TOM HUSSEY PHOTOGRAPHY takes us to Ireland to document a legendary brand. Historically distilleries in Ireland did not make Irish whiskey.  Instead, they sold their new make whiskey spirit to whiskey bonders who blended, aged, bottled, and sold the finished product.  That was the method for centuries until the 1930s collapse of the whiskey industry in Ireland.   

Enter Louise McGuane, a twenty-year veteran of the international liquor industry and the daughter of farmers who had worked the land in western Ireland for generations — literally from a time before records were kept. Louise didn’t want to be a farmer.  She did, however, want to find a way to reimagine her family’s farm.  Thus, because of her, whiskey bonding was to once again thrive in County Clare.   

As to the name of her whiskey, McGuane discovered there had been a very successful whiskey bonder named J.J. Corry working during the 1800s not three miles from her ancestral farm. She really liked the local history aspect, so J.J. Corry whiskey was reborn in 2012. 

Louise built a Bonded Rackhouse on her farm — the only one of its kind in Ireland.  To this she added a blending room and repurposed the farm’s 17th century farmhouse creating a wonderful tasting barn.  Then she began sourcing spirit from all over Ireland and turning it into the fantastic whiskeys of current day J.J. Corry.  J.J. Corry is a beautiful place making beautiful Irish whiskey in the old way.  If you have a chance, do make it a point to visit.  Sláinte!

See more images on the J.J. Corry story here. Follow us for more news and updates @dougtruppe.