W.D. O'Connell Whiskey Merchants

W.D. O'Connell Whiskey Merchants are an independent Irish whiskey company that source new make spirit and already aged whiskies from multiple distilleries in Ireland and abroad and apply their own maturation and finish preferences.

Deep down, founder Daithí O’Connell is an adventurer. His passion for culture and travel has taken him from Ireland to Australia to Hong Kong to Dubai. With decades of experience in food and beverage across three continents, Daithí’s love of Ireland and whiskey brought him back to County Waterford and our headquarters in Kilmacthomas.

Daithí initially looked at setting up his own distillery, but pulled out for multiple reasons, not least the fact that it was a huge financial investment. When he moved home from Dubai in 2017, he saw that the whiskey landscape had changed significantly and threw himself completely into becoming an independent whiskey bottler.

Independent bottlers are something of a rarity in Ireland - much of this had to do with the scarcity of distilleries. Bottlers need a diverse range - not just of whiskey styles and casks, but of sources, which is why W.D. O'Connell Whiskey Merchants look further than Ireland for their whiskeys but is also well position as Ireland undergoes its whisky renaissance.