Waterford Distillery Festival attracts record numbers

A celebration of whisky took place in the Déise last week during the annual Waterford Distillery Festival. This year's festival provided guests with local food, drink, tours, tastings and experiences to the backdrop of live music.

Mark Newton, Head of Brand at Waterford Distillery, commented that the festival aimed to bring the company closer to the community in Waterford.

“There’s no real culture of whisky distillery festivals in Ireland, so we thought we’d open it up into Waterford and see what happens. We’ve got a lot to show people, we’re not hiding ourselves away, we’re asking people to come inspect us, have conversation with us and to enjoy it. We expected around 700 people on site today so we’re very pleased.” 

Speaking to the Waterford News & Star, Mark Reynier, CEO of Waterford Whisky, said the company is trying to remove a curtain of secrecy, which was previously draped over the distillery site.

“This site has been a brewery since 1792 and no one was allowed anywhere near it. You meet people from Waterford and they don’t know there’s a distillery here.

“During Covid we couldn’t do it, so we opened the doors last year just to see and we weren’t even sure if people would want to come, but we were very pleased and this year we doubled it. It makes you feel really pleased to share it with people, especially for my colleagues to be able to show everybody this is what we do.” 

Mr. Reynier says that Waterford has proved to be the perfect location to root the business.

“I grew up in England, from a wine background and I got into whisky in around 1985 when the single malt really kicked off. I ultimately was able to buy a distillery in the west coast of Scotland, on a remote island.

“I was sitting there one day with an old friend looking across the north channel and you could see the coast of Antrim in the distance, and he said to me, ‘Mark, I’ve been working here since 1966, and the best barley I ever saw came from over there.’

“So when I left in 2012, I thought I’ll do what he said and go to the best barley in the world, so I arrived in Ireland and I came south, that’s why I’m here today.

“The flavour of whisky is barley, everyone has forgotten that, it’s all become industrial and it’s a produce not a manufactured product. So what I wanted was to bring it back to the origin. So that’s the reason we’re here today in Waterford.”