Meet Waterford Distillery at Maltstock
Waterford’s personal Ian O’Brien, who very graciously offered this nice Irish whisky a few occasions now for our company, will likely be current this 12 months too! Your probability to satisfy with this nice character, ask all about Waterford and share a relaxed dram! There are nonetheless tickets accessible for individuals who aren’t coming but! www.maltstock.com/store
We predict Waterford Distillery is a specifically relaxed distillery! Younger at coronary heart, combining previous and new. Discover out extra under about what makes this whisky particular and expertise this through the Masterclass or Drink with… Ian session!
Bob, Klaas, Stan & Teun
Ian O’Brien
The place does the pure flavour of single malt whisky come from?
From barley, after all. From its ingredient. In any other case why drink whisky over, say, rum, from sugar cane, Cognac, from grapes, Calvados, from apples?
It’s barley which imbues single malt with its singular complexity — with, astonishingly, over 2,000 particular person flavour compounds.
However we consider there may be extra to it than that. There must be, in any other case whisky can be straightforward. So barley — certain — however the place was that barley grown? How was that barley grown? Is it a contemporary selection, or a extra flavourful, if difficult to develop, heritage selection?
Then there may be the matter of the care with which one’s ingredient is sorted via the malthouse and distillery. Not simply within the eye-catching, brochure-friendly gleaming copper stills and funky, dusky cask warehouses, however within the more-important phases, when the flavours of 1’s barley is really unlocked. The milling and mashing to create one’s wort. Most significantly of all, the fermentation, the place one’s palette of flavours is established.
Whisky for the curious drinker
We’re on a quest to unearth whisky’s most pure flavours. We’re curious drinkers at coronary heart; interested by each stage of whisky’s journey from barleyfield to bottle; curious to find how way more flavour might be coaxed at every particular person step.
Above all, we’re fascinated about sharing our findings with different curious drinkers. Traceability. Transparency. Every thing laid open for dialogue and discovery. Which is why you’re studying this. A real whisky nerd’s information to pure flavour.
107 Single Farm Origins
For a very long time, till it was conclusively confirmed, there have been many who believed that terroir — the three dimensional impact of land, soil and microclimate, so basic to the world’s nice wines — couldn’t apply to whisky.
However barley is a plant, like some other. Nourished by the soils it grows in, the side of its land, the climate patterns to which it’s topic. And its flavours deviate from these of the identical barley planted elsewhere accordingly.
These variations usually are not refined. One merely has to take a look at images taken within the excessive coastal barleyfields of Hook Head, and the plush, raised, inland barleyfields of Ballymorgan — images taken on the identical day — to understand simply how totally different barley, even the identical number of barley, planted in the identical week and in the identical county, might be.
Native barley
Which is why we select to work with 107 particular person Irish Single Farms, individually harvesting, storing, malting, fermenting, distilling and maturing their barley. Successfully creating 107 particular person Waterford Single Malt Whiskies.
Eire is completely suited to rising barley, and we consider the barley grown in south-east Eire is one of the best on the earth. Which is why we select to distil right here — it is sensible — go the place one of the best substances are. We wish whole provenance and traceability; our bottles learn ‘Irish Single Malt Whisky’ and we consider that our barley needs to be Irish, not imported in bulk from overseas in a nasty harvest.
The previous methods
However we’ve discovered that the character of barley might be additional ameliorated by how it’s grown. Which is why we’ve cultivated our Arcadian Barley sequence, revelling within the depth to be discovered when returning to the previous methods.
Natural farming. Eschewing liquid fertilisers, chemical therapies? Certain — we take all we will get. In reality we distil extra Natural whisky than anybody else on the planet. Biodynamics, that iconoclastic sequence of esoteric preparations now championed by the world’s biggest winemakers? Sure, that too. All of Eire’s biodynamic barley goes via our stills … and our blind sensory evaluation has confirmed it to be extra intense in flavour than conventionally-grown.
Within the phrases of our Terroir Specialist, Angelita: “Biodynamic spirit appears to have way more depth of flavour happening – that’s what everybody retains saying on the panel. There’s lots of complexity. It’s virtually just like the attributes are talking a lot louder. So a standard farm on the exact same soil, on the vary of zero to fifteen on our sensory evaluation scale, might need a rating of seven for floral notes, perhaps natural will fetch a 9, however the biodynamic would get an eleven. So it appears to be a stronger notice than within the standard.”
As for Heritage varieties, grains misplaced to time and the Irish panorama, we’ve labored with the Irish Division of Agriculture, Meals & the Marine to revive a number of of them. Starting life as mere 50 gram packets in a seed financial institution, we’ve upscaled them to sufficient to sow a farm with, and distil at a business degree. Misplaced flavours, born once more. A style of actual rarity.
Final flavour extraction
Each farm, each harvest, sends its barley to the purpose-built, state-of-the-art facility that we name the Cathedral of Barley. Our terroir enabler. It’s a large logistical enterprise. 36 bays, every holding 100 tonnes of inexperienced barley. With out the Cathedral we couldn’t presumably deal with each farm individually. Terroir and traceability can be gone.
As soon as malted to express, particular person specs, the barley arrives at our distillery, The Facilitator, to be processed via our Technological Trinity, distinctive within the distilling world. The hydromill, for anaerobic, underwater milling, stopping oxidation of the grist, preserving the purity of the barley’s flavour. The incremental mash converter, for optimised enzyme exercise; precision of flavour within the conversion of starch to sugar. Lastly the mash filter system; 54 in-line pneumatic presses which take away draff fully, permitting the purest, clearest wort — whole terroir extraction.
Week-long fermentations
Fermentation — now that is the place the creation of actual depth of flavour is available in. Fairly than a rushed, get-the-job-done, most output, quick 50-hour-job method, we’re speaking a protracted, 120+ hour fermentation which, crucially, takes place in exactly temperature-controlled situations between 30-32 levels C. Extra sustained and constant yeast exercise, and the promotion of a flavour-enrichening secondary malolactic fermentation. Extra flavour compounds unlocked.
Low-and-slow distillation
Distillation is probably not the place flavours are created — that’s fermentation, and the barley itself — however it’s the place flavours can refined and full-bodied uncutousness of spirit is established. The previous, by proscribing oneself to probably the most miserly of center cuts — we take a ‘floating’ 10% center reduce, distinctive to every Single Farm Origin, forgoing a possible 60,000 litres of spirit yearly. The latter by working the stills at a low-and-slow trickle — 400 litres per hour, versus the extra commonplace 1,500. Extra rectification, extra purity and gravitas, extra weight, extra flavour.
Good wooden
Equally, the wooden most definitely doesn’t ‘make’ the whisky — or what can be the purpose of all that effort earlier than filling casks — however something lower than probably the most thought-about wooden coverage can definitely break it. All of our Single Farm Origins go into the identical portfolio of fine wooden to be matured within the maritime situations of our Ballygarran warehouses — a whopping third of our whole manufacturing expense.
First fill and Virgin American oak for fragrant lactones; vanillas, lotions, caramels, Premium French Oak and VDNs for depth and gravitas; spices, darkish fruits, texture. However regardless of the expense, merely a supporting act to the dominant Waterford character of bakery-fresh bread and, most significantly of all, the person flavours of the barley’s terroir.
Pure whisky
It must go with out saying that the likes of chill-filtration, synthetic colouring and different components are absolute no-nos.
All are bottled at a power of fifty%, preserving the oils and construction, and each bottle comes with its personal distinctive TÉIROIR code, verifying each element of the whisky’s manufacturing — integrity and traceability baked in — so that you don’t need to take our phrase for it.
An ongoing quest… an invite to the curious
This actually solely scratches the floor of what we do at Waterford. We might go on to let you know in regards to the classic impact we’re seeing within the barley from particular person farms. About Cuvées, the place particular person farms are layered, after maturation, by Head Distiller Ned to create final complexity and profundity. About chopping Irish peat — the primary used to kiln Irish malt in generations. About crossing barley varieties to create our personal, engineered for flavour over effectivity or yield.
There’s a lot to share, and you’ll find most of it on our web site. In spite of everything, the curious trendy whisky drinker is aware of that one e-mail, even a wordy one like this, might by no means absolutely sum up the entire of whisky’s advanced elements.
So that is our invitation. To the curious whisky drinker. To the drinker who believes there may be extra to whisky than copper and oak. Waterford Whisky is on a quest to unearth whisky’s most pure flavours. We hope you’re curious sufficient to hitch us.
Tickets
Get relaxed whilst you can!! Tickets can be found from:
www.maltstock.com/store
Trying ahead to assembly you all!
