Waterford Distillery Luna 1.1 Biodynamic Irish Single Malt Whisky
Ever heard of a cow horn?
How about biodynamic farming?
How about something even simpler: do you know where your food comes from or how it’s grown?
I know there are some farmers among my readers (thank you for all you do!), but for most of us couldn’t answer these questions. Hell I couldn’t even guess about that cow horn - more on that later.
Let’s start with what is surprisingly the simplest question above: what is biodynamic farming? Combining the roots bios (life) and dynamos (-energy), biodynamic farming in the simplest terms means the farm is using its own cycles of crop-growth, fertilization from animals and other natural sources, and any usable by-products are recycled into the land. In even simpler terms, it’s how we used to farm for thousands of years.
Before artificial fertilizers, before mechanization even, you farmed what you could with the crops that would grow. Crops were harvested and replaced with cover crops or the field left alone to recharge, and the cycle repeated. Even as new techniques were developed to increase crop yields and quicken that soil recharge period, what we today consider biodynamic farming was still the overwhelmingly common choice for the farmers.
The term “biodynamic” was coined in 1923 by Rudolf Steiner, an Austrian intellectual concerned by the industrialization of farming before and after World War I. His warning was far ahead of his time: writing exactly 100 years after he gave his lectures, terms like “soil depletion,” “GMOs,” “phosphorous runoff,” and more are fairly common to anyone paying attention to our food supply. Those closer to farming will also know how difficult it is to keep soil continuously churning out corn, soybeans, and wheat without giving the land a chance to recover. Yes - yields (bushels of corn per acre, for example) are tremendously higher than a century ago, and if we look only at the amount of food produced against the number of people on Earth, we could feed the entire world’s population between 1-1.5x (there are equally tremendous obstacles to making that a reality, but the numbers themselves are clear).
So why is biodynamic farming so important? Because for all the leaps and bounds in yields, the land calls out a simple question: at what cost?
I don’t think there’s an easy answer to this question. You could focus on the negative and say our soil is poorer in nutrients and delve into those consequences. You could argue that the ends justify the means and that fewer people suffer and die of starvation because of our farming advances. Maybe you try to find a middle ground, paying a little more for organic produce and eating less animal protein, or maybe those options are financially prohibitive, a real problem that we don’t talk about enough.
Biodynamic farming - a return to “natural” farming - is another middle ground. It’s also a challenge, and it takes great ambition and bravery for a farmer to return to biodynamic farming in the face of rising costs and demand for higher yields.
Winemakers do it, especially in terroir-focused regions like the subdivisions of France, areas of California and the Pacific Northwest, and others here and there, but winemakers have an advantage: they don’t have to wait years (usually) for their product to be ready for market. Even some of the great Burgundy and Bordeaux houses might age for a bit in French oak, but not to the extent a whisky is aged. That said, winemaking is where terroir is most celebrated at the moment, much of it from biodynamic farms - perhaps that portends a similar fate for terroir and biodynamic farming in whiskey.
Waterford found three farmers - Trevor Harris, Alan Mooney, and John McDonnell - to step up and, in a way, step back, using biodynamic techniques to produce a crop of barley to harvest for the Biodynamic: Luna Release. Part of that is the cow horn, something I’d never heard of and didn’t quite understand. I’ll do my best to describe it here.
Cow horns ready to be buried for a six-month fermentation. Image credit: Eco Terreno via ecoterreno.com.
The process itself is simple: stuff a cow’s horns (removed, of course) full of manure and bury them, letting them ferment in the earth. After a set amount of time, the horns are dug up and the manure, now doubly rich in nutrients, is used as fertilizer. Better soil = better crops, all done with materials from the farm.
Breaking it down a little further: the calcium and other minerals in the horn are normally too hard to be of much use, but the manure is acidic to begin with and, with fermentation, becomes even more acidic. The minerals are dissolved by the acid, enough to enrich the manure inside but not so much as to disintegrate the horn entirely. The fermented manure gains all the benefits we associate with fermentation: think of “health food” items like kimchi, kombucha, probiotics, yogurt, all the foods that in humans increase healthy bacteria in the gut and otherwise improve overall health by making nutrients in the foods more bioavailable.
While still not meant for consumption - I hope - the fermented manure effectively has the same done to it. The nutrients are more available once the horns are unearthed, and the benefits to the soil are proportionally increased. One famous house, Eco Terreno, has an easy-to-understand explanation for how it uses cow horns in its own process.
Waterford’s Biodynamic: Luna release celebrates this in multiple ways, the most important of which is talking about it. After all, what’s the purpose of doing something special if nobody knows you did it?
Another way is, in typical Waterford fashion, in the care taken of the barley. Growing the Olympus strain (a lesser known varietal that apparently works beautifully with organic farming), the mash is fermented long and slow - 194 hours, just over eight days - to allow for yeast and malolactic fermentation to occur in full. The result is a bright, chocolaty, and peppery whisky with a drying finish far beyond its years.
To be honest, between the two organic releases I tried - the other being the Gaia: Organic 2.1 - I did prefer the Gaia, as the Luna was a little too drying for my taste; it was no less interesting, though, and in some ways I think the Luna is more intriguing as an experiment. It invites more thought and exploration, and that’s what I love most in a whisky - as long as it tastes good, of course.
Thank you to Glass Revolution Imports Distillery for providing this sample free of editorial constraint for reviewing purposes.
Waterford Distillery Luna 1.1 Biodynamic Irish Single Malt Whisky: Specs
Classification: Irish Single Malt Whisky
Origin: Waterford Distillery
Mashbill: 100% Malted Barley
Proof: 100 (50% ABV)
Age: 3 Years, 2 Months, 1 Day Old
Location: Ireland
Waterford Distillery Luna 1.1 Biodynamic Irish Single Malt Whisky Price: $105
Waterford Distillery Luna 1.1 Biodynamic Irish Single Malt Whisky: Tasting Notes
Eye: Pale straw. Thin rims, syrupy droplet legs that pinch off before reaching the bottom.
Nose: Floral fruit - smells yellow and sunny, like a summer peach. Bright Meyer lemon on the malt, zesty and zinging. Salted pretzel crusts. Dandelions and chamomile flowers, floral and familiar and, again, summery. Muted oak and proof on the nose with sourdough crusts building on the back end.
Palate: Black pepper all over my tongue, with unsweetened cocoa and chocolate-covered espresso beans. The pretzel crust darkness follows as does the zesty, citrusy malt. Charred lemon - putting a lemon on a hot grill grate - develops in the corners of my mouth. Mouthfeel is tingly on the front palate with peppery burn on the tip followed by drying cocoa powder and those old-fashioned lemon candies covered in powdered sugar.
Finish: Drying and piquant, the whole tongue lighting up. Cocoa-dusted dry cherry with sugared lemon peel. Medium length.
Overall: Bright, chocolaty, and peppery, feeling burnished. The pretzel crust bring an intriguing bitterness to the palate, as does the charred lemon. I think the Gaia was overall preferable if I had to choose, but the flavors in this are immensely present and have a unique character that insists upon further exploration and discussion.
Final Rating: 6.9
10 | Insurpassable | Nothing Else Comes Close
9 | Incredible | Extraordinary
8 | Excellent | Exceptional
7 | Great | Well above average
6 | Very Good | Better than average
5 | Good | Good, solid, ordinary
4 | Has promise but needs work
1-3 | Let’s have a conversation
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