Down a narrow lane surrounded by lush farmland in County Clare, on the west coast of Ireland, Rebecca Jago, CEO of The Last Drop – the independent bottlers who curate some of the rarest spirits in the world – approaches a cottage and a traditional barrel-roofed barn.

Over the years, The Last Drop has discovered – then later bottled and released – incredible liquids hidden away in remote spots like this. There was, for example, the time they found a nearly 80-year-old cask of cognac bricked up behind a wall in the 1940s to hide it from the Nazi invaders. This time, however, the seemingly humble surroundings are hiding something else… another woman-led drinks business that has gained a stellar reputation. Louise McGuane’s J.J. Corry has been at the forefront of the rebirth of Irish whiskey in the past few years. As one of Jago’s “Assembly” of experts, she has now collaborated to produce The Last Drop’s first Irish whiskey release – a 32-year-old single malt Irish whiskey called Louise’s Creation.

Having worked as a global marketing and brand manager for various global drinks giants, McGuane could see that Irish whiskey was overdue a renaissance and wanted to be involved from the start and represent the county where she grew up. The weather on the appropriately named Wild Atlantic Way is not conducive to amber waves of grain and, after some consideration, she rejected the idea of revitalising an abandoned distillery near Kilrush.

Instead, she revived another piece of Irish history: ‘Up until about the 1930s, every major town in every county in Ireland had a merchant who sold everything from tea, rum and Bordeaux wines to violin strings, bicycle parts and ammunition. And they also sold whiskey, sourced as new-make spirit from whatever distilleries were nearby. They matured them in whatever casks they could acquire – the wine and rum barrels once they were empty – and then blended them to create their own styles. They were governed by the excise gaugers and they were called whiskey bonders. Johnnie Walker started off like that, of course; it’s very similar. And the whiskey bonder in Kilrush, down the road, was J.J. Corry.’

McGuane is speaking in that barn on her father’s farm, which is in fact a bonded dunnage warehouse, gradually filling up with barrels. As well as being labelled with factual details – distillery name; date of distillation; single malt, pot still or grain whiskey etc – there are chalk markings that define each cask in terms of the “flavour library” McGuane is curating: tasting notes such as “toasty, coffee grounds”, “citrus, pine needle”, and signs the J.J. Corry team has fun in the rack house: “Ginger Spice”, “Vanilla Ice” and the less familiar pop star, “Nutty Cashew”.

The inventory is increasingly broad, as well as deep, says McGuane: ‘When I founded the business in 2015/2016, there were three distilleries left open on the island of Ireland; there are now around 45 – give or take, depending on the day of the week!’

However, it is one of the three distilleries that existed before the new wave of Irish whiskey where the liquid that has become The Last Drop Louise’s Creation started out. Legally, The Last Drop can’t declare where the single malt was distilled (in a year when there was only one single-malt distillery on the island), so we have to beat around the bush. As coincidence would have it, the master blender from that distillery, Helen Mulholland – whose Ulster accent provides a further clue – is now master blender at a new distillery in Sligo, owned by the Sazerac Company, which owns a controlling share in The Last Drop. She consulted with McGuane about how best to nurture this whiskey. With older stock like this, not destined for blends, decisions have to be made.

‘All those years in the original sherry casks I first put it in gave it that that roundness, taking away any sharp edges. The difficulty is, at around 30 years, you start pushing it with a barrel – it can start to get woody. So what Louise did was to move it into a fresher oloroso butt to give that vibrancy back. So it has a creamy, comforting pastry richness to it; then the original fresh fruit notes have developed into dried fruit. Then it’s all about nuttiness, luscious chocolate and, interestingly, a little coffee note in there too.’

Usually, Brummell doesn’t make a point of highlighting gender when talking to women in the drinks industry, as we believe that perpetuates the idea it is unusual. Perhaps it’s a watershed moment that three separate careers have come together to create a superlative bottling and they all happen to be women. As Jago herself says, ‘We’re not making the point that three women have done this and we are changing the industry, but we can mark the moment that these threads have come together. I would say, I haven’t faced many challenges because of my heritage, but Louise has fought really hard to achieve what she has. Bringing together Louise’s dynamism and vision with someone like Helen, who has literally been doing this for over half her life… it’s something to be celebrated.’

The heritage she refers to is her father, the late Tom Jago, an industry legend who invented Bailey’s Irish Cream, among other famous brands, often with his colleague James Espey. The two founded The Last Drop in 2008, releasing first a blended Scotch from 1960 then, to confound expectations, a 1950 cognac. Rebecca joined in 2014 and took the idea of a seeker of liquid treasures further afield.

McGuane waits till Jago leaves the warehouse to heap praise on her friend: ‘So, I was a Rebecca fan girl before we even met. One of the businesses I modelled J.J. Corry on was The Last Drop. I was such an admirer of the approach of curation of stocks – their reputation for finding these incredible spirits and bringing them to the world. The opportunity for an Irish whiskey to be showcased by The Last Drop is very important for the legitimacy of whole category and it’s a privilege to be involved.’

Jago is one of the most modest people in the drinks industry. One expression of that is The Assembly, the panel of world-class drinks makers she has gathered as her expert advisers. As well as expected representatives of the Sazerac Company family – Buffalo Trace master blender Drew Mayville; Denis Lahouratate, cellar master at cognac house Domaine Sazerac de Segonzac – there are also completely independent members: Colin Scott, former master blender of Chivas Brothers; Michael D’Souza, master distiller for highly regarded Indian whisky Paul John; Richard Seale, master distiller for Foursquare Rum; and, of course, McGuane.

However, it would be a mistake to believe that Jago lets her Assembly make all the decisions of selection and (importantly) rejection. ‘I don’t have the palate of a master blender,’ she says, ‘But I represent the everyman. It’s important that our releases are not only aimed at the connoisseur of a particular style of spirit. We’re often introducing people to something they haven’t tried before but trust it because it’s a Last Drop release. So I have to make sure it’s delicious to someone who doesn’t know everything.’

The Last Drop collection is not intended as a smorgasbord for investors. ‘Historically, no winemaker or distiller made a drink and put it in a bottle in order to see it go up in value,’ says Jago. ‘They were meant to be opened, drunk, enjoyed and shared.’

When pushed, she does allow herself a moment of pride: ‘A big part of my job is to open bottles, tell stories and share the drinks – and I’ve discovered an awful lot about myself. I used to work on my own at home, as a design consultant. I did not know I have the ability to open up and tell a story. And it has led to great friendships, not only inside the industry but with our customers.’

Ultimately, buying spirits through The Last Drop is a cross between having an art consultant (you liked this; why not have a look at this person’s work) and joining a rather convivial club. Especially now the Irish are involved.

The Last Drop “Louise’s Creation” 32YO Single Malt Irish Whiskey, £2,250 (663 bottles, cask strength 48.8% ABV) will be available from October; lastdropdistillers.com