Lockes Kilbeggan 1946-1980 - 34 Year Old - Last Known Cask

INFORMATION

Locke's Kilbeggan 1946 - 1980. 34 Year Old. From The Last Known Cask. One of 480 bottles. 750ml. 42.3%.

DISTILLERY:Kilbeggan

DISTILLERY STATUS:Working

Bottle ABV:42.3%

Bottle SIZE:75cl / 750ml

Bottle PRODUCED:480

BOTTLER:Distillery Bottling

SPIRIT TYPE:Scotland

LIMITED EDITION:yes

CASK NUMBER:NA

CASK TYPE:Single Malt

DISTILLED YEAR:1946

BOTTLING DATE::1980

AGE:34

Kilbeggan distillery (aka Brusna or Locke’s) was founded by Matthew MacManus in Westmeath in 1757. The distillery flourished from the 1840s under the ownership of John Locke, but the 20th century was less kind to Kilbeggan. John Locke’s sons both died in the 1920s, and the distillery was closed from 1924-1931. During WWII, Locke’s distiller Thomas Coffey ran an illegal whiskey scam and in 1947 the distillery became the centre of a political scandal after a failed takeover. 

Mired in debt, Locke’s distillery closed in 1958 just a year after its bicentenary, and for a time the buildings were used as a piggery. Thankfully, in 1987 John Teeling of Cooley distillery bought Kilbeggan and released new whiskeys under the Kilbeggan and Locke’s brands. After extensive restoration Kilbeggan distillery reopened in 2007 as the oldest operational whiskey distillery in the world.