Distillery
Knappogue Castle
In County Clare, Ireland, stands a fifteenth century fortress built by Clan MacNamara in 1467. It sat in ruins for centuries until Mark Edwin Andrews bought it in 1966, and his wife Lavone, an architect, restored it stone by stone. Andrews did not stop at the building. He began collecting casks of Irish pot still whisky and aging them under the Knappogue Castle name. That hobby grew into a full brand. Today it continues through single malt whisky sourced from Cooley Distillery, giving a lighter, fruitier style than many blended Irish whiskies. His boldest bottling was Knappogue Castle 1951, whisky distilled at the long closed B. Daly Distillery and left to mature in sherry casks for thirty six years before release in 1987. It remains one of the oldest Irish whiskies ever sold commercially.
