Waterford Grattansbrook 1.1 Single Farm Irish Malt

This is a single malt Irish whisky from Waterford's Single Farm Origin series. It's made exclusively with barley grown on the Grattansbrook farm in County Kildare. It's aged in a mix of first-fill US oak, premium French oak, and Vin Doux Naturel (sweet wine) casks, which add layer upon layer of complexity. Grattansbrook 1.1 is all about showcasing terroir – how the specific environment where the barley is grown influences the whisky’s flavour. It’s part of Waterford’s mission to prove that even within a single type of whisky, the origin of the barley can create wildly diverse and delicious expressions.

Waterford Whisky may have gone into administration in late 2024, but since its demise, its cult following has only grown and bottles are steadily becoming harder to find. Founded in 2015 by Mark Reynier, they only had a short life, but made a big impact. Their USP was exploring terroir's impact on whisky by championing a barley-forward approach and, in collaboration with individual farmers, selecting grain from unique soils and microclimates and distilling each harvest separately to create distinctive single origin whiskies that showed clear, farm-by-farm flavour influence. Sadly it was a project not destined for success, but such was their reputation that remaining bottlings are slowly becoming collector's items.