Waterford Whisky Irish Single Malt Whisky Heritage Hunter 1.1
Ah, Waterford - my innovative distillery of the year 2022. The hits keep coming.
Dr. Herbert Hunter was a pioneering botanist of the mid-20th century. His most-read work, The Barley Crop (1952), highlighted all that’s great and interesting about this tiny grain that has fed humans around the world for millennia.
A few years post-publication, he was honored with a barley crop named for him: a cross between Spratt-Archer and Kenia. The former, according to Waterford’s own sources, was a “phenomenally-popular, flavoursome and successful,” and the latter a hardy Scandinavian varietal. The goal: a crop that would not just survive but thrive in a wider span of environments but would also be “supremely flavoursome in fermentation.”
Remember, this is a time (the late 50s/early 60s) when Irish whiskey was consolidated into Midleton and Bushmills and scotch whisky was focused on blends and yield above all. The single malt trend was decades away, and flavor was rarely the motivation for barley crop breeding. And yet, this new strain honoring Dr. Hunter was bred purposefully for flavor, with a secondary focus on hardiness to compensate for assumedly lower yields.
From Waterford:
“For a little over 15 years, Hunter was the barley variety for Irish malt, accounting for 75% of Irish malting barley purchases by 1966. A favourite with brewers and distillers for the distinct and intense flavours it imparted.”
A love of flavor is another way to interpret Waterford’s creed: find the barley, revive if if needed, propagate it if possible, and see what happens. Will the barley grow? Will it taste different? What does tasting different mean? So many questions - and you know how much I love questions.
Slight tangent: I recently met someone with whom I had a nerdy, nerdy conversation about taste. We discussed my recent article on Uncle Nearest’s Ryes and how them ‘not tasting right’ started me off on a hell of a rabbit hole. After trying nearly 1700 whiskies over the past few years, I felt I had enough of a palate to tell when something was or wasn’t a rye, perhaps more so when it’s not than when it is. And those did not taste like ryes.
Back to the Waterford Heritage Hunter. This is definitely a single malt, a barley distillate - and yet tastes like no other malt I’ve had. The complexity in this is extraordinary, to the point that I struggled with the tasting notes. Candied lemon zest, but that’s not enough, because there’s a bitterness and a richness that adds to the sweet and sour. Butterscotch candies burnt and spread on wheat toast. Creaminess from oak that blends with creamed honey and black pepper. Butteriness, but not general butter - we’re talking high fat European butter that costs a bit more in the supermarket but makes everything from pastry to sauces so much richer. A lemon meringue pie where the meringue is still a bit grainy from too-coarse sugar.
These tiny deep-dives are really more than just tiny deep-dives: they’re the minute differences that separate an excellent whisk(e)y from a tremendous one. There are simple whiskies that are truly great, and complex ones that are terrible. A complex and great one? Extraordinary. The notes below might not - honestly, surely do not - do it justice, but I’m doing the best I can to convey what at the moment is beyond my capacity for words.
There is nothing greater or more extraordinary than a whisk(e)y that provokes thought and reconsideration. Some of those cost hundreds, if not thousands, or more. This is $105. Grown by farmer Tom Bryan in Donoughmore, Co. Kilkenny, using barley that had been decimated down to just 50g in a bag and now spreads over enough acreage for 50 barrels and 10,000 bottles.
Coming up next? Goldthorpe (1900), Old Irish and Spratt-Archer, three other heritage barley varietals gone just a few years ago. If any are close to how the Hunter turned out, there will be no doubt that Waterford is leading a revolution in the barley, the single malt, and the terroir-driven game.
Thank you to Glass Rev Imports and Waterford Whisky for providing this bottle free of cost and editorial constraint.
Waterford Whisky Irish Single Malt Whisky Heritage Hunter 1.1: Specs
Classification: Single Malt Irish Whisky
Origin: Waterford Distillery
Mashbill: 100% Malted Barley
Proof: 100 (50% ABV)
Age: NAS (3+ Years)
Location: Ireland
Waterford Whisky Irish Single Malt Whisky Heritage Hunter 1.1 Price: $105
Waterford Whisky Irish Single Malt Whisky Heritage Hunter 1.1: Tasting Notes
Eye: Young, pale barley. Thin chain rim with a single, thin teardrop leg.
Nose: Indescribably complex and immediate - wet barley fields right after rain, the barley shaken free and freshened without any hint of decay. A bit of proof, candied lemon zest, an underlying funky darkness. Intense butterscotch, Werther’s, and waxed paper around taffy.
Palate: Holy hell that’s something. Butterscotch in every form imaginable. Even a hint of barrel char. European butter, full fat and custardy. Textured herbs, like sage leaves. Mouthfeel is rich and velvety, mild peppery burn that grows more intense on the tip. Creaminess washes over the tongue, adding in some of the pleasant funk from the nose.
Finish: Lemon meringue pie with a slightly grainy meringue. Stays creamy but begins to dry on a medium-to-long finish.
Overall: There’s so much complexity here, so many flavors that expand on their origins into multiple variations. Each flavor has an add-on that brings new experiences. Just incredible.
Final Rating: 8.5
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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