W&W Irish Whiskey Brochure 08.22 (1) - Flipbook - Page 16
The future looks bright
for traditional Irish whiskey
The IWSR (International Wine and Spirits Record)
predict the Irish market to continue to outgrow both
Scotch and Bourbon for at least another ten years.
Future
Irish whiskey sales are expected to exceed 13
million cases by 2020, doubling in size by 2030.
There are four main forces
driving the market’s growth:
1. Consumer trends –
young drinkers are
choosing brown spirits,
helping to make whiskey
fashionable again 22
2. Emerging middle classes
in developing countries
are buying luxury goods 23
3. Eastern Europe and
Russia are showing an
increasing appetite for
whiskey imports 24
4. There is increased
investment in Irish
whiskey production 25
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Irish whiskey is the fastest
growing spirit in the world
with exports having grown
300% over the last decade,
according to Irish food
board, Bord Bia.26
Irish whiskey also has
the benefit of exclusivity.
While Japanese whisky,
for example, can be blended
with whisky from
different countries, Irish
law only allows whiskey
distilled and matured in
Ireland to be sold as such.
The future for the Irish
whiskey market looks
incredibly optimistic.
In May 2019, Redbreast
released a limited-edition
bottle called the Dream Cask.
All 924 bottles had sold out
in under 14 minutes at a
cost of €340 per bottle. 27
21
In September 2018,
Teeling auctioned
its first bottle from its
new Dublin distillery.
Despite the relatively
early maturation age
of three years, the bottle
sold for £10,000. 28
New luxury Irish whiskey
brands have entered the
market and long-standing
brands are also releasing
expensive collectables.
An Irish whiskey also
won ‘Best Single Malt’
at the World Whiskey
Awards 2019. 29
All of this attention,
coupled with big
marketing budgets,
bodes very positively
for Irish whiskey.
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