Irish Distillery Powerscourt Was Sold to American Investors
We’ve been reporting on a lot of bad news in the whiskey industry—the current $22 billion glut that major drinks corporations are sitting on, distilleries pausing production, and people generally just not drinking as much (which is not necessarily a bad thing health-wise, it should be said). But how about a positive report for once? Powerscourt, a small Irish distillery, was in receivership after reporting major financial difficulties. But Irish news channel RTE just reported that a group of U.S. investors are buying the distillery and its assets, so it seems like it will actually be saved.
Powerscourt was founded in Wicklow in 2018, and over the years it has released a series of whiskeys under its Fercullen label. While the distillery was producing both malt and pot still whiskey onsite, most of the Fercullen brand consisted of whiskey that was purchased from the Cooley Distillery, including a 15-year-old single grain and a 21-year-old single malt finished in Spanish Oloroso and Pedro Ximénez sherry casks. According to RTE, Powerscourt went into receivership last June, stating that it “suffered cashflow difficulties and a disruption to trade amidst global tariff volatility”—two issues that should come as no surprise to anyone who has been following the whiskey market over the past year or two.
During receivership the distillery continued to operate, but today the news arrived that it was being sold to American company Altiva Management, which appears to be based in Atlanta according to its LinkedIn profile, for an undisclosed sum. The sale includes the following: all of the distillery’s intellectual property, the lease for the visitor center and distillery, and some of the whiskey that has been produced there since 2018. RTE reports that the sourced whiskey from Cooley that it acquired, along with some of the in-house-produced whiskey, will be sold off as part of the deal.
The good news is that this means that Powerscourt will continue to operate for the time being and none of the staff will be laid off, which RTE quoted the CEO as calling “a great day” for the distillery. For its part, Altiva says that it sees a great deal of potential in the distillery and wants to invest in and grow the business. This does come at a time of conflicting news for Irish whiskey. As we reported recently, Dublin distillery Teeling, which is owned by Bacardi, saw a stunning 90 percent drop in profit last year. At the same time, a recent report from the Irish Whiskey Association said that Irish whiskey exports rose by almost four percent in 2024. Of course the numbers for 2025 may be very different, especially in light of the 15 percent tariff the Trump administration has put on Irish whiskey. We will continue to update you with any news, but it looks like Powerscourt could actually survive the turmoil.
