Waterford Dunmore Edition 1.1. Irish Single Malt Review

By Richard Thomas

Rating: B

Waterford Distillery’s Singe Farm Origin series of single malt whiskeys solves a particular problem facing any new whiskey distillery, but especially one in Ireland and Scotland: how to get spirits on the market without waiting several years or even more than a decade. The distillery began when Mark Reynier, the man behind the re-establishment of Bruichladdich on Islay, bought a shuttered Guinness brewery in Waterford, Ireland. Using repurposed stills from Inverleven in Scotland (these were replaced with new-build stills in 2021), Waterford had its first batch of Single Farm Origin whiskeys on the market in 2020. However, malts with age statements are rarely released at less than eight years old.

So as with Bruichladdich’s new malts, the decision was made to thematically focus on the barley. The virtue of a young whiskey is that it is more grain-forward, with wood and maturation playing less of a role.

Dunmore is in County Galway and hosts John Tynan’s farm. That farm grew Irina variety of barley, which was fermented for a prolonged 6 1/2 days, matured for 3 years, 11 months and 17 days in a mix of ex-bourbon barrels, new American oak casks and new French oak casks. before bottling at 50% ABV. The latter point should be a winning one for Americans, since that puts it on par with bottled in bond whiskeys.

The Whiskey
The pour has the look of pale gold. The nose led with fresh cut hay, vanilla and lemon zest, but that followed hard by a wave of oaky spices. The palate flips things up somewhat, with lemon zest and clove leading, and an oatmeal and vanilla flavor following up behind. That turns into pepper, ginger and lemon on the finish.

The Price
This was a later release from 2020, and even with a production run of 13,000 bottles, examples are thinning on the ground. The good news is that although it is officially priced at $95, a sampling of online retailers revealed an average price of $84.