Waterford was created in 2003 by Diageo, originally as a brewery for Guinness. In 2014, however, it was bought by Mark Reynier, the famous maverick and former owner of the Bruichladdich distillery, where his work focused on barley’s influence on whisky. At his new distillery, he works only with Irish barley, sourced from around a hundred farms. The barley is processed individually in order to highlight the different characteristics of each variety (of which there are a dozen), each farm and each terroir. The first spirit was distilled in 2016 and the first bottling released in 2020.

This unpeated Irish whiskey is a single-farm single malt. Which is to say, one grain, one location, one farm. It was created with the same mindset and precision that would be used to produce a grand vin. Distilled in 2016 from only Irish barley sourced from a small farm in the far reaches of the country, this second edition of Sheestown uses barley grown by Phil O’Brien in County Kilkenny. This outstanding whisky, created with the same approach employed by a skilled winemaker, is designed to showcase the identity of the terroir and farm where the barley was grown. And terroir really is the right word here, as it brings out refined notes of granite and limestone unique to the land were the barley came to life. This rare, limited and excellent whisky is a real masterpiece from Ballymorgan. It is the second edition of this single-farm single malt.