Hi everyone,
French whisky? Why not in a world with Japanese, Australian, Welsh, German and every other country in the world it seems like now?
With so many distilleries popping up at the moment its hard to keep track and French whisky has fallen under my particular radar. Nevertheless, someone handed me a glass of Brenne and explained about the distillery while I was in Madrid.
Brenne French Single Malt 40%
Colour: Light Gold
Body: Light/Medium
Nose: Walking into an old style American sweet shop, bonbons, hard candy, sour sweets, any kind of green chewy sweet you can think of (apple, pear & lime), creme brûlée, slightly floral but it's a bit overwhelmed.
Taste: A tiny hint of a cognac spirit hit initially. Soft and delicate, very creamy, cream soda, sour apple chewy sweets then the bonbons and hard candies, lots of vanilla, creme brûlée.
Finish: Medium length. Even more vanilla, creamy, more oak here.
Very different style! Interesting stuff and a great surprise. Cognac still, 50% XO cognac barrels, 50% new French oak. Organic local barley too.
72/100
Amorik Maitre de Chai 47.3%
Colour: Gold
Body: Medium
Nose: Creamily peated. Melted butter, toasted oak, yeasty with dough, toffee and fudge, shortbread biscuit.
Taste: Sweet initially, then developing peat smoke and fruit- raisin and brandy. Very good form.
Finish: Medium length. Fresh peat and lemon.
6 years old, 4 years in Bourbon and finished for 2 years in Sherry casks. I tasted this a long, long time ago and just hadn’t put my notes up on this, so they have done newer versions of this which are likely very different.
72/100
Thanks for reading!
French Reviews #1-#2
Whisky Network Reviews #785-#786
Network Average: 75.0
Best Score: 94
Worst Score: 12
0-49 Terrible
50-59 Bad
60-64 Just About OK
65-69 Ok to Good
70-74 Good
75-79 Very Good
80-84 Excellent
85-89 Superb
90+ Magnificent
Full Disclosure Disclaimer: I currently work as a Brand Ambassador for Penderyn Distillery. The views expressed here are purely my own and do not reflect the views of Penderyn Distillery or The Welsh Whisky Company. I try to maintain as much objectivity as I can but feel free to take my reviews with as big a pinch of salt as you like. Furthermore, my rating scale is NOT based on a Parker type wine scoring scale or a school/college/university % or A-F grade score. You can find more on my scoring here. I apologise for any seemly low or 'bad' scores given with my system and I am sorry I can't say only nice things. Please keep in mind that I am ethically compromised and I am unable to produce 100% unbiased reviews.
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