The Waterford distillery was originally built as a state-of-the-art brewing Guinness facility by Diageo in 2003. It was purchased and transformed into a distillery by Mark Reynier in 2014. The former proprietor as Bruichladdich, Reynier was inspired to look to Ireland for his next project following the testimony from the Islay distillery’s Duncan McGillvray that the barley from across the Irish sea was the best he had ever seen. As with Bruichladdich, the Waterford distillery is terroir-focussed, sourcing all of its barley requirement from 46 local farms. The distillery operates a column still, and two pot stills procured from the closed Inverleven distillery in Scotland. The first spirt ran from them in January 2016, and its first publicly available bottlings were produced in 2020.
The Arcadian Series project saw organic barley farmers John Mallick, Paddy Tobin, Alan Jackson, Pat and Denis Booth, Jason Stanley and Trevor Harris come together to contribute towards what is thought to be Ireland’s first organic-certified whiskey. It is named after the Ancient Greek Goddess Gaia, who represents the personification of the Earth.
After distillation, Gaia has seen a complex period of maturation using the following casks...
42% First-fill American Oak
17% Virgin American Oak
23% Premium French Oak
18% Vin Doux Naturel oak - sweet fortified wines
Released in Autumn 2020, 18,000 bottles were allocated for Europe and Asia and an additional 6,000 bottles were made available to the United States.
The Arcadian Series project saw organic barley farmers John Mallick, Paddy Tobin, Alan Jackson, Pat and Denis Booth, Jason Stanley and Trevor Harris come together to contribute towards what is thought to be Ireland’s first organic-certified whiskey. It is named after the Ancient Greek Goddess Gaia, who represents the personification of the Earth.
After distillation, Gaia has seen a complex period of maturation using the following casks...
42% First-fill American Oak
17% Virgin American Oak
23% Premium French Oak
18% Vin Doux Naturel oak - sweet fortified wines
Released in Autumn 2020, 18,000 bottles were allocated for Europe and Asia and an additional 6,000 bottles were made available to the United States.