IN A CONVERTED Guinness brewery in the southern Irish seaport of Waterford, something remarkable is happening. Mark Reynier, formerly of Scotland’s Bruichladdich Distillery and a barley provenance devotee, has created what he terms, “A cathedral of barley” in his Waterford Distillery, where spirit flowed for the first time in January 2016.
Taking a page from his Islay playbook, Reynier enlists 46 Irish farms, some organic, growing barley on nineteen distinct soil types. Each farmer’s crop is harvested, stored, malted, and distilled separately, one each week throughout the year. Reynier declares, “Thus we can capture in spirit each farm’s terroir, that subtle character shaped by micro-climate and soil. I’m trying to make the most profound single malt whiskey possible.” In September, Reynier distilled the first organic Irish whiskey.
Meanwhile, further north,…