GRACE O’REILLY

AGRONOMIST, WATERFORD DISTILLERY

The foundations of Grace O’Reilly’s entity are based on her 5th generation farming background and continuous obsession with the industry as a whole. She grew up on a sheep and suckler-to-beef farm in the northeast of Ireland.

During Grace’s studies at University College Dublin, she developed a burning desire to work within the tillage industry and majored in Agricultural Science in Animal and Crop Production. After graduating in 2015 she secured her first position as an agronomist with Minch Malt. She managed the malting barley supply chain in the home of malting barley in the Irish midlands as the area agronomist which comprised 120 contracted growers. This role required her to develop relationships with regional customers and suppliers through delivering and securing a required annual quantity/quality of malting barley. She then became involved with the Waterford Distillery project.

With the experience of working in many parts of the country, with multiple different farming groups gave O’Reilly insight into how different regions and farming communities perform over different seasons.

Grace began liaising with a very specific group of growers who had supplied the distillery with barley. Every harvest the grower community increases slightly due to standards and specifications needing to be met for the Malster, Minch Malt, and production. They work with a total of 97 growers.

In addition to communication with growers and Minch Malt, the translation of terroir to the production team, branding, media and visitors has become a big part of what she and the team do daily. The field however has not been left behind; a non-stop, all year round barley stalker is where she finds her happy place! With barley in the ground from late-October till harvest, in August, there is always an opportunity to get out on the road and keep an ear to the ground.