4. Rediscovering Historical Grains in the Pursuit of Flavour

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. 

Om Podcasten

Influenced by the world's greatest winemakers, Waterford Distillery obsessively brings the same intellectual drive, methodology and rigour to single malt whisky. But what does that actually mean? It means applying strict production criteria to Irish barley and whisky production. It means sourcing barley from individual Irish farms - some organic, some biodynamic. It means malting, fermenting, distilling and maturing those farm crops in complete isolation - from field to barrel. The distillery showcases the barley flavours derived from individual Irish farms, terroir by terroir, in its Single Farm Origin series. But the ultimate goal is to one day use these individual terroirs to produce world’s most unique, complex and compelling whisky. In this podcast series, the award-winning whisky communicator Barry Chandler has unfettered access to the distillery and its people, to break down each step of the production process from growing the barley to bottling the whisky so that you, the whisky fan, can understand about where flavour is created and what the possibilities are when a distillery chooses to obsessively explore that prime raw ingredient of single malt whisky: barley.