This past Sunday, TheMossyMuse (aka Bryne Valenzuela, aka my better half) and I watched a new documentary called The Water of Life. This film celebrates the innovations that saved the Scotch Whisky industry from collapse in the 80s and chronicles many scotch legends like Jim McEwen, Dr. Bill Lumsden and Dr. Rachel Barrie. One of the concepts the film considers is the impact of terroir on the character of a spirit. Many feel that the process of milling, mashing, fermenting, and distilling erases any effects terroir will have on a spirit. Maverick distiller and whiskey businessman Mark Reynier, who along with Jim McEwen resurrected Bruichladdich, disagrees.
Mark took his disagreements to the point of founding Irish Whiskey brand Waterford, which is one of the first spirits to completely source their barley from local farms around their distillery in Ireland. They’ve applied the concept of farm-to-table and modified it into farm-to-bottle. What sets Waterford apart is its claim that you can taste and smell the difference their barley makes. Does it hold true? Watching The Water of Life inspired us to open our bottle of Waterford’s Irish Single Malt Bannow Island Edition 1.2. The barley used to make this whisky came from a single farm.
Nosing: The nose bursts forth with a brightness uncommon to malt whiskey. Hints of grapes and wheat and new mown hay follow the initial citrusy brightness and settle into a damp musty cask. Every nosing brings forth something slightly different, but the nose is simply ALIVE.
Taste: The mouth feel is crisp and clean, but oily enough to linger a bit. Oranges and vanilla come through with almost a cream-sicle flavor. Nosing after the first taste brings in hints of newly sawn lumber and straw. In the second taste the cream-sicle yields to pure cereals and clean fresh fields trimmed of hay. The grasses and grains come through in a way that feels like a fresh field and clean rural air.
I’ve truly never tasted anything so vibrant, and I think the terroir may have something to do with it.
I need to watch this film, i think there is definitely something to where the grains are from!
Very good write up and your notes are spot on.