Waterford Whisky's Terroir Project with Tasting Notes

Mark Reynier and the Waterford team have launched a whisky terroir project with the intention to prove terroir. Along with the results of this three year study, they plan to release their first bottles of whiskies in early 2020. These whiskies will be terroir focused, with each brand coming from one specific farm. Later, they’ll release the cuvée style whisky that’ll be a mix of many farms from a specific vintage. 

So with that in mind, how many types of new make does Waterford Whisky distill? Just one—they make Single Malt Irish Whisky. How many flavours can they achieve? As it turns out, plenty. When visiting the distillery in September (See my Instagram Stories), I had the unusual experience of tasting a bunch of new make. It all tasted different. 

This is unusual because normally there’s just the one new make that comes off the still. In fact, in every distillery I’ve ever visited, if the new make tasted different from batch to batch that be an indication of something going wrong. If you start with a consistent product, you’re more likely to have a consistent whisky. But that’s not what Waterford Whisky is going for. They’re focused on vintages. 

Listen to The whisky Topic podcast (episode 134) for the full history of these stills.

Waterford prides themselves on distilling to highlight the variety of barley grain by type, climate, and region. When barley is harvested for Waterford, the grain is stored in its own bin where it’s kept until distillation. Once ready, Waterford Distillery is dedicated to fermenting and distilling that specific harvest of barley from that single plot of land. 

CEO of Waterford, Mark Reynier, has a history with terroir from the previous distillery he owned. At Bruichladdich, the terroir project was just getting started. It wasn’t perfect. Barley grains got mixed up at various levels of whisky making. Mark Reynier realized that to prove terroir, he needed to document every step of the process. When he started Waterford Distillery, he built a system with a set of processes purpose built to demonstrate terroir. 

Everything is meticulously documented. The team developed their own computer tracking system noting everything from the weather during the growing season, to the chemical make-up at every stage of the whisky making process. Each barrel of spirit already has a story at its first moments of maturation toward being a whisky (in three or more years). 

As you’ll see by the tasting notes, they’re all different. From a blending perspective, this is a fantastic palate of flavours for the potential of making mind-blowing whiskies. 

Exclusive Patreon content is available from this trip.

Want to know more? Have a listen to Tasting Terroir from Within Waterford’s Whisky Library and Whisky Terroir with Mark Reynier of Waterford Distillery. 

Waterford New Make Terroir Tasting Notes - New Make

Daniel Delaney 2017 Olympus variety 
Category: New Make
Location: Cullohill, Laois 
Distilled: April 24th, 2019 
ABV: 71.07% 

Nose: Malted barley sweetness, light peppery notes, freshly cut raw potato. Classic malted barley new make nose from his perspective. The hard lemon skin citrus cuts through the sweetness nicely. There’s an herbal note to this at fist, but it’s more like a light spattering of dry black tea leaves at the bottom of a cup. The vegetable note of new make is secondary, but present. Touch of water: More pepper and dark chocolate notes. 

Palate: Beyond typical new make flavours, there’s a nice waxy chocolate buttery note on the palate. The peppery spice is light but present. The chocolate and licorice combination creates a nice numbing sensation on the palate (likely because of all that booze). The vegetable note tastes more like spoiled fruit than vegetation, like you’d get in a wine that’s sat around too long. The finish is buttery and peppery. The sweetness is quite inviting. Sweeter, vanilla bitters sweetness and sharpness. The more water one adds, the more the chocolates come out.

Mark Brown 2017 Olympus variety 
Category: New Make
Location: Enniscorthy, Wexford
Distilled: March 11th, 2019 
ABV: 71.35% 

Nose: Because of the sweetness on the nose I wouldn’t guess this is an unaged spirit on a blind pour, though it definitely does smell like a young spirit. Has a lovely freshly cut juicy pear sweetness to it. The vanilla sweetness comes through, and while it has some complex herbal notes, they’re hard to pinpoint at full strength. With water added, it’s sweet pear-like-sweetness is replaced with more of a raw potato note. I do get more chocolate and anise. 

Palate: Nice pepper spice reminiscent of 100% rye spirit. It’s buttery smooth, with nice little bit of peppery bits to help along with the flavour. A dark chocolate waxy note adds a nice complexity to this. There are touches of licorice notes for certain, and the pepper note is mild in density but sharp almost like paprika. It sits on the palate quite nicely. With a touch of water, the pepper spice intensifies as does the barley sweetness. Licorice note is upped as well. Sweetness is there. It’s quite nice! It has a little bit of earthy agricultural funk to it. That’s not a negative. It gives it more character. It’ll likely oxidize out. 

Single Farm Vatting, Single Vintage

Richard Raftice’s Irina 2015
Age: 1,145 days 
ABV: 50% 
Category: Single farm vatting of 35% American 1st fill, 20% American new, 25% French, and 20% VDN 

Nose: Smooth caramel sweetness, dark peppery spice, touch of candied orange, notes of cola. 

Palate: A nice nutty note kicks off this sampling, with a surprisingly little bit of caramel sweetness (considering the nose), and a light peppery note. It’s woody in that fresh char note from the American oak, but the malted barley sweetness and chocolate notes come through quite nicely. The chocolaty note is quite nice, and consistent. The orange citrus note carries through nicely into the finish. 

The Kelly Brother’s Tabernacle 2015
Age: 1120 Days
ABV: 50%
Category: Single farm vatting of 35% American 1st fill, 20% American new, 25% French, and 20% VDN 

Nose: Nutty, coca-cola sweetness, soft caramel notes, and a light orange citrus. The nuttiness is surprisingly strong but balances out with the cola soda sweet and sharpness. 

Palate: Chocolaty, spicy, herbal (licorice, vanilla bitters), mouth-watering buttery notes. The nuttiness found on the nose is less present. It’s dry with the VDN casks presenting dried fruit and a dry buttery finish. It has touches of that bubble gum sweetness from the French Oak, and it’s nicely off-set by the spice of the first fill American oak. There are still notes of new make on this, it needs a little more time or a different vatting, but this is really darn close. 

Random Individual Cask Tasting Notes

Edward Harpur from June 23rd, 2016
Sample date: January 4th, 2019
Category: American First Fill 
Cask: 4005
ABV: 68.15% 

Nose: Interesting touches of caramel sweetness, candied lemon citrus, and hints of nuttiness. The caramel is really lovely. Soft, sweet, and present. 

Palate: Terrific peppery buttery spice, loads of vanilla sweetness, and a nice blood orange zest. This is a single cask, so it’s not intended to be well rounded, but it has an absolute perfect start and finish. The nuttiness comes through, but only barely, because of the other overpowering flavours that really push the envelop. With a touch of water, it’s even more peppery and buttery. Great finishing notes.

The Pink French Oak Whisky 
ABV (and everything else): Unknown 
Note: Ned poured this one for at the warehouse. 

Nose: Definitely comes with that potato-like vegetable new make note, so this one still needs time. However, beyond that, the barley nutty sweetness is rounding out well considering. With a little water it noses more like an ice wine, with a bigger focus on the same sweet notes. 

Palate: Wallop of tangy orange sweetness, touches of peppery spice, lots of butter. It’s bubble gum note is big, but because of all the other flavours presented, it’s balanced. There’s so much volume to each sip, it’s a heavy drink, that it takes a few sips for your palate to acclimate. Once it does, it’s all honey sweet combined with a cherry and chocolaty note. It takes you right back to one of those truffles, but the chocolate is dark chocolate. With water you lose some of the chocolate elements, but you gain the sweet notes. It’s syrupy either way! With water, though, the syrup note is more maple syrup than honey.