Earlier this month, we were in County Sligo in northwest Ireland to visit Sazerac’s long-awaited Irish distillery project: a 100-acre campus formerly known as Lough Gill Distillery, which the company acquired in 2022. The immense, immaculately clean facility is relaunching as Hawk’s Rock Distillery, adding a potentially significant new asset to Sazerac’s whiskey portfolio. “We have an eagle [Eagle Rare], and now we have a hawk,” one company representative smiled during our site visit.
We’ve tasted the first whiskey that will emerge from Hawk’s Rock, which will be released this June. The particulars of that liquid are still under wraps, but we can reveal that all the Irish whiskeys being crafted here are being done under the watchful eye of master blender Helen Mulholland.
The list of accolades Mulholland has racked up over the years is lengthy. She spent 25 years work at Bushmills, most recently as its master blender, making numerous high-scoring whiskeys. She's the first woman to be inducted into the International Hall of Fame and is the chair of the Irish Whisky Association. Expect the unexpected to emerge from Hawk’s Rock under Mulholland: with thousands of barrels maturing at various ages within the existing rickhouse (made during the Lough Gill era), she will have ample resources at hand.
Sazerac is also restoring an 18th-century home on the property, one that’s a nationally listed historic landmark: Hazelwood House. (Sazerac pulled its staff archivist and archeologist Nicolas Laracuente, who has spent weeks on the property, helping to research the history of the land and buildings to ensure they’re accurately restored. As for the distillery name, Hawk’s Rock is a feature of the nearby Ox Mountains that inspired William Butler Yeats. The Nobel Prize-winning poet used the outcropping as inspiration for his play “At the Hawk’s Well.”
When the operation is running at full steam, guests lucky enough to spend time at the Hazelwood House will, in addition to drinking some excellent Irish whiskey, find themselves going birding on the property. Likely, they’ll hold an actual hawk upon the end of a trembling, gloved hand, all while the bird of prey’s owner shares tales of how many modern idioms and phrases come from the practice. (Fed up, wrapped around the little finger, hoodwinked, and bated breath, among them.)
As we get closer to the release of Hawk’s Rock’s first expression in June, we’ll share more details about it—how it was blended, per Mulholland, and what to expect for future Hawk’s Rock releases.
