Still time to highlight your brand in Drinks Industry Ireland January/February issue

In the January/ February issue of Drinks Industry Ireland we will take you through all the winners of the very prestigious Irish Whiskey Awards, which took place at Hinch Distillery last November.

We will also focus on the Stout and Scotch markets and look at what we can expect to see in these categories for 2025. If you would like your brand to be involved in these features, please contact Ian Mulvaney ian.mulvaney@mediateam.ie or Mark Morgan mark.morgan@mediateaem.ie.  For more details on these upcoming features see below:

Irish Whiskey Awards 2024

Emerging and established Irish whiskey producers and patrons were honoured at the 2024 Irish Whiskey Awards which took place at the Hinch Distillery in Co. Down last November. Keynote speaker, Lora Hemy, master distiller at Roe & Co Distillery in Dublin, presented the awards, which are now in their 11th year and span 23 categories across Irish whiskeys and spirits. This year’s overall winner was Dunville’s Palo Cortado 21 Year Old. Read about all the winners in our feature this month.

Stouts & Ales

A report released by Drinks Ireland revealed that beer remains Ireland’s favourite alcohol beverage holding 43.5% of the market. Out of that nearly 35% of the beer consumed in Ireland is stout and is growing. Overall beer consumption remains below pre-pandemic levels and more and more consumers are trying zero alcohol variants of their favourite beers and stouts. According to Diageo, almost 5% of Guinness now brewed is alcohol-free. We take a look at the ale and stout markets.

Scotch

Scotch whisky is a distilled spirit made in Scotland from cereals, water, and yeast. The whisky has a distinctive smoky flavour due to the selection of ingredients and the distillation method. It must be distilled and aged for at least three years in Scotland, however it shouldn’t be necessarily bottled in Scotland. The global scotch whisky market size was valued at $32.72 billion in 2023. The market is projected to grow from $34.70 billion in 2024 to $57.14 billion by 2032, exhibiting a CAGR of 6.43% during the forecast period.

Europe dominated the scotch whisky market with a market share of 29.16% in 2023. Moreover, the scotch whisky market size in the US is projected to grow significantly, reaching an estimated value of $7.31 billion by 2032, driven by the growing preference for scotch whisky and the rising number of distilleries. With all the noise around the growth of Irish whiskey it’s sometimes forgotten that the global market for Scotch comprises 90% of all whisky sales. We review the market for Scotch in the Irish hospitality market.