Tullamore Distillery

Tullamore is a grain-to-glass Irish whiskey distillery in County Offaly, capable of producing all three components of its blends, single malt, single pot still, and single grain, entirely on site. It is the home of Tullamore Dew, one of the best-selling Irish whiskeys in the world, and its modern distillery marked whiskey production's return to the town of Tullamore after a sixty-year absence.

History & Heritage

The original Tullamore Distillery was established in 1829 by Michael Molloy in the town of Tullamore, County Offaly. Ownership passed to Molloy's nephew, Bernard Daly, and later to Daniel Edmund Williams, who joined as general manager and eventually became owner of the distillery. The "D.E.W." in Tullamore D.E.W. comes directly from his initials, a naming convention the brand still carries.

The original distillery closed in 1954, and the Tullamore Dew brand was sold to John Powers & Son in 1960. Production shifted to the Midleton Distillery in County Cork in 1970 following the merger that created Irish Distillers, a period during which whiskey bearing the Tullamore name was made many miles from the town itself. The brand changed hands again in 1994, sold to C&C Group.

In 2010, the Tullamore D.E.W. brand was acquired by William Grant & Sons, the Scottish family-owned distiller behind Glenfiddich and The Balvenie. William Grant & Sons built a new Tullamore Distillery in the town, which opened in 2014 and returned whiskey production to Tullamore for the first time in sixty years. In 2017, the company added an on-site grain distillery and bottling plant, giving the facility full grain-to-glass capability. Tullamore Distillery is owned, as of July 2026, by William Grant & Sons.

The Whiskey

Tullamore's defining production feature is its completeness: it is one of the few Irish distilleries able to produce single malt, single pot still, and single grain whiskey all under one roof, then blend them on site. Every spirit made at the distillery is triple distilled, a hallmark of the Irish style. Six handmade copper pot stills, three wash and three spirit, handle malt and pot still production, while three tall column stills produce the grain whiskey.

The mash bills vary by whiskey type: single malt uses 100 percent malted barley, traditional Irish pot still whiskey uses a mix of malted and unmalted barley, and the grain whiskey mash runs roughly 95 percent wheat with 5 percent malted barley. Water for the entire process is drawn from the nearby Slieve Bloom Mountains. Maturation takes place across ex-bourbon and sherry casks, and several expressions undergo triple cask maturation across ex-bourbon, ex-Oloroso sherry, and traditional refill wood.

The Reserve Whiskey Library carries five Tullamore expressions, including Tullamore Dew Irish Whiskey, the flagship triple-distilled blend of pot still, malt, and grain whiskey matured in ex-bourbon and sherry casks; Tullamore Dew 12 Year Old Special Reserve, aged 12 to 15 years in the same cask types; and Tullamore DEW 18 Year Single Malt Irish Whisky, a triple-distilled single malt matured 18 years in ex-bourbon casks and finished across ex-Oloroso sherry butts, ex-port pipes, and ex-Madeira drums.

Why It Matters

Tullamore's expressions have won consistently at major international competitions. Tullamore D.E.W. 12 Year Old Special Reserve took Gold for Best Irish Blended Whiskey aged 12 years and under at the 2020 World Whiskies Awards, plus Gold Outstanding at the International Wine & Spirits Competition in 2021. The Tullamore D.E.W. 18 Year Old Single Malt has an especially strong record, including the Worldwide Whiskey Trophy at the 2018 International Wine & Spirits Competition, a Silver at the 2020 World Whiskies Awards for Best Irish Single Malt aged 13 to 20 years, and the Irish Whiskey Taste Master title at the 2021 Irish Whiskey Masters. The original Tullamore DEW blend won the International Spirits Challenge Trophy in 2005 and continued collecting Gold medals at the International Spirits Challenge and World Whiskies Awards through 2019 and 2020.

For those who appreciate good whiskey, Tullamore represents a rare case of a historic Irish brand reclaiming its own hometown: after sixty years of production happening elsewhere, the whiskey in the bottle is once again distilled, blended, and largely matured in Tullamore itself.

Visiting the Distillery

The Tullamore D.E.W. Distillery offers guided tours of its visitor centre, housed in a former bonded warehouse that belonged to the original distillery. The experience runs Monday through Saturday from 11am to 4pm, and Sunday and Bank Holidays from 11am to 3pm, and includes a welcome Irish coffee, a visit to the still house, an experiment in the blending lab, and a tasting straight from the cask in the "Secret Snug" within the maturation warehouse, along with a sampling of three award-winning whiskeys. Visitors can also create and purchase their own blend. Tours are limited to 12 people per group, restricted to visitors over 18, and advance booking is advised. The visitor centre closes annually from December 23rd through January 1st.