With Waterford being all over the place a few years ago, it seems like things have quieted down a little bit. Initially, I was really thrilled by the concept of the single estate whiskies. I still am, but when batch 2 followed rather quickly on batch 1 and suddenly there were dozens of bottlings to keep up with, I got a bit of a Bruichladdich around 2008 vibe and lost interest.

A shame, because the concept and approach to whisky making like this is really awesome. There’s just no way of keeping up. Also, my personal preference would be to not use sweet wine casks, and go for refill bourbon to let the differences in spirit show themselves more.

Anyway, apart from batch 2, which I still have to get through, and the Heritage Hunter, another awesome concept, there’s this Cuvée. A mix of different estates to form a more consistent whisky from batch to batch (I assume).

Sniff:
Quite grainy, with a dessert wine sweetness in the background. Green malt as well, but mostly heaps of barley.

Sip:
The palate packs quite a punch. Lots of dry grainy notes, lots of black pepper. There’s a grapeseed bitterness too.

Swallow:
The finish is a bit less expressive, and not very long. There’s some grain and wood, a very light bitterness.

It fits nicely in the range of Waterford whiskies, but it doesn’t stand out anywhere. Add to that that it misses the uniqueness of single estate whiskies and I kind of lose interest. Of course, keep in mind that if this is an entry point into what Waterford is doing it is a very fine example. But it also defeats the entire approach.

On top of that, it’s a nice whisky, but not a great one.

83/100

Available at Waterford for € 80, or in various shops in Europe for about € 60.