When Mark Reynier established the Waterford Distillery in 2012 he wanted to make a difference to the whiskey industry in Ireland, which he says ‘had lost the very essence of what it was originally all about – growing barley locally with individuality of flavour’. The acclaim that Waterford has received shows that Reynier has succeeded. At Waterford it is all about the barley and the terroir (or “téireoir,” as Waterford calls it, weaving in the Gaelic name for Ireland), that delicate combination of soil, microclimate, plant and site that influences how the grain grows and the flavour it produces. So not only does Waterford produce single malts but a single farm origin series – where the grains have all been grown at the same farm in southern Ireland. The Cuvée, its premium whisky, is created from 25 single farm grains combined and layered into ‘the most profound single malt’.