Former rugby international Simon Zebo backs new Irish whiskey

Former Munster and Ireland rugby star Simon Zebo is backing a new Irish whiskey, Black Emerald, due to be launched in seven- and 15-year-old versions early next year.
The record-breaking full back and winger is joining forces with industry veterans Ernest Cantillon and Finian Sedgwick to raise €1 million through the Employment Investment Incentive Scheme (EIIS).
Mr Zebo said on Thursday that he inherited an interest the national spirit from his father, Arthur, who was a well-known collector.
“My dad would have been known to have had one the biggest whiskey collections, so when I was growing up I would have been well accustomed to people calling around for a dram,” he recalled.
A conversation with Mr Cantillon, founder of the Kinsale Spirit Co, sparked the idea, and Mr Sedgwick subsequently came on board, he added.
The trio have put €200,000 into the venture, along with friends and family, and are seeking backers through the EIIS, which gives participants tax breaks in return for their investment.
Black Emerald will come in a seven-year-old version, aged in rum casks, and a 15-year-old aged in cognac barrels. John Teeling’s Great Northern Distillery will produce the liquid and age the whiskey under contract for the venture.
According to Mr Zebo, Black Emerald should go on sale shortly after a launch timed for next March. But it has already passed a few taste tests, at the recent celebration of his marriage to Elvira Fernandez in Spain.
The couple married in 2022, as the pandemic was only just rolling back, they had a limited number of guests, so this year they had a larger ceremony for family and friends.
A lot of the “non-whiskey drinkers” at the reception in Altea, Spain, enjoyed the seven-year-old whiskey, which is the slightly sweeter drink, thanks to the rum ageing, according to Mr Zebo. “But my father preferred the 15-year-old,” he added.
The Corkman has been doing some TV work since he retired from Munster Rugby in May, but said that the whiskey venture had been very much his focus since returning from a break in Spain in September. “I didn’t tend to do side projects when I was playing because I wanted to stay focused and didn’t want to half do anything,” he explained.
“This has kept me busy, and at the same time I’m learning a lot, so it’s great.”