A Drinks Industry Veteran But a Farmer's Daughter at Heart
Louise McGuane left her home on the west of Ireland twenty years ago, with the aim to see the world. Her subsequent career in the drinks industry took her all over the world. She lived and worked in New York, Paris, London and Singapore. In those twenty years she worked with and learned from some of the best in multinational drinks companies such as Diageo, Pernod Ricard and Moet Hennessy.
After marrying her London based husband in 2012 she was soon faced with a tough decision. She knew she was no longer able to leap from country to country every three years or travel 80% of the time on business, and so she decided to walk away from her global corporate career. She took a little time off and spent it back home in Ireland. During that time she watched her 74 year old father & mother continue to work the farm as they had always done in the knowledge that neither Louise nor her brother would farm it after they were gone. The Irish have a particular connection to the land and she was struck by a sense of duty to secure the future of the family farm. Not being the farmer that her father is, she decided to use her established skill set and founded The Chapel Gate Irish Whiskey Company. After all, Irish Whiskey is ultimately an agricultural product, so why not ensure a future for the farm for the next generation by ageing, blending and finishing County Clare’s first whiskey in living memory!