Waterford Organic Gaia 1.1 Irish Single Malt Whisky

Mark Reynier is no stranger to the world of whisky. He was responsible for the renaissance of Bruichladdich, bringing his wine expertise and the importance of terroir into the equation. He opposed Bruichladdich being sold to Rmy Cointreau, which is why he eventually left when the take-over took place in 2012. Unwilling to give up on the industry he had grown to love, he acquired a former Guinness brewery in Waterford, Ireland, and transformed it into a distillery, continuing the tradition of single malt whisky in which terroir plays an integral part. Its in that state-of-the-art facility on the south-eastern coast of Ireland, that they have the finest materials at their disposal: pure spring water from ancient wells, passionate distillers, and some of the worlds finest barley.In Reyniers terroir-centered philosophy, barley is king. The most important is the location and manner of growing and harvesting. Waterford has contracts with 46 local barley farmers that cultivate the grass in 19 distinct soil types, and each farmers barley is distilled separately, capturing the essence of the land it was grown on. Each week a single farms barley is distilled, with total transparency and traceability you can check the current and past ones on their regularly-updated website. Each bottle comes with a TIREOIR code you can enter into the website to get access to a wealth of content related to the release.Six of those farms are organic and these get distilled together into Irelands first certified-organic whisky Waterford Organic Gaia 1.1. Matured in 42 percent first-fill American oak, 17 percent virgin American oak, 23 percent French oak, and 18 percent Vin Doux Naturel (sweet fortified wine) casks, the expression is bottled at 100 proof without chill filtration. "We have placed barley where and how it is grown at the heart of what we do, curious about where the real whisky flavour may be found. A natural progression of this philosophy is to see what not only single farm origins can accomplish but what organically grown barley can do when it is given the right platform," says Reynier of the first expression in their new Arcadian Series that is focused on alternative growing methods and radical growers. Grab one of these 24,000 bottles today!