Draft:Waterford Distillery

Waterford Distillery is a privately owned Irish whiskey distillery founded in 2014 in the South East of Ireland. The distillery produces single malt whiskey distilled from Irish-grown barley, releasing it's first distillation in 2020.

History & location
The distillery is located on the River Suir estuary in the city and county of Waterford. The site was originally the William Strangman. brewery, built in 1792, located on a volcanic aquifer. The old brewery’s buildings are used today as offices and visitor centre.

The, in 2004, Diageo invested heavily in a modern new Guinness brewery on the site, which was mothballed a decade later in 2014 with the loss of 21 jobs.

In November 2014 the brewery was acquired by a group of private investors led by Mark Reynier.

The distillery was converted in 2015 for distilling whiskey with the addition of two copper pot stills, formerly used at the Inverleven Distillery near Glasgow. In December 2015 its first spirit ran from the stills and the first whiskeys were released in 2020.

Irish barley
Waterford Distillery uses only Irish grown malted barley. Ireland’s Sunny South East benefits from high sunlight hours, glacially fertile soils, maritime climate and Gulf Stream amelioration provide optimum growing conditions for barley.

The distillery sources barley from thirty five individual Irish farms per year. Each harvest is kept separate from field to barrel: milled, mashed, fermented, distilled and matured individually. Each farm’s barley is stored in individual bays at a facility at Dalton’s Mills, County Kilkenny; and the distillery uses a dedicated small-batch Boby malting plant at Athy, County Carlow.

The whiskey spirit at Waterford Distillery is matured in split, long-seasoned, toasted French oak barrels.

The distillery is certified by the Organic Trust and Demeter.

Working with Minch Malt and Teagasc, the Irish Department of Agriculture, Food & the Marine,  the company has reintroduced old heritage barley  varieties propagated from 50-gram bags in the ministry’s seedbank. Hunter (1959), Goldthorpe (1900), Spratt-Archer (1914) and ‘Old Irish’ an original Landrace  from the middle ages. The first heritage barley whiskey was released in 2022.

Terroir
In wine-making, terroir is the contribution of the soil in which the grapes are grown to the taste of the final product. Waterford Distillery applies this methodology to whiskey production, incorporating the principles of terroir, pneumatic pressing, wood integration, organic agriculture and biodynamic cultivation.

Each bottle label features a TÉIREOIR Code, identifying the farm the barley was harvested from. Based on blockchain production information, the code shows supporting information such as maps, video, images and sound files, along with validation information about the harvest, malting, distilling, maturation and bottling.

Products
Waterford distillery launched it's first whiskey on April 25th, 2020. This initial launch was a limited edition blended whiskey (Cuvée) called "Pilgrimage", with a production run of just 1,500 bottles. Only 1,000 bottles were available to buy, with the rest being reserved for staff and family involved in the distillery.

The standard strength of whiskey from the Distillery is 50% ABV with a volume of 70 cl per bottle, apart from a few specific products intended for the US market. The Cuvée Argot bottling has a slightly lower ABV at 47%.

In August 2022, Waterford Distillery released a new peated product line, resurrecting the practice of combining Irish peat (turf) with single malt whiskey to impart a unique taste profile. The sphagnum-rich peat is sourced from Niall Carroll’s bog cuttings at Ballyteige, County Kildare. A year later, the range was expanded to include another two whiskies with even higher peat levels, containing a phenol parts per million (ppm) rate of 57 and 74 respectively

In March 2023, the distillery partnered with French visual artist Nathanaël Koffi for the creation of a Cuvée Whiskey eponymously named Koffi. The artist designed the bottle label in his distinctive abstract style. Previously, the company collaborated with Irish artist Leah Hewson in 2021.

Scientific research
Under the direction of Dr Dustin Herb, the distillery has worked with leading scientists to publish a peer-reviewed paper in academic journal Foods in 2021 demonstrating the evidence for terroir in single malt whiskey. The impact of terroir on the Flavour of Single Malt Whisky New Make Spirit used Gas chromatography–mass spectrometry Olfactometry to demonstrate analytically and sensorially how terroir influences the flavours in both barley and the spirit distilled from it.

Certifications
Biodynamic: Luna has been certified by Demeter International, the biodynamic federation

Organic: Gaia has achieved Certified Organic status from the soil association

Origin Green Gold Status