This Irish Whiskey Broke Records With Its $60,000 Sale in 2020, and After a 3-Year Hiatus, It’s Back
The Craft Irish Whiskey Co. released The Devil’s Keep for 2023. Its predecessor sold for $60,000 in 2020. (Photo: The Craft Irish Whiskey)
On Friday, The Craft Irish Whiskey Co. announced the second, hotly anticipated release of The Devil’s Keep. The inaugural Devil’s Keep launched in 2020 and broke the record for the most expensive debut whiskey in history, selling for $60,000.
For the 2023 edition, the brand followed an intricate aging regimen. The spirit was first aged in hand-chosen 200-liter bourbon-soaked American oak barrels, then moved to three-quarter-filled Tawny port casks made of French oak. It subsequently was transferred to Pedro Ximénez Sherry American oak barrels of varying sizes before being transferred to a Hungarian virgin oak cask with heavy toast. After that, it was finished in 64-liter Pedro Ximenez Sherry American oak barrels.
Jay Bradley, founder and CEO of The Craft Irish Whiskey, and his team chose to release Devil’s Keep 2023 on Dec. 1, as an homage to the date of the spirit’s inaugural release in 2020.
“I’m extremely excited to finally be in a position to launch The Devil’s Keep 2023 — its predecessor was our inaugural release and enjoyed record breaking success, that I look forward to building on with this release,” Bradley said in a news release.
The Devil’s Keep 2023 will be presented in a custom-made case with a Japanese-style lock. Obsidian whiskey stones are included to chill the whiskey while ensuring it does not get diluted. The brand also tapped perfume maker Sarah McCartney to create an atomizer that contains the “essence,” of the angel’s share. It is also presented with a jar of malted barley from the malting house which was used over two decades ago to celebrate the spirit’s origins.
The Craft Irish Whiskey Co. claims Bradley’s palate drives the desire to create whiskeys that are lower in tannin and full of flavor, “to lean on a winemaking vernacular.” In August, The Craft Irish Whiskey Co. hired the World’s Best Sommelier to serve as its global brand ambassador, Raimonds Tomsons.
The brand claims that Bradley constantly tinkers with his whiskeys, assessing and tasting them throughout the maturation process.
“If I’m working with a new batch and feel like the flavor is coming along well, but there’s a little bit too much harshness on the back palate, then I’ll round it out, by putting it in a 250L cask and only half filling it, oxygenating the liquid and smoothing it out,” Bradley said. “Or with a batch that’s super smooth but just lacking a bit of depth of flavor – I’ll put that in a 64 L cask and fill it to the top to get maximum wood to spirit ratio…”
This combination of trial and error has been working for the offerings released by The Craft Irish Whiskey Co. As for Bradley’s process? Well, he describes it as, “a kind of alchemy – and that’s why my whiskeys are so exceptional.”
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