SNOW WITHE 6 - ORANGE FINISH

Maturation: 5 years oak wood beer casks

Finish: 1 year french Cognac-Orange Liqueur barrel

Strength : 48% abv

Available: 2'000 bottles à 50cl

The new maturation concept of the Snow White edition bodes well for the future of Säntis Malt!

Just like the previous year, it wasn’t satisfactory to merely find a few fruit brandy barrels and give the originally beer-cask matured whisky a second run in those. The challenge once again lay in finding the right casks to guarantee a very specific second maturation.

This time the search led to France, a country well known for not only producing brandy and high-alcohol herbal liqueurs, but also for its Cognac-based, barrel-aged orange liqueur with the affix “Cordon Rouge”. Even though these casks were already used multiple times in France they were still active enough that one couldn’t leave them to their own devices for their finish, which lasted several months. This meant that in order to not receive some sort of wooden soup at the end a strict regimen of controlling their maturation had to be upheld, individually evaluating each barrel along the way.

The result is a whisky which was impacted by its second maturation, not, however, overwhelmed by it; even though it is mostly conceptualised for the winter it evokes feelings of a summer in southern France – feet in the sand, the Mediterranean in sight, a soft breeze of the provincial fields of lavender fluttering about the nose.

Colour:

Amber with orange reflections

Nose:

Ripe fruit aromas, foremost apples, dried pears and zests of sweet oranges, creamy, orange-milk with a little influence of wood, slightly floral with a hint of lavender. The aromas remind of a summer’s day at the beach, one can feel the warm sand and sunscreen.

Palate:

Intense, ripe,  fruity aromas, including oranges, which aren’t dominant however and mostly show from a zesty point of view, the base is set by malt and medium roast aromas supported by mild spices, the lavender shows itself again, but this time more like camphor, noticeable is also a wood structure with tannins, but it is difficult to say whether the bitter notes come from the zesty or wooden side.

Finish:

Warm and spicy, the whisky is no longer as fruity as before, there are mostly zesty notes left, which are retained as oily on the palate.

Note:

The orange-distillate casks have imprinted upon the whisky, but don’t steer its character. A truly excellent combination!

September 2018 / Julia Nourney