Waterford: Ballykilcavan 1.2 (Irish Single Malt Whisky: 50% ABV)
Visual: Slightly browned gold. Thick puckering comes from the spirit.
Nose: Dried apricot. Fresh wet clay. Strong but not over present alcohol. Burnt brown sugar. Crushed granite. Dry pineapple. Vanilla. Water adds touch of soot and rhubarb.
Body: Thick mouthfeel. Jelly vodka shots imagery when sipped. Sweetened rhubarb. Lightly waxy. Clay imagery. Strawberry crème centres. Water makes smoother and more savoury. Crushed stones. Oily.
Finish: Sweetened rhubarb. Lightly waxy. Clay. Tingly alcohol. Choc limes. Orange jelly sweets. Oily sheen. Choc toffee. Fatty butter. Strawberry crème. Custard. Water adds crushed stone air.
Conclusion: Like most Waterfords I have had, this works best with some time to open up, and with a touch of water.
Neat the alcohol, while not burning, is notably present, especially in a viscous alcohol jelly like set of imagery in the body. Not really bad, interesting, but may be a bit much for some.
There is a mix of two main threads here, there are familiar notes from other Waterfords, though not ones I have seen in this combination – a set of bright unusual fruit such as sweetened rhubarb and orange jelly sweets, but here meeting a more savoury, clay , crushed stones and otherwise grounding base, with an oily, lightly waxy touch bringing it all together.
A drop or two of water is where this is at its best for me. Too much and the more clay like savoury elements become more evident and heavier, hurting it a lot. Balanced with just a little water you get smoothed out alcohol edges, which leaves good grounded and a firm grip, while you can still enjoy the bright high notes.
It is not my favorite Waterford for the reason that it is a tad too easy to miss that sweet spot compared to some of the others, but get into it right and it is lovely.
It is such a pity we will not get to see where this distillery could have gone, as it has such promise in its young drams.
Background: So, the Waterford distillery has closed. Darn. I loved the idea of trying to see if terroir is a thing in whisky with its use of barley from a single farm, in this case Ballykilcavan, to make a whisky. Now I don’t know how much difference the barrel aging made, but each bottling I have tried has definitely been subtly different, is it ageing, terroir or something? I don’t know, but I very much enjoyed the whisky they made and would have loved to see where they were going with it. We are still in the region where their whisky is pretty easy to get at standard price, so I grabbed this from Independent Spirit to enjoy. In sad things, as they have closed, so has their website so I can no longer use the code on the bottle to looks up details about the farm. Which makes me sad. No age statement but as a 1.2 release I’m guessing the whisky is young, probably 3-4 years of age. Music wise went with the excellent Type O Negative: October Rust for contemplation music.