Teeling

Type: Distillery and brand

Three copper pot stills were installed at Newmarket in Dublin’s Liberties in December 2014. Named Alison, Natalie and Rebecca after Jack Teeling’s daughters, they gave the family name a place inside the new distillery.410

The Irish whiskey brand began with whiskey from Cooley stocks; Newmarket produced its first spirit in March 2015. Inherited whiskey gave Teeling its starting point, while Dublin distillation opened a new chapter. Both remain essential to understanding its bottles. Bacardi announced sole ownership on 23 June 2026.24[8]

Fact box

What Teeling is known for

Rum casks, American red wine casks and five different wood types give Teeling’s range much of its identity. According to the producer, these shape Small Batch, Single Grain and Single Malt respectively: three distinct approaches within a brand that combines inherited stocks with a new Dublin distillery.[8][11]

The individual expression supplies the detail behind the Teeling name: its grain, maturation and, where disclosed, production origin. Those distinctions matter more than treating the range as a single style of whiskey.8[11]

The producer calls Newmarket Dublin’s first new distillery in more than 125 years. The important word is “new”: Dublin had not been without whiskey production for that whole period. Teeling’s first spirit in 2015 was reported as the city’s first in 39 years.14

From Cooley stocks to Newmarket

Teeling was a whiskey business before it had working stills. Jack Teeling founded the modern company in April 2012; Stephen joined in May 2013 after leaving Beam Inc. Their father, John Teeling, had founded Cooley Distillery in 1987.6

Cooley’s sale to Beam in January 2012 set the scene for the new venture. With the Dublin distillery still being built, Teeling released whiskey from Cooley stocks. That gave the brand a starting point before Newmarket could supply its own whiskey.6[8]

The connection is particularly important for the Vintage Reserve whiskeys. According to the trade account, these come from older stocks inherited from the Cooley years. Their ages reach back into that earlier history, not into an extended production history for the Dublin distillery.10

For the related production background, see Cooley Distillery: Connemara and Tyrconnell. The two sites have separate roles in Teeling’s story, and keeping them distinct makes the chronology clear.

Production timeline

Founding, construction, first spirit and opening were separate milestones. Teeling was already a whiskey business before the stills arrived, and first distillation preceded the visitor centre’s opening.4[8]

The family story and the still names

Story box

A family name, a modern Dublin distillery

The modern company dates from April 2012. The Dublin City University case study identifies Jack Teeling as founder; Bacardi names Jack and Stephen Teeling as founders. These are the founding accounts in sources 6 and 3 respectively. First spirit flowed at Newmarket in March 2015, the separate production milestone recorded by The Spirits Business, source 4.

The Marrowbone Lane tradition: The producer says Walter Teeling established a small distillery on Marrowbone Lane in 1782. Verdict: Legend. Independent archival evidence is not reliably established, leaving the account unresolved rather than disproved. The producer tells the story in Teeling Whiskey, Our Story and Teeling Whiskey Distillery, About Us, sources 1 and 2; the earliest known source of the tale is not established in the supplied record.1

The names on the stills: Alison, Natalie and Rebecca take their names from Jack Teeling’s daughters. Verdict: Documented. Both Dublin Live and Barley Magazine, sources 9 and 10, identify the names. The earliest source of this story is not established in the supplied record.9

The still names give the family connection a concrete expression inside the modern distillery. That documented detail stands apart from the much earlier Marrowbone Lane tradition and its unresolved historical claim.19

Last checked: The day in November 2026 is not established in the supplied record; the editor must confirm it before publication.

How Teeling makes its Dublin whiskey

A 15,000 litre wash still, a 10,000 litre intermediate still and a 9,000 litre spirit still formed the installation described in the contemporary report. Those figures describe the vessels, not annual production.[5]

Teeling uses triple distillation. In his published account, Alex Chasko described a middle still cut around 50% ABV, followed by a spirit still run to about 84% ABV, with the cut at 80% ABV. These details describe the production account he gave, rather than a specification for every Teeling expression.10

Chasko, described in the sources as an American-born brewer and the company’s first employee, designed the still house with a modern brewery in mind.6 The milling and fermentation details add to that picture: a trade visit describes a wet mill, chosen partly for its suitability for unmalted barley, and fermentation with both distillers’ yeast and a South African white wine yeast.[8] Together, the accounts describe the organisation of the still house and the choices made before the spirit reaches its copper vessels.

The producer also reports an onsite well and rainwater harvesting. Distillation and maturation have distinct addresses in the documented account: the stills are in Dublin, while the trade report places the maturation warehouse at Greenore in County Louth.2[8]

Reading the Teeling range

Start with the grain and the cask. The producer’s core range comprises Small Batch, Single Grain, Single Malt, Single Pot Still and Blackpitts Peated Single Malt. These are separate expressions, not interchangeable descriptions of one whiskey.[11]

The clearest comparisons are concrete: Single Grain gives an explicit grain recipe, Single Pot Still divides malted and unmalted barley equally, and Small Batch describes initial maturation followed by rum cask treatment. These are the producer’s production descriptions, not this site’s tasting notes; cask names cannot replace observations from a documented tasting.[11]

The limited lines include Wonders of Wood numbers 1 to 4 and the Vintage Reserve Collection, including Rising Reserve releases and a 40 year old single malt. The older collection belongs with the Cooley stock history described above, rather than the March 2015 start of Newmarket production.10[11]

Ownership after the family founders

Bacardi’s involvement began with a minority stake in June 2017. On 23 June 2026, it announced sole ownership of the company and the Teeling brand, with Jack and Stephen remaining as strategic advisors.3[7]

Verdict: Disputed. The year of majority control is unresolved: Bacardi gives 2022, while The Spirits Business reported the move in December 2023. The earliest source of the claim is not established in the supplied record. The later sole ownership announcement is a separate event.3[7]

The family name remains, as do the founders’ stated advisory roles. Ownership is another matter: after the June 2026 announcement, Teeling should no longer be described as family-owned.3

Common mistakes

Treating 1782 as the present distillery’s founding date: the producer’s family tradition and the modern business are separate histories. The company dates from 2012; first spirit at Newmarket followed in 2015.14

Reading “125 years” as a gap in all Dublin distilling: the producer’s wording concerns a new distillery. The reported gap before Teeling’s first spirit was 39 years.14

Assuming every Teeling whiskey came from Newmarket: the brand began with Cooley stocks; the older Vintage Reserve whiskeys share that provenance, not the Dublin distillery’s production history.8

Where to go next

• Dingle: read another Irish distillery profile.
• Roe & Co: continue exploring the Irish distillery collection.
• Bushmills: explore another Irish whiskey producer.

Sources

1. Teeling Whiskey. Our Story. Producer’s account, undated edition supplied in the verified sheet. https://www.teelingwhiskey.com/our-story/
2. Teeling Whiskey Distillery. About Us. Producer’s account, undated edition supplied in the verified sheet. https://teelingdistillery.com/about-us/
3. Bacardi Limited. Bacardi Takes Full Ownership Of TEELING Irish Whiskey. 23 June 2026. https://www.bacardilimited.com/media/news-archive/bacardi-takes-full-ownership-of-teeling-irish-whiskey/
4. The Spirits Business. Teeling Distillery creates first whiskey spirit. March 2015. https://www.thespiritsbusiness.com/2015/03/teeling-distillery-creates-first-whiskey-spirit/
5. Whisky Corner. First New Copper Pot Stills Arrive in Dublin in over 125 years. 2014 report, as identified in the verified sheet. https://whiskycorner.co.uk/news/first-new-copper-pot-stills-arrive-in-dublin-in-over-125-years/
6. Dublin City University, Centre for Family Business. Teeling Whiskey Company: a tradition of family entrepreneurship and whiskey distilling. Undated case study supplied in the verified sheet. https://www.dcu.ie/sites/default/files/centre_for_family_business/teelings_case.pdf
7. The Spirits Business. Bacardi ups stake in Teeling. December 2023. https://www.thespiritsbusiness.com/2023/12/bacardi-ups-stake-in-teeling/
8. The Spirits Business. SB visits… Teeling Distillery, Dublin. October 2025. https://www.thespiritsbusiness.com/2025/10/sb-visits-teeling-distillery-dublin/
9. Dublin Live. Teeling whiskey brothers pay tribute to their daughters. News article, edition supplied in the verified sheet. https://www.dublinlive.ie/news/dublin-news/teeling-whiskey-brothers-pays-loving-23312871
10. Barley Magazine. How Teeling fired up Dublin whiskey again. 2025 profile, as identified in the verified sheet. https://www.barleymagazine.com/blog/how-teeling-fired-up-the-dublin-whiskey-scene
11. Teeling Whiskey. Teeling Whiskeys. Producer’s range account, edition supplied in the verified sheet. https://www.teelingwhiskey.com/teeling-whiskeys/

This article is desk research based exclusively on verified fact sheet TOP-A266 and its listed sources, without a site visit or tasting.

Last checked: November 2026