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HERITAGE BARLEY

HUNTER

Key Facts

EDITION1.1
HARVESTED8 August 2018
DISTILLED23 February 2019
Maturation1161 DAYS OR 3 YEARS, 2 MONTHS, 6 DAYS
ABV50%
No. of Bottles9048
For Market WORLDWIDE
BottledAugust 2022

Hunter

Arcadian Barley, from our secret garden of delights, explores the natural flavours, intensity & honesty of the old ways. We have had to go to extraordinary lengths to eschew the quotidian varieties — those modern yield enhanced versions that distillers are obliged to use, in order to celebrate the lost  flavours – flavours that evolved over centuries in harmony with Ireland’s terroirs. Indeed, to rediscover the flavour of iconic Irish barley we must venture back in time.

Hunter, named after pioneering plant breeder Dr Herbert Hunter, was introduced in 1959 and  was for almost two decades noted for its distinctive flavour. We now reintroduce this game-changing barley to a new era of single malt connoisseurs. Vanished from the Irish landscape since the late 1970s, superceded by more economically rewarding crosses, all that remained of Hunter was a 50 gram bag in the seed bank of the Irish Department of Agriculture, Food & the Marine.

Planted in greenhouse grow bags, this 50 grams grew to four kilograms, and the cycle went again and again over two years, until there was enough for  ten acres at our partner Minch Malt’s test site in Athy. Test successful, Hunter was sown on a commercial scale on the lime-rich Elton series terroir of Donoughmore, yielding 25.5 tonnes of malting barley — enough to fill 50 casks. It is from that first pioneering distillation that this whisky has been drawn.

 

*

 

We were battling with label administrators to share the truth of Hunter’s historic flavours for so long that an error on another part of our label slipped through. (It probably had to happen sometime…) Donoughmore, where our Hunter barley was grown, isn’t in Co. Kilkenny, as stated on the label, but in Co. Laois, just over the border.

Growers

Grower
Farm
County
Type
Tom Bryan
Donoughmore Heritage Site
Kilkenny
Conventional

Heritage Site At Donoughmore

A dry and windy summer’s day at Donoughmore. This track begins inside some of the old stone sheds at the edge of the fields. Time has rendered them open to the elements, but they still give a little shelter. Heading outside into the open, the wind rattles the loose sheeting on a nearby barn, we’re surrounded here by a semicircle of trees filled with busy birds in the afternoon sun. A gap in the trees leads us out into the fields, the wind buffeting the barley as it blows through heading south.

BARLEY TIMELINES

SOWN5 April 2018
HARVESTED8 August 2018
Arrived at Cathedral9 August 2018
Went to Maltings1 January 2019
Arrived at Distillery7 February 2019
Fermentation Started16 February 2019
Distillation Started23 February 2019
Distillation Finished26 February 2019
Filled at Warehouse1 March 2019
Marriage of Casks5 May 2022
Sent for Bottling23 August 2022

TERROIR

FIELDS
SOIL

CREDIT: TEAGASC.

description Fine, loamy drift with limestones, Elton Association (Elton, Dunboyne, Howardstown, Straffan, Kilrush and Rathowen Series)

BARLEY, YEAST & WATER

VARIETYHUNTER
YeastMauri Distiller's Yeast
Production WaterVolcanic Aquifer
Fermentation169 Hours

TERROIR

Spirit Profile

Head Distiller's Observations

 

Appearance: Pale gold with unctuous oils.

Nose: Earthy, dry soil, lemon sherbet, red apple skin, dry bark, barnyard, petrichor, rolled barley, baked salt, chalk.

Taste: Orange cake, dry savoury spice, cloves, porridge with prunes, wood char, citrus oils.

Finish: Dry greenness with a gentle spice.

cask no.
cask type
cask fill
cooperage
fill date
farm
16747
VIN DOUX NATUREL
233.28
Rivesaltes
1 March 2019
Donoughmore - Heritage Site
16750
VIN DOUX NATUREL
215.09
Rivesaltes
1 March 2019
Donoughmore - Heritage Site
16751
VIN DOUX NATUREL
136.53
Rivesaltes
1 March 2019
Donoughmore - Heritage Site
16752
VIN DOUX NATUREL
222.42
Rivesaltes
1 March 2019
Donoughmore - Heritage Site
19297
VIRGIN U.S.
203.47
Speyside Cooperage
1 March 2019
Donoughmore - Heritage Site
19298
VIRGIN U.S.
200.32
Speyside Cooperage
1 March 2019
Donoughmore - Heritage Site
19299
VIRGIN U.S.
202.36
Speyside Cooperage
1 March 2019
Donoughmore - Heritage Site
19300
VIRGIN U.S.
202.61
Speyside Cooperage
1 March 2019
Donoughmore - Heritage Site
19301
VIRGIN U.S.
200.62
Speyside Cooperage
1 March 2019
Donoughmore - Heritage Site
20819
FIRST FILL U.S.
195.55
Kelvin Cooperage
1 March 2019
Donoughmore - Heritage Site
20820
FIRST FILL U.S.
199.27
Kelvin Cooperage
1 March 2019
Donoughmore - Heritage Site
20821
U.S. First Fill
199.13
Kelvin Cooperage
1 March 2019
Donoughmore - Heritage Site
20822
FIRST FILL U.S.
198.95
Kelvin Cooperage
1 March 2019
Donoughmore - Heritage Site
20823
FIRST FILL U.S.
199.03
Kelvin Cooperage
1 March 2019
Donoughmore - Heritage Site
20824
FIRST FILL U.S.
200.01
Kelvin Cooperage
1 March 2019
Donoughmore - Heritage Site
20825
FIRST FILL U.S.
197.85
Kelvin Cooperage
1 March 2019
Donoughmore - Heritage Site
20826
FIRST FILL U.S.
204.59
Kelvin Cooperage
1 March 2019
Donoughmore - Heritage Site
20827
FIRST FILL U.S.
197.84
Kelvin Cooperage
1 March 2019
Donoughmore - Heritage Site
20828
FIRST FILL U.S.
199.25
Kelvin Cooperage
1 March 2019
Donoughmore - Heritage Site
20829
FIRST FILL U.S.
199.58
Kelvin Cooperage
1 March 2019
Donoughmore - Heritage Site
20830
FIRST FILL U.S.
202.38
Kelvin Cooperage
1 March 2019
Donoughmore - Heritage Site
21106
PREMIUM FRENCH
220.75
Palmer
1 March 2019
Donoughmore - Heritage Site
21107
PREMIUM FRENCH
223.35
Palmer
1 March 2019
Donoughmore - Heritage Site
21108
PREMIUM FRENCH
222.13
Palmer
1 March 2019
Donoughmore - Heritage Site
21109
PREMIUM FRENCH
223.47
Palmer
1 March 2019
Donoughmore - Heritage Site
21110
PREMIUM FRENCH
221.62
Palmer
1 March 2019
Donoughmore - Heritage Site

Composition

FIRST FILL U.S.
45%
VIRGIN U.S.
18%
PREMIUM FRENCH
21%
VIN DOUX NATUREL
16%

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