So Two Stacks Irish whiskey. We use the bottle to help us tell the story of Two Stacks Irish whiskey. So whether you're in an elevator, in a broom closet, or standing next to somebody who wants to hear the story, the bottle is all you need to tell that story.

We start on the front of the bottle where you see these two stripes, and these are the two stacks which are a visual representation of the two smoke stacks or the two chimney stacks that were part of the old Dundalk distillery.

Dundalk is in the same part of Ireland as Newry, where Two Stacks is located, between Dublin and Belfast on the east coast of the island of Ireland. There’s a lot of distilling history in that part of Ireland and the history books tell us that from 1708 all the way through to the mid-1920s the Dundalk distillery was a powerhouse in Irish distilling. It closed down between 1926 and 1929 and while the smokestacks are long gone, the bricks from them were used in the building of local houses. In 1994, the old grain store became home to the Louth County Museum, and another old distillery building now houses the Dundalk Public Library.

The story goes that back in the day, the two smokestacks at Dundalk distillery were used to guide the ships into Dundalk harbor.

You'll also see in the logo a representation of the North Star and we know that the north star has guided mariners around the planet for, I suppose, decades, centuries and millennia. In modern usage, the concept of a "North Star" is used in business to represent a guiding vision or goal that helps to align actions and decisions.

Back of Bottle

We then take you to the back of the bottle, where we proudly call out Bonders and Blenders. Bonding is that old Irish craft of sourcing spirit from a local distillery or distilleries and aging it under bond in the bonders facility. Now, that facility as I call it, was a pub, or a grocery store or a hotel back in the day. The Bonder would have had a bonded license from the government to age this spirit in their bonded facility.

Another interesting snippet of history is that back in those days, in the late 1700s and into the early to mid-1800s, most Irish distilleries did not bottle their own whiskey as they focused on the production side of whiskey making. So they would sell their whiskey in casks for export, and they would also sell it in casks to bonders.

Blending is the art of pulling together all of those bonded casks to create a consistently balanced and flavorsome whiskey whether it be a Blended whiskey made from multiple styles or a Grain or Malt whiskey and the differing components that go into that.

Bonding was a very important part of the Irish whiskey industry, helped by the Excise Act of 1823 which allowed for the storing and ageing of whiskey under bond. This allowed Bonder’s to defer the payment of duties on alcohol until they sold it, which helped greatly with cash flow.

Bonding died out in the 1920s and 1930s as the Irish whiskey industry started its downward slide but has been revived in recent years at Two Stacks. In its modern guise, Bonders are loved by the distillers as they get paid once the new make spirit leaves their bond.

In addition, it allows Bonders a rich canvas to paint flavors onto as they are not restricted to one type or style of whiskey. At Two Stacks, we currently source from 17 of the 50 distilleries on the island of Ireland and have commissioned bespoke distillations that are happily ageing in our Bond at this time.

The Company

So Two Stacks as a Bonder and Blender was founded in 2020, by The Lads, as we call them. You've all heard of LSD, so think of that as an easy way to remember their names. So we have Liam, Shane, and Donal, and they each bring a different skill set to Two Stacks, in addition to great palates, which help with blending.

One of the guiding and founding principles of Two Stacks is transparency. Now we have done a great job in Ireland, over the last number of years, of convincing the world that all of our whiskey is triple distilled and smooth! And while true in some cases it is literally just the start of our whiskey story in Ireland.

What you will notice when you look at each and every bottle from Two Stacks is that we will let you know what is in that bottle. We will give you a breakdown of the styles that go into our Blended whiskeys as well as letting you know the component parts of the whiskeys that go into our Grain or Malt whiskeys.

The other thing of note when we talk about the bottle, is the bottle itself, as it’s made from 70% recycled glass. We are doing our bit at Two Stacks to lessen our impact, and recycled glass is one of the things that we do. Given how our story is told through the bottle we also encourage you to use your empty Two Stacks bottles as water bottles. Scrape off the label using some hot soapy water and use the bottle to keep telling the Two Stacks story long after the whiskey has been drunk.

Sláinte