Whenever the folks from the Waterford distillery make the trek from Ireland to visit with local retailers, whiskey fans and journalists, they’re sure to cause a stir. Why? Because they’re the enemy of the whiskey snobs.
They believe the barley is the star of the drink, not the cask. They believe that there is nothing special about filtered water or the fact that a distillery might be located near some fantastic spring. They’re nonplussed about aged whiskeys; their belief is that the body of the drink comes from the distilling process. If you do it right, you don’t need the cask to make up your shortfalls.
And, they believe Irish whiskey should be made with Irish barley — which isn’t always the case with products that come from Irish distillers.
Head distiller Ned Gahan was in Edmonton last week, leading a group of whiskey merchants, aficionados and journalists through five offerings from the Irish distillery, which has yet to celebrate its 10th anniversary. So, the single-source Hook Head and Lakefield varieties — along with the biodynamic Luna, the organic Gaia and the Cuvée blend — are all young whiskeys. The reason Waterford used dark blue bottles is so whiskey snobs don’t look at the pale colour of the drink and equate that with poor quality.
“If you take the time to do things right at the start, it pays forward that in three years, it tastes older than a three-year old whiskey.”
The folks at Waterford are big believers that terroir exists in barley; that the taste of the whiskey will take on flavours based on the topography and climate of the farms from which the barley is sourced. While there will be disbelievers, my palette preferred the Lakefield to the Hook Head, though many of my companions at this event voted the opposite way. The Lakefield had a toasted-nut quality, while the Hook Head had more oils and a sweetness that lingered. Before I go all whiskey snob on you, remember that whiskey is quite complex, and no two palettes will pick up exactly the same thing. What’s important is whether you enjoy it or not — and you shouldn’t feel like you’re the only one who doesn’t “get it” when you don’t like a whiskey that has a bunch of gold and silver medals on the label.
The mantra at Waterford is terroir, traceability and transparency. The distillery keeps the information on all the bottles it produces, so you can find out when it was made, the distilling temperature and what grains were used. Heck, Waterford even hired a sound engineer to record the sounds of the farms from where the barley is sourced.
“The three Ts are like a three legged stool,” said Gahan. ”Take away one of the Ts, and it falls over.”
Waterford uses a slow distillation process, a minimum of 120 hours. It sources casks from French wineries, but don’t think it’s about soaking up the wine and sherry flavours. When Waterford gets them, they’re steam cleaned, because they want the oak and barley to work together. It’s that barley that’s supposed to be the star, not the fact that the barrel once held a fine French vintage.
“The barley is the king and queen and the cask is there to do its magic,” said Gahan.
