In order to mark the 50th anniversary of the Grand Canal's closure to commercial traffic in 1959, to celebrate the achievements of the boatmen who worked the commercial boats and to promote the restoration of the Kilbeggan Line, the combined muscle of Cooley Distillery, Inland Waterways Association of Ireland (IWAI), Heritage Boat Association (HBA), 107B restoration barge project, Kilbeggan Harbour Amenity Group and the Irish Whiskey Society (IWS) shipped two whiskey casks by canal from Locke's Distillery in Kilbeggan to Dublin for the first time in more than 50 years.

This entailed moving the cask down the (still dry) Kilbeggan Line by vintage truck and horse and cart to Ballycommon on Saturday, 29th August, 2009 as that year's "Kilbeggan Challenge". There, it was loaded on to the former commercial canal boat "107B" which transported the cask to Dublin and on to a celebration with the former Canal Boatmen to mark the 50th anniversary of the end of the commercial era on the canal.

The casks arrived in Dublin on October 5th and were formally welcomed by Dublin's Lord Mayor on the 6th.

The full story and lots of photos can be seen here.

Locke's "Grand Crew" Single Malt, Single Cask

For our purposes, we wanted to bottle the contents of a good cask which we would then transport to Dublin by canal. Given that no two casks will ever be exactly the same, a careful selection process was required. On May 29th, 2009, seven members of the Irish Whiskey Society gathered to select a suitable cask by tasting samples from several casks.

After much deliberation (documented here), casks K00/06 nos. 696 and 700 were selected. While we originally intended to bottle just one cask, such was the interest that we bottled a second too. Each is a superb 9-year old malt whiskey, distilled in 2000 and matured at Kilbeggan since then in a first-fill ex-bourbon cask.

The whiskey was released as Locke's "Grand Crew" Irish Whiskey. It is a single cask, single malt whiskey. It was bottled at cask strength (almost 60% ABV) as this is the strength at which whiskey was typically shipped in cask by canal. Cask 696 yielded 149 litres or 216 standard bottles while cask 700 yielded 233 bottles.

Of Cask 696: our tasters found "a fascinating nose, quite floral with hints of peach, apricot and lemongrass, as well as some grassiness" when nosed at 20% ABV. At 40%, the whiskey offered an interesting array of exotic fruits, peaches, apricots, dried pear, almonds, grassiness and some malt.

We're honoured that our Locke's "Grand Crew" is included by Jim Murray in his 2010 Whisky Bible and we're truly delighted that the whiskey was well received by him. Jim refers to it as a "near faultless little cracker" and gave it 93.5 points.

Of cask 700: our tasters found it "complex on the nose, offering some citrus notes, leafiness and fruity acetic acid" when nosed at 20% ABV. At 40% the whiskey offered some pepper, apple pie, nuts and pear drops as well as a pleasant oiliness and a malty finish.

Our sincere thanks to Cooley Distillery for their assistance in this project, for supplying us with a wonderful selection of whiskeys to chose from and for permitting us to bottle our casks as a Locke's whiskey.

Where can I get a bottle?

Interested in getting a bottle? A limited number of bottles were made available to the public via: