Country: Ireland Distillery: Waterford
Type: Single Malt
Age: 3
Cask: 1st fill ex-American Whiskey,  French Oak, Vin Doux Naturel
ABV: 50.0%
Proof: 100.0
Price: $90
Teireoir Code: F022E01-01

Nose: Earthy, cherries, menthol, toasted malt, salted caramel, apple pie

Palate: Ripe stone fruits, caramel, honey, nutmeg, cinnamon, black pepper

Finish: Sweet with marzipan, apricot, caramel, dark chocolate, cocoa

Writing about Waterford Whisky is a big matter. There is an overdose of details about the distillery, the production, the people behind it, the concept and everything else. That is why I have written an article to cover these topics and resolve to the reviews! If you don't know Waterford Distillery yet, stop and click this link, read and come back.

All Waterford Whisky reviews I wrote:

• Waterford Dunbell Edition 1.1
• Waterford Rathclogh Edition 1.1
• Waterford Dunmore Edition 1.1
• Waterford Ballykilcavan Edition 1.2
• Waterford Organic Gaia 1.1
• Waterford Ballymorgan Edition 1.1
• Waterford Bannow Island Edition 1.2
• Waterford Sheestown Edition 1.1

Waterford Dunbell Edition 1.1 is another single farm origin whisky. Grower Ned Murphy’s barley ripens in the shadow of Tullaherin’s round tower, site of a 5th-century monastery where monks converting the Osraige (deer people) must have favored the deep loamy soils derived from the glacial drift of limestone, sandstone & shale.

Waterford Dunbell Edition 1.1 has numerous similarities with Waterford Dunmore Edition 1.1.  It is aged a month shorter but the barley is grown on a similar soil type. It uses Irina variety of barley with a stunning fermentation time of 141 hours! The soil is Luvisol type with very fine drift and only receives 5 - 5.5 hours of sunlight per day.

The biggest difference is actually the barrels. This one has less sweet wine barrels and more virgin oak barrels in the maturation period.

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I actually liked Dunbell Edition 1.1. The first time I tasted it was at Casements Bar in San Francisco and I remember sipping it for some time in a joyful way.

I found this edition to be a little bit more complex than some of the other ones. The nose gave me cherries and some earthy qualities at first. Toasted malt, salted caramel, menthol and green apple pie created a good balance. The palate had apricot lite ripe stone fruits with caramel, honey, baking spices and black pepper. That led to a finish wit marzipan, sweet apricotm dark chocolate and cocoa! There are also small traces of that coastal character I got from the Waterford Organic Gaia 1.1.

This bottle is luscious on its own way, vibrant and layered. In the US releases I am happy to see a bottle like this.