Family brand celebrates its whiskey-making heritage
O’Driscolls Irish Whiskey, owned by Stafford Bonded in Co Wexford, is the only Irish-owned Irish whiskey in the standard blend category. In our second profile in this month’s Meet the Makers series, Maev Martin talks to Michael Stafford Jnr, managing director of Stafford Bonded
O’Driscolls Irish Whiskey is a blend of golden grain and malted barley, triple distilled and aged in bourbon casks for a minimum of three years. The brand is a tribute to Stafford’s ancestors from Baltimore, west Cork, where the O’Driscolls were one of the strongest clans in Ireland, with various castles in the region and surrounding islands.
Stafford Bonded was founded in 1892 by Michael’s great grandfather George and has been operating out of Wexford as independent bottlers, wholesalers, and bonders ever since. The company began blending and bottling whiskey in John Street in 1906 and then moved to its current location in Drinagh in the 1970s.
“Over the last decade, Stafford Bonded has built a market-leading maturation, blending, and whiskey service business,” explains Michael. “O’Driscolls Irish Whiskey is the culmination of generational industry experience on the Stafford side, and it is a brand that incorporates the rich family history of the O’Driscoll pirate clan and their brave, daring and adventurous feats, which spanned over 300 years.”
Born in 1918, Michael’s grandfather, Diarmuid O’Driscoll played a key role in the development of the brand. He led a fascinating life, which included a varied and exciting career as a medical surgeon during which he delivered over 40,000 babies, went to sea with the King of Albania, was a neighbour to George Bernard Shaw, and treated Saddam Hussein’s daughters in Iraq.
“I think retailers and distributors recognise the value of an authentic and genuine story,” explains Michael. “And the successful brands are the ones that consumers can connect with. Diarmuid O’Driscoll was an inspirational man, passing away at the age of 104 as the oldest whiskey brand ambassador in the world. He will always be the inspiration behind O’Driscolls and was the link between the ancient pirate clan and the modern company that is serious about building an Irish whiskey brand in the global market.
“We will continue to tell his story, but we will also tell the story of our other O’Driscolls clan members, which include ambassadors and investors such as Tadhg Furlong, Rob Kearney, Oran O’Kelly and Max Hart, all of whom embody the brave, daring and adventurous spirit.”
Whiskey management solutions
Stafford Bonded has been providing whiskey management solutions to distilleries for over a century. Since buying the warehouse, bottling yard and licenced premises in John Street in 1906, Stafford Bonded has been operating as independent bottlers. “During those first three generations, we bottled Irish whiskey for distilleries, as well as bottling wine for the likes of Kelly’s Hotel, and bottling Guinness stout,” says Michael. “More recently, Stafford Bonded has developed a 55-acre purpose-built whiskey maturation, blending and bottling site in Waterford, which services over 15 million litres of new make spirit per annum and manages around 340,000 casks of whiskey. We are the market leader in providing these services. We have built industry critical infrastructure through which we service several leading Irish brands, including O’Driscolls Irish Whiskey, and multinational drinks companies.”
O’Driscolls Irish Whiskey is listed locally in Pettitt’s SuperValu, in BWG’s Spar and Value Centre, most of the SuperValu MOPI stores, in the Celtic Whiskey Shop, Molloy’s, James J Fox, Green Acres, Winesonline.ie, and many other independents. “We are also in advanced talks with Dunnes Stores about an April 2024 listing following their range review,” he says. “We are listed with Drinks Inc in Northern Ireland, we have wholesale accounts with Comans, Letts, Mahon’s, Conaty Catering, Classic Drinks, and C&C Gleeson, and we are in advanced discussions with the Musgrave Group. We will continue to add further partners to that list and strive to develop strong working relationships with all our domestic partners.”
Strong distribution stateside
O’Driscolls Irish Whiskey operates a highly successful distribution business in the US. The brand currently has distribution in ten US states. “Empire Merchants in New York and Brescombe Barton in Connecticut, both owned by the Magliocco family, were our first distributors in the US,” explains Michael. “Securing such a strong distributor in New York gave us a great platform to build from. I will be eternally grateful to Brian O’Byrne, who passed away in 2022, for his introduction to Tony Magliocco, who has been very complimentary about the Stafford Bonded and O’Driscolls brands and given us great support in those states. We have continued to build out our US distribution network – having such a great tasting, very smooth, and well-priced proposition with an authentic brand story makes conversations that bit easier.”
O’Driscolls is also available in several European, African, and Asian markets. “We are very focused on scaling O’Driscolls Irish Whiskey to being a 100,000-case global brand over the next five years,” explains Michael. “We are passionate about our business and our brand offering, which we consider to be a pitch perfect proposition. We are planning to release 250ml and 1 litre SKUs this year and we will explore an aged release sooner rather than later. We are a wholly Irish owned, new, and exciting brand with an authentic and historically rich story. Our industry critical infrastructure in Waterford allows us to cost effectively scale our brand by doing what we have done for four generations. Stafford Bonded is producing a great liquid at a great price through scalable in-house operations, providing efficiencies that compete with the multinational-owned blends that we all know so well.”
Partnership with Horse Racing Ireland
In January, Horse Racing Ireland (HRI) Racecourses announced a new partnership with O’Driscolls Irish Whiskey, which delivers priority pouring rights at all four HRI-owned racecourses – Leopardstown, Fairyhouse, Navan and Tipperary.
“The relationship with HRI came about by first exploring the pouring rights and that then progressed to a race sponsorship conversation where we agreed a three-year sponsorship of the O’Driscolls Irish Whiskey Leopardstown Chase,” says Michael. “We then agreed a three-year official whiskey partnership deal. HRI are a very professional body and we have thoroughly enjoyed working with them. We had a very effective activation of the O’Driscolls Irish Whiskey brand over the weekend of the Dublin Racing Festival, and we recently met the teams at Fairyhouse and Navan with a view to developing a strong working relationship there and connecting with their patron racegoers.
“It made complete sense to align with HRI racecourse as their official whiskey partner as we are two indigenous brands with a rich history. In the 1980s, my father Michael Snr built our bonded warehouse for Seagram’s who sponsored the Grand National, which later became the Martell Grand National. My grandfather’s sister Rosario O’Driscoll married the once most successful jockey of all time, Sir Gordon Richards’ son Peter, who was a trainer himself. Their brother John O’Driscoll was a well-known equine vet, so there is a history of racing, as well as a history of whiskey production, in the O’Driscoll family.”
Love Irish Food
O’Driscolls Irish Whiskey joined Love Irish Food in 2023. “Becoming a member helps us to get recognition as an Irish-owned company with a quality product among other member companies who have the same values as ourselves,” he says. “It gives us access to an existing audience who value the merits of championing quality Irish-owned products. I would most definitely encourage other Irish-produced food and drink companies to join Love Irish Food if they are serious about supporting the Irish food and beverage sector.”