‘If you’d gone online and ordered the weather since sowing, this is what you’d have chosen.’

David Walsh-Kemmis at Ballykilcavan – always good with a one-liner – is far more upbeat about the weather he’s had since we spoke to him about sowing.

After the horror-show of the first few months of the year, when the rain gave no let-up to almost any grower anywhere in Ireland, so virtually no seed could be sown, conditions have turned slightly. The weather has heated up – it still may not feel much like summer, but the barley is enjoying reasonably warm temperatures, and so far there hasn’t been more than a week without a spot of rain (alright, occasionally more than ‘a spot’) to keep the growing shoots in good shape.

It’s our photographer, Caolan’s, favourite time to take photos of the barleyfields. The plant is still a lustrous green, just starting to crisp into gold at the very tips, and the gorgeous, almost fur-like awns ripple beautifully in the breeze next to more prosaic, unmoving fields of wheat.

Because of that slow start, almost everywhere we look on our week of grower checkups in June, the barley is shorter than it normally would be. David finally sowed on the 20th April – around the same time as the majority of our growers – seven weeks later than the norm. In South West Ireland we don’t have to contend with the metronomic summer storms they’d see on the West Coast, or in the farms of our Scottish neighbours to the north. We get a little longer for the barley to ripen. David’s hoping to bring his in a week or so late this year. Fingers crossed.

Willy Deegan, nearby, who took the brave step of sowing Spring barley in the winter, and was one of the few growers who managed to sow his remaining fields in March, has a remarkably healthy looking crop. Indeed, given the two successive washout Springs, he’s part of what has inspired us to also investigate winter barley varieties – Ned and Neil recently spent a morning learning about them with Seedtech Ireland. As the climate inexorably changes, close understanding of terroirs and varieties is likely to prove a non-negotiable. Fortunately, we’re prepared.

One issue that all growers across Ireland have in common this vintage is aphids. Rob Tobin, our organic grower, whose fields are coming along nicely, explains the issue. A mild winter kept them alive, and then late sowing meant the young barley wasn’t as strong as it normally would be when the aphids went after it. The result can be Barley Yellow Dwarf Virus, an infection that causes discolouration in the leaves and affects yields. Our growers are on top of it – but it’s part of the hand you have to play when trying to make regenerative, natural whisky.

Eyes are increasingly on the finish line from mid-August onwards. The dream is a good mixture of sunshine with regular rainfall (David says he could do with another 5-10ml) and then a good dry spell to bring the harvest in. Good luck to all our growers – we’re looking forward to welcoming the 2024 vintage to our Cathedral of Barley in the Autumn.