Waterford Distillery

Best distillery tour in Ireland!!! It was the most tasty whisky we had as well. Very educational, with their main focus being the barley. They are very busy proving that barley has just as many flavor complexities as grapes in wine. We really enjoyed the in-depth tour and history of the property. I was impressed with the owners focus. He is bringing new life into a community that had previously found their calling in beer. It's a close-knit group running the operation locally with a stunning result. I'm looking forward to the future of the whisky. 👏

Austin Twiford 9 months ago

We visited Waterford Whisky today where Lauren gave us the best distillery tour. Waterford has taken the concept of terroir and applied it to whisky with great success. They have standardized their production process, using the same distillation techniques, same water, same yeast, same barrels for every batch. The only variable is the barley. The best barley is said to come from southeast Ireland. Some grows by the sea, in sandy soil. Some in boggy inland fields. Some in rocky soil. It affects the flavor of the barley. Other distilleries buy bulk commodity barley from whomever. Waterford buys from the individual farmers. Each bottle has a code that you can use to find the farm that grew the barley, in addition to lots of other information about who distilled, where the specific barrels came from, all manner of interesting details about the whisky in that bottle. We tasted several different whiskies, they were different from each other, but they were uniformly excellent. In an age where whisky brands are falling over each other aging their spirits in increasingly crazy barrels ("this spends 3 years in ex-bourbon barrels, then 6 months in rum casks, and finishes for 2 months in beer barrels..."), it's refreshing to have a clean whisky taste. Waterford is correct: it's all about the barley. Single farm barley. The best whisky!

Bruce Ishikawa 10 months ago

One of the best and most innovative modern distilleries, and the process and the people create some of the best whisk(e)y in the world. This is the next generation and evolution of whisk(e)y. Most importantly at the distillery, the experience and the whiskey are both amazing. It's not on everyone's map for Irish whisk(e)y and that is an amazing oversight in my opinion. If you plant your feet in Ireland more than a few hours, make sure to make your way to Waterford, and say hi to Meghan who made an already great time even better!

Isaac Alston-Voyticky a year ago

We did the tour yesterday. We had a great time was very informative and the guide had great knowledge about all aspects of the distillery and it's history. Well worth a visit.. the whiskey tasting at the end was very enjoyable

Greg lavin 6 months ago

A very informative and interesting tour. Our tour guide Adrian was very knowledgeable, friendly and passionate about Waterford Whisky. Would definitely recommend this tour.

Rachel Fitzgerald 6 months ago