 By 1861, the company had opened a branch on what is now O'Connell Street in Dublin.At the time, it was customary for distilleries to sell distillate to wine merchants or "bonders", who had ample supplies of casks through the importation of fortified wines and would mature the whiskey themselves under bond.By the 1870s, Gilbey's – described as a "wine importer and distiller" at the time – had more than 300,000 gallons of whiskey from Dublin distilleries in stock under bond and sold whiskey to consumers under its own labels.