Two quick French malt whiskies


November 24, 2023

Two quick French malt whiskies

Busy-busy these days. This will be a short session with only two French whiskies. Dozens to come, it is a buoyant category, with some good wheat and quite some chaff too (thin spirit in heavy oak/wine).

Blavier 2003/2023 (55%, La Maison du Whisky, Version Française)

Blavier is actually the name of an old still, handcrafted by a coppersmith in the 1930s, featuring three pots more or less in series and two columns, the second of which includes ceramic rings shaped like honeycomb cells instead of trays, which are supposed to further purify the alcohol from the heaviest elements. This still is installed at the Revermont Distillery, in the French Jura. I'm not quite sure what to expect, to be honest… Colour: mahogany. Nose: very marked by burnt wood, old furniture, old walnut and, above all, oxidative notes similar to those of an amontillado (half-fino, half-oloroso). Maybe this old whisky from the Jura had been aged in a yellow wine cask? With water: hints of liquorice, mint, anise, and curry. Mouth (neat): it speaks! Notes of old sherry quite similar, it rather reminds one of a Jerez brandy that hasn't been, like most of them alas, drowned under sweet matters. Walnut skin, tobacco, a bit of mustard, paprika, a lot of bitters… With water: bitter oranges, old wine and always a lot of nuts. Finish: long, quite tight, and tremendously Andalusian. Wood and bitter chocolate mark the aftertaste but, well, it's okay. Comments: a nice bitterness in this old sherry. I mean this old whisky. Very difficult to score, we're quite outside the norm but I quite like it. And it's very rare.
SGP: 272 - 84 points.

Since we're in the northeast of France...

St Wendelin 'Le Souffle Volcanique' (46.2%, OB, Uberach, France, cask #413, 1,028 bottles, 2022)

St Wendelin 'Le Souffle Volcanique' (46.2%, OB, Uberach, France, cask #413, 1,028 bottles, 2022)
Eight years in new oak, then two years in a cask having sheltered some Alsatian wine from Rangen de Thann, in the extreme south of our little region. The Rangen is a volcanic grand cru, hence the name of this whisky made by some of the pioneers of Alsatian – and French – whisky, with their master blender extraordinaire Jean Metzger. It's carrying the recent 'Whisky d'Alsace' Geographical Indication (which stipulates that you have to say 'hoppla' every time you fill a barrel – joking). Colour: gold. Nose: gentler, with once more some paprika, quite some pink pepper, some ham, caraway, blood oranges, chen-pi, then rather a lot of gingerbread, Läckerli (Basel is not far from the Rangen), Alsatian anis bredala… Well it's well an Alsatian matter indeed, the GI was deserved! Mouth: great fun. Bags and bags of gingerbread and even more of those anise cookies, plus Italian bitters and vermouths (did you know there was a Fernet Branca factory in Alsace? It's become a superb modern art museum). Finish: long, more on citrus, tangerines, grapefruits, touch of myrtle. Clove and green oak honey in the aftertaste. Comments: loved their Souffle Marno-Calcaire earlier this year, love this one just as much, despite or perhaps thanks to its 'accentuated idiosyncrasies'.
SGP:561 - 86 points.