In case you still don’t believe in whiskey terroir, Waterford would like to have a word with you.

Waterford’s distillery sits on the outskirts of Waterford town (and county) in Ireland and on the banks of the River Suir. It’s a few miles from the crystal/glass house of the same name, but has no connection. It’s an Irish distillery by location, but in my mind, that’s really where the “Irish” part ends.

Founded by Bruichladdich reviver Mark Reynier, Waterford Whisky (note - no “e”) is on the site of a former Diageo brewery that produced malt syrups for beers like Guinness and Killkenney. The brewery itself has been on that site since 1792, the year Kentucky broke off from Virginia and became its own state.

Mark loved both Irish whiskey and Scotch single malt whisky, but was frustrated with the state of the former in particular. Speaking to The Irish Times in February of 2020, Mark said of Irish whiskey:

"Most of the whiskey business in Ireland is independent bottling. Almost all Irish whiskey comes from three distilleries, so while there may be over 100 labels on display at Dublin airport, most of it comes from the same few sources. It is a charade and it risks doing untold damage to Irish whiskey."

He’s not wrong. At the same time, though, he’s not out to create an Irish whiskey. Waterford was created as a radical experiment with two prongs: create a single malt whisky in Ireland and be as transparent as possible from farm to bottle.

Irish whiskey is not typically of the single malt variety as consumers understand it. It is mostly single pot still or blended or something in-between. The Scotch Whisky Association’s rules do not apply to Irish distillers aside from geographic denominations; still, upwards of 90-95% of Irish whisky is made at three distilleries: Bushmills in Northern Ireland (owned by Pernod Ricard), Cooley Distillery (owned by Beam Suntory), and Midleton, the granddaddy of distilleries, also owned by Pernod Ricard.

Midleton alone produces almost every Irish brand that will come to mind first: Jameson, Tullamore Dew, Powers, Paddy, Redbreast, Midleton Very Rare, and the Spot Whiskies. Jameson alone accounted for 75-80% of Irish whiskey sales worldwide according to data from 2019-2021.

So why did a Londoner who had revived a storied Scotch distillery want to create a new whisky brand making single malt in Ireland? One extremely controversial word: terroir.

Years ago, when Bruichladdich was coming online, Mark was told that the best barley in the world came from Waterford, Ireland. From his original background in the wine world, terroir wasn’t a question to Mark but an expectation. For whisky-makers, terroir is fraught with disagreement. Many distillers (mostly the larger ones, to be honest) and consumers will say terroir doesn’t exist in whiskey, and if you’ve grown up drinking only the heritage brands of bourbon, for example, you might be inclined to agree.

Personally, I find the argument against terroir to be ridiculous. Terroir unequivocally exists in whiskey, but I also believe it can be overwritten. If you’re harvesting grain from a single farm or select farmers or have a unique water source, the terroir is everything. It dictates the grain that can be grown, when it can be harvested, its character, what strains are viable. Terroir dictates the climate in which your whiskey ages, in temperature swings, humidity, aerosolized compounds, and elevation. The sheer variety of grain types horizontally and vertically is staggering, and it’s exhilarating to see distillers using these variations to their own design. I’ll shout out Middle West Spirits, Spirits of French Lick, Stoll & Wolfe, Black Button Distilling, Ironclad Distilling, Santa Fe Spirits, and Spirit of Yorkshire as just a handful incorporating terroir into their products, and there are dozens if not hundreds more that deserve credit, too.

On the other side of the terroir debate are those who want unbridled consistency (an intentional oxymoron), a homogeneity in the style of McDonald’s. Without calling anybody out, let’s use the heritage distillers as examples. If you buy a bottle of Maker’s Mark in New York, California, Texas, South Dakota, or Heathrow Duty Free, it will taste the same. A bottle of Evan Williams Bottled-in-Bond, Knob Creek Small Batch, Jack Daniel’s No. 7, and countless others follow that rule. To be very clear, that doesn’t mean these whiskies are bad (indeed, all of them are on my shelves at this moment), but it means that the terroir has been blended out. When dealing with massive volumes of grain, volumes so great that a single farm or single farmer cannot supply its entirety, terroir will inevitably be lost.

Think about it this way: homogeneity doesn’t mean terroir doesn’t exist, it means it has been purposefully eliminated. Terroir is a bad word in that case, a variation the customer won’t want. People want Maker’s to taste the same at home, at their local bar, and in a bar halfway across the world. There’s nothing wrong with wanting that consistency, only in using it to argue against terroir’s existence. If Jim Beam somehow decided that they would keep grains from each farm supplying them separate, mashed, fermented, and distilled that, and bottled it with the farms identified, I guarantee the bottles would taste differently. Perhaps the classic peanut note would be a through-line, but variations would exist. Maker’s DNA series proved how different entry proofs affect a final product; maybe their next project should be the Maker’s origins project.

Even in these mega-distilleries, terroir and climate can still eke out a presence. Elijah Craig Barrel Proof batches taste differently for multiple reasons, including what time of year the whiskey is dumped - if it’s batch A, it’s dumped in the cold, when the whiskey is most contracted from the wood. In batch C, it’s dumped in the height of summer, with more whiskey expanded into the wood. It might not be the classic definition of terroir, but it is an example of current microclimate affecting the taste and character of a whiskey.

There’s one more area of terroir I want to explore - peat - but I’ll save that for a few other reviews from Glass Revolution Importers.

Circling back to Waterford - Mark wants Waterford to lead the way in “proving” terroir in whiskey. He and his team have barley samples from each farm, and every bottle has a terroir code you can enter at waterfordwhiskey.com for more information about that bottle’s provenance. They’re working with local farmers, using organic and biodynamic grain, experimenting with hydroponic farms, all to see what happens.

He’s aware of his Scottish detractors as much as the Americans who aren’t aware enough of the issue to be detractors or supporters quite yet. He’s also founded a rum distillery in Grenada that takes the Waterford idea for grain and swaps it for sugarcane, producing hyperlocal rums from sugarcane fields close by (all with their own terroir codes, of course).

Just take a look at this link for the information provided. Every cask, every farm, every farmer, every step, more than could possibly be put on a dozen bottles put together: https://waterfordwhisky.com/teireoir/organic-gaia-2-1/.

This isn’t your typical Irish whiskey any more than it’s a Scotch single malt whisky. It’s a single malt whisky made in Ireland, and it just might change the world.

Disclosure: Thank you to Raj Sabharwal for providing this sample with no constraints.

Waterford Irish Single Malt Whisky Organic Gaia Edition 2.1: Specs

Classification: Irish Single Malt Whisky

Origin: Waterford Whisky

Growers: Jason Stanley, Paddy Tobin, Trevor Harris, John Mallick, Pat Booth, & Alan Jackson

Mashbill: 100% Malted Barley (Overture and Taberna Strains), Fermented with Mauri Distiller’s Yeast for 181 hours

Proof: 100 (50% ABV)

Age: 1527 Days (4 Years, 2 Months, 7 Days)

Cooperage: 39% First-Fill US (Ex-Heaven Hill), 17% Virgin US (Kelvin and Speyside Cooperages), 19% Premium French (Chateau Lafite Rothschild and Margaux), 25% Vin Doux Naturel (Rivesaltes, Marsala, Porto)

Location: Waterford, Ireland

Waterford Irish Single Malt Whisky Organic Gaia Edition 2.1 Price: $90

Official Website

Waterford Irish Single Malt Whisky Organic Gaia Edition 2.1 Review: Tasting Notes

Eye: Golden hay. Medium rims and quick, syrupy legs.

Nose: Golden raisins galore. Unoaked (yet fortified) white wine. A dark, unctuous date note builds quickly, adding body. Mild proof on the second sniff opens a bit of oak and baking spice. Full-bodied and rich.

Palate: More oak immediately shows, though nowhere near enough to be considered oaky. Reminiscent of a heavily-bodied Speyside/Highland Scotch, perhaps a Mortlach-meets-Dalmore profile. Incredibly vinous and rich. Dark chocolate and coffee beans explode on the mid-palate in a mature malty bomb. Mouthfeel is syrupy and chewy, reminding me of oatmeal raisin cookies made with golden raisins. Light oak tingles the entire palate as the whiskey coats every part of my mouth.

Finish: Sultanas, cinnamon, and brioche - a creamy bread pudding with a slightly acidic creme anglaise for brightness. Long, fruity, and chocolaty. Never seems to end.

Overall: Stunning. Drinks slightly above proof and continues to evolve, circle back to the center, and branch out again. The depth of flavor is outstanding. Coating, delicious, and remarkably composed. A must-buy.

Final Rating: 8.1

10 | Insurpassable | Nothing Else Comes Close

9 | Incredible | Extraordinary

8 | Excellent | Exceptional

7 | Great | Well above average

6 | Very Good | Better than average

5 | Good | Good, solid, ordinary

4 | Has promise but needs work

1-3 | Let’s have a conversation