Stone Soup Irish Poitín from Killowen Distillery
Killowen Craft Distillery in Northern Ireland has launched a novel Poitín in a drive to increase awareness and sales especially in international markets of the legendary white spirit.
The small distillery, which is run by master distiller Brendan Carty and based in the iconic Mourne Mountains at Rostrevor in county Down, is also gearing up for its first distilled Irish whiskey.
Brendan explains: “As excited as we are about this, we also have a 2022 target to revolutionise Poitín and people’s attitudes toward it with a number of exciting releases. 2022 is now ‘The year of the Poitín’ at Killowen.”
The company has now added Stone Soup irish Poitín (500ml and 55%ABV) to its existing portfolio of limited edition whiskeys and premium gins.
Brendan continues that Poitín shouldn’t be seen as a whiskey but instead as a “small batch premium spirit category”.
Killowen’s Poitín is distilled from turfed malted barley, un-malted barley, turfed malted oats, malted wheat and malted rye.
He explains that the quirky Stone Soup brand can be traced back generations to an established folk story in eastern Europe about sharing food, a moral regarding the value of sharing especially food and drink. “Ultimately, it tells us of two types of people, a powerful influential figure, removed from the reality of the world who suddenly finds he is unable to feed himself until a normal everyday person decides to make him a delicious bowl of soup using only a small stone,” Brendan explains.
“The same disassociation today between some and the reality of our native spirits has inspired this bottling,” he adds.
“To comply with legislation, Poitín must be stored for a period not exceeding ten weeks and the labelling may not refer to casks, maturation, or aging on the label, presentation, marketing or packaging material,” he says.
“As is with any creative profession, be it, for instance, architecture or distilling, an abundance in restrictions can help to bring forth the best creativity and this Poitín is certainly up there with the best,” adds Brendan.
The traditional white spirit was controlled from the 16th century. In 2008, the spirit was accorded Geographical Indicative Status by the EU Council and Parliament, meaning the spirit can only be described as Poitín when distilled on the island of Ireland.
Stone Soup is on sale from Irish Malts, Celtic Whiskey Shop and other quality outlets in Northern Ireland supplied by Anzac Wholesale and also in Great Britain through Umbrella Project.
