Ireland’s Waterford Distillery Makes First Operational Run

By Richard Thomas

Waterford Distillery made a major step towards becoming fully operational by making its first still run yesterday. This milestone was reached in record time, less than a year after Mark Reynier, formerly of Bruichladdich, after acquiring a briefly shuttered Guinness brewery from Diageo.

Reynier brought many of his investors from the revival of Bruichladdich and his experience from that project to the conversion of the Waterford brewery into a malt whiskey distillery. Yet a significant part of the quick turnaround time was no doubt due to the sound condition of that brewery. The $61 million facility was only nine years old when Diageo elected to close it and consolidate around the main Dublin brewery, and had been closed for roughly a year.

Waterford’s plans indicate that the whiskey made in the near future won’t reach bottling for at least five years.