the other side of the Atlantic 300 years after ‘French Tom’ left Ireland is set bring new life to a Carrickmacross mill once owned by his family.
In 2014, Steven Murphy established his Old Carrick Mill distillery at an 18th century mill. The building is still known locally as Barton’s Mill because of the connection to French Tom.
Last April, Murphy was at a wine and spirits trade show in Orlando, Florida, promoting his gin when he had a chance encounter with his distillery’s past.
“At that trade show, my stand just happened to be located right next to the Barton & Guestier stand,” Murphy said.
“I got talking to one of their senior representatives who was amazed to hear that I was producing gin and whiskey back in Ireland exactly where some of the original Barton family members had lived.”
The Barton & Guestier representatives did their homework and when they realised Murphy’s story stood up to scrutiny, they were keen to establish a link to the company’s Irish roots in County Monaghan.
“We were delighted to learn of the connection,” said Barton & Guestier’s Petra Frebault.
“To mark this Barton link between France and Ireland, we will be supplying Old Carrick Mill with 50 of our vintage barrels for the production of whiskey at the old Barton homestead.”
Murphy will use the 350-litre barrels to produce a new whiskey alongside his award-winning gin.
Fine wine is infused in the wood in these barrels and, with locally sourced limestone filtered water and the whiskey’s key ingredients added during the distilling process, it will give the whiskey a very distinct flavour. The maturing process takes three to five years, but Murphy said the whiskey will be ready in time to coincide with Barton & Guestier’s upcoming 300th anniversary. Then he wants to restore Barton’s Mill, with its 20ft-diameter water wheel, French grinding stones, malting room, sluces and machinery — all of which remain intact.
Murphy is due to visit Bordeaux in September before the barrels will follow him home later this year after they are emptied. He hopes the link will help his business grow to employ 30 people locally and attract tourists to the area.
“I can use the malting room to gently heat our locally produced barley to bring it to the perfect germination point for whiskey distilling before it is ground on the original grindstones.
“This is something that will bring tourists here. It will be a unique attraction.
“Given Ireland’s pedigree in whiskey production, there is no reason why we cannot produce our own Irish whiskey tourist trail to bring tourists to the many whiskey producing locations throughout the country.”