Beam to buy Cooley, Ireland's last indie

[Jono]

http://www.suntimes.com/business/9479472-420/beam-to-buy-irelands-cooley-distillery.html

Beam to buy Ireland’s Cooley Distillery

BY ASSOCIATED PRESS December 16, 2011 9:44AM

Well, that is sad but we can hope Beam knows how to enhance Cooley without destroying the brands: Greenore, Kilbeggan, Tyrconnel, Connemara etc.

If this was discussed earlier, I did not see it. Rafly mentioned it during his end of the year vlog.

[p_elliott]

Yes it is talked about on here briefly on general Bourbon thread

[MJL]

I like Irish whiskies and can never quite understand why they do not seem to be able to compete with the Scotch and Bourbons of the world. I think the more of the Irish spirits that people try the more they will like it. That said, if Beam can use its marketing and market share to further expose drinkers to Irish whisky I say this is a good thing.

[boss302]

*sigh*

I'm REALLY surprised that Sazerac Co. let this one go.

But, then again, Beam has enough money to do whatever it wants. But, as long as they're not as big as DiaGeo (owner of Bushmills) and Pernod-Ricard (owner of Irish Distillers Group), they apparently felt the need to expand into Irish whiskey, and Cooley was the only pathway toward that end.

Any word from anyone as to how close Tullamore is distilling their own spirit? They were interested in splitting off of Irish Distillers and becoming independent, hence their use of Cooley for their Single Malts, IIRC.