About Waterford Single Farm Origin Sheestown Edition 1.2 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 Rémy 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. It's 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 world's finest barley.
In Reynier's 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 farmer's barley is distilled separately, capturing the essence of the land it was grown on. Each week a single farm's 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 TÉIREOIR code you can enter into the website to get access to a wealth of content related to the release.
The Sheestown Edition 1.2 is the second release of the highly successful 1.1 edition and features Irish barley from Sheestown, a high-quality terroir that sits just outside the historic town of Kilkenny. The first crop distillation was grown on undulated, well-drained lowland soil, predominantly derived from limestone, by Phil O’Brien, father of one of the distillery workers. Like the previous editions, this spirit has also been matured in French wine casks, first-fill bourbon barrels, virgin oak barrels, and Vin Doux Naturel (VDN) casks, in different ratios.
About Irish Whiskey
Contrary to popular belief that Scots invented whisk(e)y, Irish whiskey was mentioned almost a century before its Scottish brother.
Its origin comes from the perfume distilling monks who decided to tweak the recipe a bit, creating Irish whiskey.
Irish whiskey doesn’t have a lot of rules and regulations to be considered “pure” and can be made with various grains and processes, as long as it is aged for at least three years in wooden casks and has a max ABV of 94.8%.
If you’d like to check out our impressive selection of “Uisce Beatha,” find your new favorite in the Best reviewed Irish whiskeys, and explore our treasury of rare & hard to find Irish whiskeys.
