At the start of 2024, Gorey Whiskey Club was only an idea. By the end of January, we had a logo, a website and an event in our diaries. By February, we'd run an event and by December...well, we were building our plans for the club for 2025.
So, other than a logo and a website, what happened in 2024?
February 2024 - we ran and Introduction to Irish whiskey, our first event which I hosted and ran in Browne's Bar in Gorey, the club's home. We were delighted with the attendance and the event was a huge amount of fun.
February/March 2024 - John Robinson and I attended the South East Whiskey Fest in Wexford town, where we bumped into others from Gorey. A really great event where we were able to put our feet up and enjoy the tastings!
April 2024 - we hosted Glendalough which was the first time we were able to bring a distillery to Gorey. Eoin was a great storyteller and the attendees really enjoyed the drinks and the atmosphere at the event. The favourite might have been the unreleased Glendalough Double Barrel Cask Strength which I added to my own collection as soon as it was available.
May 2024 - we hosted an online version of our Introduction to Irish Whiskey. Not everyone can make events in-person in Gorey, so we wanted to make our events more accessible. Attendees were sent samples in bottles and joined a webcall to chat through the samples, including a history of whiskey and tasting notes for a range of Irish whiskeys.
June 2024 - we attended Whiskey Live in the RDS in Dublin. It was great to catch up with some old friends, make some new friends, and taste a whole bunch of new whiskeys.
June 2024 - our first premier tasting where we introduced the Spot Whiskeys. It's a real pleasure to walk through this range and particularly to bring the lesser-seen Gold Spot to the club. It was impossible to pick a winner on the night, but I definitely rekindled my affection for Yellow Spot.
September 2024 - an online tasting of the Spot Whiskeys.
October 2024 - a virtual blind tasting. Something different! Attendees were sent numbered samples without any knowledge of the contents until during the event itself. It really changes the dynamic when you have no preconception of the liquid.
October 2024 - an evening with Powerscourt. Head of Brand at Powerscourt, John Cashman, visited us and enthralled everyone with his experience and knowledge. The samples were exceptional too - possibly the event with the highest average rating for the whiskeys sampled.
November 2024 - an evening with Two Stacks was hosted in Browne's new outdoor bar with Liam Brogan walking us through the tasting with some incredible samples. The Polaris 2.1 was very popular on the night.
December 2024 - membership launched for 2025 (details here - https://www.goreywhiskeyclub.ie/pricing-plans/list). This is a very exciting development for us as we were able to offer membership to the club for those interested in getting more heavily involved with the club in the year ahead.
December 2024 - the GWC team picked our whiskey of the year (details here - https://www.goreywhiskeyclub.ie/post/our-whiskey-of-the-year-2024).
The GWC team have a mountain of work to get through in 2025. We are already working with distilleries to get dates in our diaries, arranging some branding refreshes and continuing to bring the club forward. We do have some exciting plans in the works, and we'll be happy to share those as soon as we can!
Finally, from all of us at the GWC team, we'd like to thank all those who attended our events during 2024 for supporting our vision for the club and we wish you all a very merry Christmas and a happy and healthy 2025.
Sláinte!
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