06/08/2023
Chapter 27
A chat with...Mark Reynier (Waterford Distillery) - #23
This time we are moving to Ireland, and apart from changing whisk(e)y country of origin, we will also discuss a completely different way of conceiving it…
We are talking about the Waterford Distillery, created in 2015 by Mark Reynier, who converted an ex-Guinness Brewery in Waterford, in the South of Ireland to set up something completely unseen before in the whisky (or whiskey) industry. We had already introduced Mark in Chapter 16, whom is now applying his combined wine and whisky knowledge at Waterford, after having spent decades as a wine importer and merchant and after having rebuilt the Bruichladdich distillery on Islay, and founded IB Murray McDavid over the past 40+ years of his career.
The whole point of the Waterford distillery is to approach whiskey and its production as it would be done with wine production, where the terroir is the main character. As for the winemaking, the distillery wants to enhance the combination of factors given by the terroir , hence including soil, climate, and environment, which would give to the bottled whiskeys their distinctive characters. The same production, distilling and ageing process is applied to different ingredients sourced from different farms.
We found this an extremely interesting topic, and have asked some questions to Mark, in order to know more directly by who introduced this concept.
Let’s see what he told us…
Hi Mark, thank you for taking the time to chat with us. Please introduce yourself, and tell us a little bit about your whisky journey so far.
Two decades in the wine trade – from owning a Grand Cru vineyard, a third generation wine
merchant, importer, bottler.
Then a leap across to over two decades in whisky and rum: first as an independent bottler, resurrecting Bruichladdich Distillery on Islay, buying a former Guinness brewery that became Waterford Distillery in Ireland and building, from scratch, Renegade Rum Distillery in Grenada (see mention).
When and how did you join this growing industry?
That is a long, long story.
It started with winning a £1000 bottle of Balvenie in 1985, a chance encounter with Jack Milroy, owner of Milroy’s, and an impromptu tasting with Jack who wanted to buy back the bottle.
Most of those samples I could give or take. But the one from Bruichladdich… well that was something else. The rest is, as they say, history.
Now tell us a bit more about Waterford distillery, what is it that makes it stand out in the whisky industry?
Where to begin?
The fact that we use only Irish-grown barley, sourced from over a hundred individual growers, and kept as an individual farm unit from field to barrel. That we’re the world’s largest producers of organic and biodynamic whisky.
That the distillery itself is a technological marvel, with totally unusual kit designed to extol barley’s flavour: a HydroMill for anaerobicmilling; Mash Filter – our terroir extractor. Or perhaps our week-long thermoregulated fermentations, which allow for a secondary malolactic fermentation to take place.
Perhaps our portfolio of the world’s finest French and American Oak – a third of our production cost, unsurpassed in the industry – which means we have no need to finish whiskies because we start them properly.
Can you tell us what Waterford's target audience is?
We are striving to make the most naturally flavoursome whiskies on the planet. That is our entire purpose.
The vision begins with a focus on the raw material, barley – the very plant that gives whisky its flavour, its whisky-ness – and not everyone is interested in talking about barley. Therefore we need to find those people; they’re often wine lovers, food lovers, some whisky lovers jaded with modern production values.
But, young or old, male or female, they are all curious about flavour. That is Waterford’s target audience.
Can you tell us how you select your casks, barley and farms, and anticipate anything about what we can expect to see next?
Relatively the casks is easy: everything, the whole year’s 35 Single Farm Origins (SFO), go in to the same profile of French and American oak – both virgin and first fill – and fortified sweet wine casks that we call VDN (Vin Doux Naturel). That’s 200 casks per SFO, roughly 50-50 between French and American, and that is further subdivided, roughly, 20, 50, 30% between virgin (for colour) first fill and VDN (sweetness).
Each SFO is a self contained bottling in its own right, and of course the profile offers other intriguing opportunities… We have distilled over 110 SFOs to date with the original line up selected on barley cultivation experience. Over time we have refined the selection – some farmers have dropped us for being too restrictive in our agronomic requirements, while others we have dropped as not being appropriate enough. Equally, younger farmers are more attracted to our project, just as we have identified exciting new terroirs too.
Bringing several SFO’s terroir-defined flavours together – our cuvée concept, a wine trade idea – provides us with ultimate complexity and this is the aim of the project: single farm origin precision on the one hand; and cuvée concept complexity on the other. The more ‘components’ we have to play with, the greater the ultimate effect.
As we get older and more component SFOs come on line expect ever greater, even more compelling experiences… and that’s before we even start ‘playing’…
What advice would you give to a beginner that is approaching this world and perhaps starting his/her own collection?
Whisky is a much easier subject than wine as 80% of Irish whisky is made by one company; 80% of Scotch by five. Bordeaux, alone, has 5000 wine makers…
Most youthful palates begin with a preference for dark and sweet (subconsciously they reinforce each other), and the big distillers are only too ready to feed this easy sweet tooth. Then there is the non chill-filtered brigade, which provides a much more expansive palate, a wider, deeper flavour range and this is mainly the domain of the independent bottlers, often bottling barrel by barrel favouring individuality over balance; these can be decidedly hit and miss, and reputations (both bottler and bottlee) may vary, often a buying decision made blind on a wing and a prayer.
Frustratingly, by the time a review is available the whisky, by definition a single barrel, has long gone. There are distillery brands that are both non chill-filtered and colouring-free. And Increasingly big distillers are offering variants that are too.
But it is the new wave of ‘international single malt’ where the interest increasingly lies, an exciting time for newcomers to whisky coinciding with more variation and styles, more transparency and intrigue.
Lastly, what is, generally speaking, your favourite whisky style (cask type, ageing, peated/unpeated etc.)? What’s your dram of choice at the moment and/or your go to drams on a Friday evening?
Contrary to what you would expect from the man that came up with Octomore (see mention), I am not really a peat freak. Perhaps coming from the wine world too, peat I can take or leave.
Introducing it into a cuvée I find more intriguing than the in-your-face of a total peat expression. Having said that, to compare and contrast two or more SFOs is seriously great fun: with all things being equal in production, to enjoy the nuances of terroir-derived flavours from identically bottled single malts is really one of whisky’s greatest pleasures. And this can be as much for peated SFOs as unpeated.
I prefer whisky unplugged, honest, natural flavours. After all, they are all there, all 2000 of them, one just needs to let them express themselves, unadulterated, with a little water and time to release them. I prefer the vibrancy of modern, independent whisky-making (better barley, good wood) and the true harmony of cask integration over the wham-bam, ‘look at me’, shoutiness of ‘finishing’ (what ever happened to ‘starting’?).
So my preference is for two SFOs: but a decent slug of it (plus water) in a large glass as we’re going to be here for some time – and a good companion. Nose, taste and admire as the whisky evolves in the glass thanks to the water, warmth, air, time and conversation. Then, repeat with another SFO. By sticking to the same distillation style, the brain, already attuned to it will much more readily appreciate this evolution of flavour over a crude, clumsy, change of direction.
Try it.
Official website: https://waterfordwhisky.com/
Drams
and more...
Today's drams
- Waterford Cuvee Argot – 47%
- Waterford The Cuvee – 50%
- Waterford Heritage Hunter 1.1 – 50%
- Waterford Ballymorgan 1.1 – 50%
- Waterford Bannow Island 1.2 – 50%
- Waterford Sheestown 1.1 – 50%
Renegade Cane Rum
Located in the Antilles archipelago on the north-eastern side of the island country of Grenada, the Renegade Distillery, is a modern rum distillery, also created by Mark Reynier.
Parallel to what Waterford is doing with whisky, Renegade is also exploring the terroir-driven concept with rum, using fresh sugar cane juice only and no molasses, to achieve rum’s most natural flavour.
Octomore Single Malt
A limited release, super heavily peated Islay single malt whisky range, bottled by the Bruichlladich distillery.
The first release of the Octomore series, created by the Bruichlladich distillery’s master blender Jim McEwan, was in 2008 and featured 6,000 bottles matured in ex-bourbon barrels.