Darryl McNally: Master of The Liberties

In November 2019 I stood in the lobby of the Aloft Hotel in the Liberties area of Dublin city. For the first time in more than 70 years the roofs and buildings of four operating Irish whiskey distilleries could be seen - Pearse Lyons Distillery, Teeling Distillery, Roe & Co and the focus of this week’s podcast, the Dublin Liberties Distillery. In fact as I marveled at the return of distilling to Ireland’s capital, right on cue, a truck full of barley arrived, ready for Master Distiller Darryl McNally to turn it into single malt irish whiskey and I watched as its contents were magically emptied from the truck straight in through the wall of the Dublin Liberties Distillery. Darryl has spent his whole working life in Irish whiskey and the Dublin Liberties Distillery is his chance to put his very own stamp on whiskey that he’s been keen to make for years. In this episode of stories and sips, I have the pleasure of chatting with a master of his craft and a mentor to many up and coming young distillers. I was not going to let a chance to chat with a Master Distiller of Darryl’s calibre go to waste and made sure to dive deep into such topics as: - What Darryl believes makes for a good Master Distiller - What he considered when building his whiskey portfolio at Dublin Liberties Distillery - What it takes to build a distillery from the ground up - What a career at Ireland’s oldest distillery, Bushmills, taught him about single malt and running a distillery - What the DNA of his own whiskey is.