9. A Fireside Chat with the Waterford Whisky Makers
Terroir-Driven: The Waterford Whisky Podcast
In the latest episode of the season, we've gathered the team behind the Arcadian Farm Origin Whiskies from Waterford Distillery for a fireside chat. After eight episodes covering the various groundbreaking whisky releases in the series, we wanted to bring the whisky makers together to follow up on some of the topics covered this season, get some additional insights on the whiskies released and try to sneakily get some information on future releases. In this fireside chat, we're joined by Head Distiller Ned Gahan, Head Brewer Neil Conway and Terroir Coordinator Angelita...
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8. Waterford Distillery Brings the Smoke
Terroir-Driven: The Waterford Whisky Podcast
With two peated whisky releases now on the market, the team from Waterford Distillery reveals the unlikely journey that the distillery took on its way to releasing these expressions, we’ll hear about challenges inherent within the Irish whisky landscape of producing peated whiskies the Waterford way and we’ll discuss proposed legislation that could threaten the very use of peat by distilleries in Ireland.
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7. A Shared Vision for Peated Irish Whisky
Terroir-Driven: The Waterford Whisky Podcast
For almost 20 years one solitary Irish whisky represented the peated category. Today that number has swelled to almost fifty different peated expressions, with more on the way. Are palates warming to the smoky characteristics of a peated whisky or has there long been a lack of supply? Many Irish whisky brand owners have now put smoke and peat front and center in their ranges. In this episode we meet the makers betting on peat.
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7. A Shared Vision for Peated Irish Whisky
Terroir-Driven: The Waterford Whisky Podcast
For almost 20 years one solitary Irish whisky represented the peated category. Today that number has swelled to almost fifty different peated expressions, with more on the way. Are palates warming to the smoky characteristics of a peated whisky or has there long been a lack of supply? Many Irish whisky brand owners have now put smoke and peat front and center in their ranges. In this episode we meet the makers betting on peat.
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6. Bringing Peated Whisky Back: Peat's Turbulent History in Ireland
Terroir-Driven: The Waterford Whisky Podcast
In releasing its first two peated Irish Single Malt Whiskies to the market, Waterford Distillery has not only made history for the distillery but for the world of Irish whisky, being the first distillery to make a whisky entirely from Irish barley dried over Irish peat in generations. Often overshadowed by its Scottish neighbours when it comes to talk of smoky or peated whiskies, Ireland's historic use of peat tells its own remarkable story of cultural and economic development, of communities built and indistries created. In this episode of the Waterford Whisky Podcast, we examine that...
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5. From 50 Grams to 50 Barrels - How A Dormant Barley Variety Became Whisky
Terroir-Driven: The Waterford Whisky Podcast
For years, once-widespread barley varieties such as Hunter, Goldthorpe and Old Irish lay dormant, yet preserved, in the Department of Agriculture's Seed Bank outside Dublin. These grains held the flavours and stories of a different time where different approaches to farming, brewing and distilling reigned. If Waterford Distillery was to continue its quest of pursuing whisky flavour and "the old ways" the team knew that what they sought lay in cold storage in the laboratories of the Seed Bank. In this episode we'll share how Waterford Distillery and its growing partners turned 50...
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4. Rediscovering Historical Grains in the Pursuit of Flavour
Terroir-Driven: The Waterford Whisky Podcast
At the turn of the 20th century, farmers in the south of Ireland led the barley breeding movement, creating strong, resilient varieties of barley grown to be malted for use in beer and whisky making. Were these grains more flavourful? Did they exhibit characteristics that we may have interest in today? Most of these historic, heritage varieties have long since died out, but five years ago the team at Waterford Distillery wondered if they might be able to resurrect some of these long-lost grains. They began by exploring the history of Ireland's heritage barley varieties.
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3. How The Distillery Adapts to Biodynamic & Organic Whisky Making
Terroir-Driven: The Waterford Whisky Podcast
The growing, the farmers, the soil, the barley are all well documented at Waterford Distillery. Once the barley is picked up from the growers it begins the journey that will lead ultimately to the distillery. In the last season of the podcast, we broke down the entire process from growing to bottling and shared in detail the unique process at the distillery whereby each farm’s barley is stored, malted, brewed and distilled separately from other farms' harvests. When it comes to biodynamic and organic whisky making, however, there are extra complexities to ensure compliance with the...
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2. Driven by Beliefs & Vision: The Organic & Biodynamic Approach
Terroir-Driven: The Waterford Whisky Podcast
In this week’s episode we’re continuing the exploration of biodynamic farming and growing that we began investigating last week and we’re going to get a better understanding of what makes a farm, a grain and a whisky organic. We’ll hear from the growers behind the barley that eventually ends up in Waterford Distillery’s biodynamic and organic whiskies and we’re heading to the central valley of California to hear from a grower who is led by the spiritual approach to biodynamic farming and we’ll hear from a best-in-class pioneer of the biodynamic wine world in France.
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1. Introducing the Arcadian Farm Origins
Terroir-Driven: The Waterford Whisky Podcast
In this season we’re following the flavour, pulling back the covers on Waterford Distillery’s unique approach and philosophy when it comes to barley, focusing on the Arcadian Farm Origins, a collection of whiskies with their roots in how whisky used to be made. They represent real rarity, due to the scarcity of the raw material. Before the mass production demands of today dictated what an entire industry grew, how they grew it and how they malted, fermented, distilled and matured, there were different approaches to whisky making - approaches tied more to nature, to age old...
info_outlineWaterford Distillery’s unique whisky-making approach is centered around capturing the unique flavours present in each of the grower’s fields of barley. Before distilling can concentrate the flavours, there are a few essential steps to help extract those flavours from the grain and preserve their terroir.
In this episode of Terroir-Driven: The Waterford Whisky podcast, we’ll follow the barley from the field to the maltster and on to the brewing stage with Grace O’Reilly, Waterford Distillery’s agronomist and Neil Conway, Head Brewer.