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The other day, I was asked if I
was in to wine. Well, I like wine and I have a basic knowledge of some grape
varieties, some producers and some vintages; but to be honest, I know a lot of
people who have a far greater depth and breadth of knowledge than I on the
subject.
A long time ago, when I first
fell in love with whisky, it seemed that Scotch was a world which I could get
to grips with more easily than, say, wine. Scotch whisky to me seemed like a
triangle with three sections. At the base there is blended whisky; high volume
and focused on consistency. The most FMCG part of whisky business, by a long
way.
The middle of the triangle:
single malts. Certain distilleries who bottle their own product, often with a
range of easy-to-understand, age statement products growing in maturity
throughout their range. Again, with consistency playing a major roll.
At the top of my pyramid, are single
casks. These often come from distilleries who don’t normally release a single
malt, or if they do, are in some way unique. Yet these are never about
consistency; these are the ‘flair players’ in the team. Temperamental,
inconsistent, but sometimes utterly brilliant.
This simplistic approach to one
part of the whisk(e)y world seemed light years away from wine, where one side
of the river differs to another, one vintage to the next, and on it goes. Throw
in grape variety, the producer and production, the weather, bottle-aging and
when to open and drink the product... oh, and then learn this all for every
country that makes wine around the world and it makes understanding wine seem
like particle physics, while understanding whisky? Well, more like lego.
But with whisky globally seeing a
renaissance, once silent Scotch distilleries reopening, new ones coming on line
all the time, all around the world (the President of the American Distilling
Institute in the US tells us there are now over 550 craft distilleries in
operation there, many making whiskey as well as gin and other spirits) and
countries like Japan throwing down the gauntlet to the Scotch whisky industry
in terms of sheer quality of spirit, the whole category has become a lot more
complex in the past decade or so.
And it is this issue of quality
which can only be a good thing for whisk(e)y across the world. Scotch, very
much seen as a premium product in the category, cannot afford to rest on its
laurels. Just because it is considered the home of whisky, where some would
even say it was invented, is no excuse to kick back and ‘chillax’. After all, it
was a Scotsman who invented the television. But would you buy a Scottish TV
today? No. Would you buy a Japanese TV? Yes.
Whisk(e)y has grown and the world
has embraced. New and exciting countries are producing whisky, which have never
done so before and here am I am going to look at a new single malt distillery
which is the first and only in its country: Italy.
When starting off with a blank
page, with no history, no millstone of tradition, then why not do something
different; this is exactly what the Epensberger family, the folk behind the
Puni distillery in Northern Italy, have done.
From their jaw-dropping building,
a 13-meter tall red brick cube, through to their two current products, a new
make and a very young single malt (note the lack of the term ‘whisky’ here)
matured in local wine casks which are stored in ex-military bunkers, the whole
affair is unique.
These two releases, initially
called simply ‘White’ and ‘Red’ and latterly renamed ‘Pure’ and ‘Alba’, are the
only two products produced by the distillery, with the first being young spirit (6 months old) and the second being matured for twice as long in Marsala Vergine wine casks from Sicilly. Both products have been upped from their original
strength of 40% to a new, higher strength of 43% abv and, unlike the ‘White’
and ‘Red’ which were only sold locally, these will both be available internationally.
The ‘Pure’ is a classic new make,
with lovely vanilla, malts and honey, backed with a hint of fennel and fresh
leather.
Puni Distillery – Alba – 6 months old - Marsala
Vergine – Sample - 43% abv
Nose: No getting away from it,
this is young and spirit (as you would expect at 6 months old), but it is not
argressive in any way. The aromas are well balanced and soft, with a big hit of
green apple sours, pear drops, young banana, some blackcurrants and croissants
dusted with icing sugar. Right at the back sits peach melba and dream topping.
Very inviting and very promising...
Palate: Again, no doubting the
age of this, but the palate is full of flavour; the banana from the nose is
back, this time with toffee and some elements of instant coffee. After the fruits,
the palate develops a nutty quality with walnuts and hazelnut praline. Once
again, you would expect something aggressive or unruly and energetic at this
young age, but it is restrained and well balanced.
Finished: The finish is where the
nutty quality lingers with the hazelnut praline giving taking the headline
slot, before milk chocolate and cream finishes off.
Overall: Very tasty stuff at such
an early age. Very much keeping an eye on this place...
As the world of whisky continues
to grow, I’m sure many new distilleries will pop up in countries where we have
never seen them before. But more power to these emerging producers, especially
if their style is as effortless, and the product as drinkable as that of the
good family Ebensperger at Puni distillery.
