The founders of Ireland's Rademon Estate Distillery have launched a whiskey company paying homage to Belfast's former whiskey bonders and blenders.

David and Fiona Boyd-Armstrong established a distillery on their family's Rademon Estate near Downpatrick in 2012 and now produce the Shortcross Gin and Shortcross Irish Whiskey brands.

Their new project is the Irish Whiskey Bonding Company (IWBC), which they say is a way to honour the historic whiskey bonding and blending traditions in nearby Belfast. The IWBC will produce whiskeys with Shortcross single malt, peated single malt, and pot still whiskies, as well as using sourced liquids from other distilleries across the island of Ireland.

The company launches with three expressions: Grafter, a blend of five whiskeys including single malt, pot still, and grain and aged in ex-bourbon, sherry, and virgin oak casks; Chancer, a blend featuring some Shortcross peated single malt alongside malt, pot still, and grain whiskeys; and Merchants Malt, a 15-year-old triple-distilled single malt Irish whiskey aged exclusively in ex-bourbon barrels.

David, who is acting as IWBC's director of distilling and blending, said: “We are Irish whiskey distillers and blenders at heart and love to create new and innovative expressions. The Irish Whiskey Bonding Company gives us a platform to take the whiskey that we distil at Rademon Estate Distillery under our Shortcross Irish Whiskey brand and to use that to create new expressions that will help us reach a greater number of Irish whiskey fans globally.

“The art of blending Irish whiskey is something that we have been working hard at behind the scenes and it’s an exciting time to bring these new Irish Whiskies to market.”

All the IWBC expressions are available to purchase now at irishwhiskeybondingcompany.com.