The Amber Isle crowdfunder
With the hugely exciting news (we didn’t even known about it) that ‘The Amber Light’ is now on Disney+ it seemed the appropriate time to tell you about the next project that I’m doing with Adam Park. We’ve gone across the Celtic Sea to Ireland to start filming ‘The Amber Isle’.
Whiskey is a cultural product and Irish whiskey has an extraordinary story to tell. It is inextricably woven into Irish culture. Because of that, it can be used as a lens through which we can explore not just the spirit’s history and many ways of making, but also Ireland’s story – its music, literature and sensibilities.
After almost a century of decline, Irish whiskey is undergoing a revival, renaissance… or reset.
In the 1980s there were only two distilleries in the whole island, both of which were owned by the same company. Today, there are close to 50 and most of them are less than a decade old. The ‘why now?’ is one of the questions we explore.
We’re seeing distillers re-examining the past, finding old recipes and making new whiskies. In doing so they are returning Irish whiskey to its rightful place in the whisky canon.
All of this comes at the same time as a wider Irish cultural renaissance – the amazing revitalisation of the traditional music scene, the re-engagement with the local in food, new voices in writing, film and art.
The film is therefore about a new exciting, vigorous Ireland that is miles away from the paddywhackery of the past. This is Ireland finally saying what it is and what it can pridce rathr tha conforming to what the world thinks it is.
On one hand Irish whiskey is as old (actually it’s older – one of the myths we put to bed) than Scotch, but at the same time it is brand new.
It is known but also unknown.
It is smaller than Scotch but the story is as rich.
Its distillers are not burdened by tradition.
It’s one of the most exciting whiskey-making countries in the world.
So far we have filmed at Blackwater, JJ Corry, Micil, The Burren, and Boann. We’ve interviewed Ian Lynch (Lankum, Fire Draw Near) and Brigid Mae Power. With our spirit guide Fionnán O’Connor, we’ve been in the old Green Spot cellars in the middle of Dublin, doned white gloves and rootled through vellum manuscripts from the 15th century to find the origins of Irish distillation, chatted at length in the Palace Bar, pub crawled Limerick … and much more
There hasn’t been a doc looking at Irish whiskey in this way. It’s a story that’s not been told and the time is right for it to be told. And where else are you going to find Finnegans Wake as a guiding text for a ‘whiskey documentary’?
There’s still plenty to film. Whiskey in the North, more music, poetry, whiskey archives. To help complete the task we’re running a crowdfunding campaign on indiegogo.
I appreciate that times are tough – and that it’s January, but even a few pence helps us tell this story. Two of the rewards are thanks to a link up with our friends at Boutique-y Whisky and Master of Malt: a tasting pack of drams from distilleries we’ve visited, and also a one-off blend (assembled by Dr Sam Simmons and myself) also comprising whiskeys from our cast members.
Please take a look, and if we may be so bold, please also share this with any social media accounts you might have, or friends + family who may be interested.
Here’s the link to the trailer just to prove we’ve actually got something in the can.
… and thanks!
