Recently, Waterford has released a number of Single Farm Origins that are linked exclusively to a country. For the Netherlands, this was the Wilkinstown and the UK Exclusive was this Waterford Grattansbrook 1.1, which I will be reviewing today.
It looks like these will be the last Single Farm Origins for this year and that’s a step down in the number of releases compared to last year. A wise decision I think because with so many SFOs on the market it became a little bit difficult (for me at least) to keep up.
However, there will be a Cuvée released in September, which actually breaks new ground for the distillery. Because on the label comes the beautiful artwork “Binary Assimilation” by the Irish artist Leah Hewson. An artwork made, especially for this Cuvée. But more on this release later in this year, let’s focus on the Grattansbrook 1.1 first.
This Waterford release has matured in 35% 1st fill American oak, 16% virgin oak, 24% French oak and 25% VDN casks and is 3 years, 10 months and 6 days old. Bottled at a strength of 50% ABV.
Waterford Grattansbrook 1.1 tasting notes:
Nose: rather malty with freshly baked bread. Barley sugar. Green grapes and apples. A hint of honey and some vanilla in the background. This is followed by fresh lemon juice.
Taste: a lovely creamy mouthfeel. Creme brulee. Then bread again and oatmeal porridge. Tea biscuits too. This is followed by fresh pears, but also golden kiwis. A Lemon pie. Later also grapefruit and mandarins. And then some spices, such as a touch of pink peppercorns and cinnamon.
Finish: mid-long, with the same spices and a hint of oak. Mandarins too.
A little aggressive on the palate at first, but this disappears after you give it some time. After that it gets better, making it less spicy and the other flavours have more chance to develop. Although the finish remains a bit too spicy and is also somewhat oaky. So it loses a point for me there. But all in all, it’s another nice single malt from the fledgling Irish distillery.
Bottle provided by Waterford
