By Richard Thomas
(Credit: Richard Thomas)
Two Stacks Irish Whiskey is a relative newcomer to what had been an Emerald Isle whiskey boom. Founded in 2000 by a trio of friends, the company was established as a classic Irish bonder and has the stated intention of helping to revive what had been a thriving commercial sector in Ireland. Briefly, an Irish bonding company is a form of a non-distillery producer or negociant. The firm buys new make and already aged whiskeys, stores them in their own warehouses for further aging under their own supervision, and then blends their own products.
This practice is differs from merely having a sourced brand in the extra handiwork involved. A company, either in the US or Ireland, can simply outsource the whiskey and bottle it as a finished product, reducing the warehousing overhead to nil and the blending work to a minimum. Bonders/negociants function in the same way a distillery would when it comes to the final stages of making a product. A century ago, there were hundreds of bonders in Ireland; now only a few companies check all the boxes to be so described. Their products are imported into the US by Foley Family Wines and Spirits.
Another feature of Two Stacks is their “Dram in a Can.” I believe the best way to look at these little canned whiskeys as a very durable take on the traditional mini. My initial reaction, in fact, was that the Dram in a Can might suit campers pretty well, but then I remembered that I was managing perfectly well with a flask. You also cannot bring these things onto airplanes and cater your own onboard drinking. But even so, for the folks who use 50ml minis, the Dram in a Can serves the same function.
The company has all four of the categories of Irish whiskey covered in its regular line-up: blended whiskey, single malt, single pot still and single grain. The last one is what prompted me to discuss Two Stacks at length, rather than do a straight review or two of their products. Single grain whiskey is a neglected category in Irish Whiskey, and this despite Teeling’s Single Grain Whiskey having been one of those sleeper whiskeys that people like me have been trying to drag drinker’s attentions to for more than a decade now.
Two Stacks Double Barrel Single Grain could be seen as swimming upriver, then. Matured in ex-bourbon barrels and ex-Sherry casks, it is a light bodied, easy drinking whiskey. Non-whiskey drinkers will find it approachable, bourbon drinkers a little familiar, and those who already enjoy Irish Whiskey should appreciate going to a corner of it rarely drawn upon in its own right. The traditional honey and fruity sweetness is accented with bourbonesque vanilla and the expected butterscotch. Bottled at 43% ABV, I think it joins the preceding Teeling Single Grain as one of those affordable sleeper expressions that more people should pay attention to.
The flagship expression for Two Stacks is their blended whiskey, The First Cut — Signature Blend. As Irish blended whiskeys go, the stock engaged is complex: 40% aged in ex-bourbon barrel single grain and 40% grain whiskey aged in new American oak, both coming from a 95% corn, 5% malted barley mash (we can see where the above single grain comes from already); 10% double distilled malt; 8% pot still whiskey (50% malted and 50% unmalted barley); and 2% peated malt whiskey. It’s bottled at 43% ABV in a 700ml bottle. The outcome of all that is a whiskey that is very much in the vein of Tullamore DEW: light, but creamy; fruity; and setting apart from its peers is the barest whiff of smoke.
These are the only two offerings from Two Stacks I have tried yet, but the single grain in particular inspires strong curiosity for the single pot still whiskey. Perhaps I will be able to swing around to it for St. Patrick’s Day 2026.
