Waterford Distillery is located in the city of Waterford, Ireland . The project was initiated by Mark Reynier , the man behind the renaissance of Bruichladdich Islay Single Malt whisky, inspired by the world's greatest winemakers. The distillery is a facility originally built by Diageo in 2004 and converted into a distillery in 2015. The production of terroir whiskies places importance on the provenance of the barley, where it is grown and how it is grown. Mark Reynier works in collaboration with 86 Irish farms growing barley on 19 different soils , including organic and biodynamic barley. With a highly sophisticated digital logistics system, each farmer's harvest is harvested, stored, malted and distilled separately.
Racines is the result of a collaboration with La Maison du Whisky. The barley used comes from 3 farms: Ger Kelly's (Wilkinstown), Michael Carey's (Woodbrook) and John Smyth's (Ballinaboley). The maturation lasted 4 years, 2 months and 9 days. The whisky matures in a combination of 55% French oak casks that had contained Château Palmer and Château Talbot wine, 24% first-fill American oak casks from Kelvin Cooperage and 21% virgin American oak casks from Dickel Tennessee. The casks were blended on April 22, 2024, bottling took place in July 2024. 1,302 bottles were produced for the French market alone.
Unpeated
More information is available on the Waterford website under the heading "Téireoir" with the code on the back of the bottle.