Editor’s Be aware: This whiskey was offered to us as a evaluate pattern by the celebration behind it. Per our editorial insurance policies, this on no account influenced the end result of this evaluate.
The Irish whiskey scene, just like the American, is outlined partially by a mixture of conventional bigger manufacturers and a more moderen crop of craft-style shops. One among these youthful distilleries, Waterford Whisky, was based by Scotch trade veteran Mark Reyneir, previously of the forward-thinking Bruichladdich distillery. Exploration of terroir was a giant idea at Bruichladdich, and it’s one thing Reyneir introduced with him to Waterford.
The Waterford concentrate on terroir takes it right down to the granular, producing whiskeys exploring the barley of particular person farms that accomplice with the whiskey maker to supply grains. As an growth of this, the model not too long ago launched a “cuvee” concept, which marries collectively matured whiskeys from these single-origin expressions right into a “the entire – larger than merely the sum of its elements” thought.
“The pure development of our distinctive terroir mission was to observe within the footsteps of the legendary Grand Vins of Bordeaux or the Grande Marques of Champagne, and that’s to create our flagship cuvées,” stated Reynier on the time of its launch. “Our new artistic Cuvée Ideas, the place we layer collectively uniquely flavorsome Single Farm Origins, assist us to nice our most complicated, expressive, and profound whiskies.”
At present’s Providing
Three Cuvée Ideas have been launched to america to type the premise of this new core vary. Every one is described as bringing “a brand new dynamic to the distillery’s trademark barley-forward profile.”
The one being reviewed right here at present is Waterford Natural Cuvée Gaia. This expression brings collectively Eire’s solely natural malting barley growers throughout a number of vintages, representing six natural farms and two harvests in complete. Usually championed beneath Waterford’s Arcadian Farm Origin consideration, which focuses on “maverick growers whose inspirational ethos & lifestyle respects the land & the outdated methods within the pursuit of pure flavour over yield crucial,” what you might have here’s a four-year, seven-month-old Irish whiskey drawn from a mixture of first fill U.S. (28%), virgin U.S. (25%), “premium” French (19%) and vin doux naturel (28%) casks.
Bottled at 50% ABV and free from synthetic coloring and chill-filtration, Gaia is priced at $89.99.
