Sazerac arrives at Hazelwood
Sligo Hub had the pleasure of being invited to Hazelwood for a tour by the new owner, Sazerac. We were shown around the beautiful building, told of the exciting development plans that lay ahead and delighted in a whiskey tasting. The tour was so informative, outlining Sazerac’s vision for Hazelwood and the distillery.
Sazerac is one of America’s oldest family owned, privately held distillers with operations in the United States in Louisiana, Kentucky, Indiana, Virginia, Tennessee, Maine, New Hampshire, South Carolina, Maryland, California, and global operations in the United Kingdom, Ireland, France, India, Australia, and Canada.
Hazelwood was acquired by global drinks company, Sazerac, in June 2022. Sazerac, one of the world’s largest distilled spirits companies, is owner of premium brands such as Buffalo Trace Bourbon, Paddy Irish Whiskey, Michael Collins Irish Whiskey, Pappy Van Winkle Bourbon, and Southern Comfort.
“Sazerac was delighted to open Hazelwood’s doors to the community and for us to spend time with so many community members,” said Mark Brown, president and CEO, Sazerac. “We are thrilled to have found such a wonderful home for our Irish whiskey business and to share information about the vision for the future of Hazelwood House and the distillery.”
Attending the event, Minister of State with responsibility for Public Health, Well Being and National Drugs Strategy, Frank Feighan commented, “As a TD for Sligo I am absolutely thrilled to hear about the exciting plans for Hazelwood and Lough Gill Distillery, this is such an exciting opportunity for the region and I want to congratulate the team at Sazerac on their plans for investment here in Sligo. I strongly believe that this project will be complimented with what our County of Sligo has to offer including top class hotels, restaurants, golf courses, tourist amenities and the superb scenery and destination Sligo is for so many visitors.”
Sligo County Council Cathaoirleach, Councillor Michael Clarke, CEO Martin Lydon and a number of Councillors also attended the events.
Sazerac is known for taking historic sites such as its Buffalo Trace Distillery in Kentucky and its Sazerac House in New Orleans and restoring them to become world class visitor’s centers. Sazerac’s plans for Sligo are to fully and lovingly restore Hazelwood House, expand the world-class whiskey distillery, create a best-in-class visitor attraction and to make Hazelwood Demesne one of the most important tourism centres in the West of Ireland.
Sazerac will also grow the scale of existing operations through increasing the distillery’s capacity, adding warehousing capacity and expanding production lines. The existing local distillery team have all joined the Sazerac family and it is expected that Sazerac will increase the number of team members after the expansion.
This is the first of a series of events to be hosted at the distillery, with subsequent events for the people of Sligo to visit Hazelwood to be announced in 2023.
Read more about the upcoming plans here
All images by Conor Doherty