Waterford Organic Gaia Edition 1.1

Nose: grain, barley, hay, grass Palate: heat, honey and malt Finish: oily, oak

Have been excited to try Waterford. I’ve never had an Irish single malt and they’re doing some really cool (obsessive) tracking of their production. You can get lost on their site buried in farmers, barley type, yeast strains, soil, fermentation, and on and on and on...they even have recordings of farm sounds (seriously). It’s pretty complex for a whisky that’s only been aged just under 4 years. It does taste slightly young but it’s exciting to imagine where it will taste with a older age statement. N - light fruits, grain forward, citrus zest, slightly floral T - pear, dusty barley, cherry, some pepper F - oily finish and butterscotch sweet Would be fun to do a tasting of their others side by side to get the full “terroir” experience. Since I got a bottle went with Gaia which is a mix of multiple farms. It’s very tasty, maybe slightly overpriced for what you are getting now. But wanted to try the 1.1 to have a frame of reference for down the road. Waterford’s vision statement on their site ends with the fact they want to “create not just the most compelling Irish whisky, but the world’s most profound single malt.” Ambitious. I’ll enjoy trying their whisky over time as they embark on that journey.

Aroma is waxy with a strong buttery frosting note paired with a strong note of apples and that same Farmer’s Market aroma I got in the Rathclogh with tinges of toffee and notes of minerality; Palate has the Malt showing up heavily and starts to remind me of my beloved Roughstock but not as complex; Finish holds the true promise of what this will become with age and maturity and hits a nice pace of earthy/farmy, sweet and fruity.

Six things about Waterford: 1 - It’s not an Irish whisky, it’s a malt whisky made in Ireland. 2 - It’s made in Ireland because its owners believe the country has the best barley in the world. 3 - They are launching an insane number of different bottles in their first year of releases - dozens showcasing barleys from individual farms. 4 - For a barely legal whisky, it tastes remarkably and consistently good, based on my sampling of several European and US exclusives and this global release, not to mention two eminently drinkable varieties of new make. 5 - If you like the funky flavors of a good Springbank or a stinky cheese, you’ll enjoy the subtle barnyard aroma of many of the initial Waterford releases. 6 - Moreover, if you really want to sink your senses into the debate over whether barley, soil and all things “terroir” make a difference in whisky, then get yourself a selection of their single farm bottlings and compare the differences. Even the two new makes I tried were noticeably different. Of the ones I tried, my favorite of the European releases was the Ballykilcavan. It smells like a dairy farm: cream, barnyard, a hint of sulphur and soil. The palate is creamy and salty and the finish turns to sour fruit chews. The American single farm releases were slightly sweeter and for me were overshadowed by Gaia, a global release distilled from organic barley sourced from six farms rather than one. My tasting notes aren’t great, but the nose is lashings of custard, with a hint of barnyard to add complexity. The predominant flavor is creamy too, with a fizzy sherbet note. Regardless, I liked it enough to buy a bottle, which isn’t something I do often now. Whatever the method in their madness, Waterford is clearly onto something good.