Dolf Stockhausen, Chief Innovation Officer and Master Blender of Seven Seals, claims to be able to make great Irish whiskey in a week. The Irish government isn’t letting him produce his whiskey in Ireland. (Photo: Seven Seals/Instagram)

A Swiss-German multimillionaire chemist and entrepreneur, Dr. Dolf Stockhausen, claims he can make a fully matured Irish whiskey in one week. If that seems outlandish, that’s because it is. Legally mature Irish whiskey must age a minimum of three years, but most experts agree most aren’t much good until at least five years of maturation.

Stockhausen’s weeklong whiskey process revolves around removing tannins from the wood and using specially treated chips of traditional whiskey barrels. Stockhausen claims this technique gives whiskey the same flavor as it would receive if aged in a barrel. He called time “the curse of whiskey making” in an interview with The Business Post. To get around that curse, he proposed to use his patented aging technique to create Irish whiskey. He’s confident his technology can make up for a lack of age.

“Maybe it may sound like bragging, but there is not one whiskey out of an Irish factory which is as good as any of ours,” Stockhausen said, according to District Magazine.

Stockhausen’s whiskey brand is Seven Seals, and it operates under the philosophy “Time doesn’t matter, taste matters.”

But the Irish government doesn’t appear to be as enthused with Stockhausen’s technology, as The Business Post reported Sunday that Stockhausen has been told he cannot produce his rapid-aged whiskey in Ireland.

Stockhausen stepped into the whiskey arena after retiring from the board of Clariant chemical company in 2020, according to District Magazine.

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