Waterford Organic Irish Whisky

ORGANIC: GAIA 1.1 is the first organic Irish whisky as certified by the Organic Trust, having met rigorous production regimens and audits. It begins our new Arcadian Series – our unconventional array of organic, biodynamic and heritage distillates. This first whisky is distilled from organic Irish barley grown by Paddy Tobin, Alan Jackson, Pat and Denis Booth, Jason Stanley, Trevor Harris and John Mallick.

ORGANIC: GAIA 1.1 is fully matured in a spectrum of super-premium oak: 42% first-fill US oak, 17% virgin US oak, 18% Vin Doux Naturel – sweet fortified wines – and 23% premium French oak. It’s bottled at 50% ABV without colouring, chill-filtration or any additives. Totally natural.

A century ago organic malting barley would have been ubiquitous in Ireland; today it is frustratingly rare. When we started the organic project in 2015 – our quest to go back in time to explore alternative farming methods – the volumes of Irish organic malting barley from any one farm were so small there was no possibility of distilling them as a Single Farm Origin. So given the incredibly low yields of organic barley, prior to distillation we combined these crops together as one batch, in contrast to our other distillations. In the years to come, we will be in a position to add a number of Organic Single Farm Origins. As it stands, we have taken all the organic malting barley we can possibly get our hands on – now laying down some 400-600 casks of organic spirit a year.