Waterford The Cuvée 1.1

The Cuvée 1.1 is Waterford's first permanent Cuvée release, positioned as the original flagship of the distillery and the foundation of the Cuvée Concept that Waterford would later extend into Cuvée Koffi and Cuvée Luna. Released in 2021, it brings together 25 individually distilled Single Farm Origins in a single assemblage, each harvested, malted and distilled separately before being married in cask. An outturn of 40,000 bottles was produced. Every bottle carries the TÉIREOIR code linking to the individual farms, soils and cask records behind the blend.

Maturation ran four years and five months across four cask types: first fill American oak, virgin American oak, premium French oak and Vin Doux Naturel. First fill Bourbon delivers vanillin and coconut lactones through the charred inner wood. Virgin American oak contributes toasted sugar and raw lignin derived spice. French oak adds finer grained tannins with clove phenolics. The Vin Doux Naturel casks, previously used for fortified sweet wines from southern France, layer in oxidised fruit esters and concentrated sweetness. Bottled at 50% without chill filtration or added colour.

On the nose, toasted bread, pastry cream, dried apricot and cracked black pepper over grassy green notes. The palate is oily and full with toasted bread, buttery oatmeal, dark honey and marmalade.