Waterford Ballymorgan Edition 1.1

Let me tell you my story about Waterford whiskey. I often find myself surfing on whisky auction websites, and around six or eight months ago i started seeing this "Waterford" bottles everywhere. A very mediocre web search help me to find out that it was an Irish Whiskey, with mostly organic elements before distilling it. That is all i knew. The blue bottle was not very good looking, and i realized they had a lot of expressions and most of them look the same, everything was a little confusing. After dodging tasting it for a long time, i was buying some whisky samples and i took the opportunity to finally taste it and cross it from my list. I bought this "Ballymorgan edition 1.1" without any research. Tonight, in St. Patrick's Day, i felt compelled to drink an Irish Whiskey and i took my pick. It was... very good. After having it i started reading about waterford and how they source different types of barley; they have a special term for "terroir" called "Teireoir" which is tied to a code, which you can prompt into their website and it will take you to a special page where you can learn about the farm that produced the barley, which casks were used, how long was it matured and tons of other information. It was actually, way too much info about a dram. Bottled at 50%abv, golden color, matured in 1st fill ex-American whiskey casks, American Virgin Oak, French Oak, and Vin Doux Naturel (which is a fortified french wine). The Teireoir Code for it is F013E01-01. Let's talk about the whiskey. On the nose, a lot of cake and vanilla, very appealing. Malted barley, Chocolate milk and Vanilla milkshake. Recently baked Brownies, Hay, Yeast, Spongy cake. For 50% it is very easy to nose, Burnt cake crest, fudge and Meringue. On the palate, it is very good. Delicious. Buttery, Meringue; Sugar, Hay. Very interesting farm fruits like gooseberries, Prunes and various citric flavors. Aftertaste is tasty and long. tasty long. Ginger, Pepper and salt; Hay and Crazy dips. Very yeasty; Aniseed. Grassy, Super rewarding. Overall, this whiskey surprised me a lot. I didn't expect it to be so tasty and balanced. Specially when i found out it was 3 years and 10 months old. Incredibly enjoyable, i gave 22 points to each criteria on my score system. I have open my eyes to this distillery, i will be trying more from them for sure. My score for it is a solid 88 over 100.

(Good Spirits Co. Glasgow – Virtual Irish Whiskey Tasting, 22 January 2021). A mix of casks; 27% 1st fill bourbon, 18% virgin oak, 18% French ex-wine, 27% 'Premium' French - no idea what the 'premium French' means! Nose: Chocolate, sweet orchard fruit Palate: Honey, vanilla, apple, cocoa, dark baked spices. There is an odd - not unpleasant - farmyard / sulphur note. Finish: Burned wood, sweet (brown sugar), earthy, leather. There is a long finish that coats the mouth and leaves a burnt wood aftertaste. Came joint second out of the six whiskies, with 14% of the final vote for favourite of the night. (55% of those present said they enjoyed the whisky). All of the whiskies in the tasting came very close together in the vote for favourite. This was my vote for best of the tasting, however not one I would rush out to find a bottle.