Located at 892
meters high in the French Alps, The Domaine des Hautes Glaces (DHG) is a mountain
farm distillery. It produces natural, handcrafted single malt managing the
whole process on the same site by Jéremy Bricka and Fréderic Revol, both nature
and whisky lovers.
This full-integrated process is certified as fully organic
using renewable and local sources.
From growing the
grains to bottling the single malt, they work meticulously and are obsessed by
the excellence through each step of the process.
They daily make efforts to highlight and respect the particularities of their lands and the French historical distillation savoir-faire.
The notion of
terroir is at the heart of their approach meaning, as in wine making, each barrel
is in link with a climate. Each plot used to grow their cereals has its own
geographic characteristic: slope, microclimate, exposition, and geology.
After each
harvest, the barley and rye grains are malted, brewed, fermented at the
distillery and slowly double or triple distilled in their pot stills. This
process allows them to elaborate a very aromatic distillate which will be
transferred or not, depending of the product concerned, to barrels from various
French vineyard regions (exclusively french barrels) waiting in the cellars to be filled. At this moment,
the time takes its place for a more or less long maturation. At that stage,
this is a question of patience…
The DHG still not
have whiskies available on sale and that’s not the most important. Their
approach is to have the opportunity to carry on the different steps of the
elaboration of their futures whiskies. Thus, they provide single malts at
various stage of the maturation.
L10#01, which was the first previous single
malt made with barley available on sale, matured two months in French oak
barrels. It allows to follow the influence of the barrels on the new make
spirit.
Let’s have a look
on their actual range…
Principium
From the first barley harvest of the Domaine
des Hautes Glaces in 2009 (climate Les Gabert) were extracted 13 barrels of single malt whisky whose
will be the oldest whiskies from the Domaine des Hautes Glaces.
In order to
celebrate the launching of the distillery, the Domaine des Hautes Glaces has
decided to share with us this historical beverage, through a very special
vintage, PRINCIPIUM.
You acquire a labelled and corked… empty
bottle.
The principle of this spécial serie of only 1616
bottles is the fortunate owners will have the oportunity to follow the
maturation of their own whisky deciding to fill your Principium bottle whenever
they deem the time is ripe with the original vintage of the Domaine des Hautes
Glaces.
Whiskies lovers, let’s bottled our own 5
y.o, 10 y.o, 12 y.o, 15 y.o…and more ! A real dream for most of us.
It is a way to take part in the history of
this amazing Alpine Farm Distillery, DHG.
Woska Serac
Woska is a generic name created by DHG
defining a triple distillation (direct heat) of various grains harvested at the
domaine. It’s an unageed, aromatic distillate reflecting the land from which it
comes.
SERAC is the first
opus of the serie, made from rye grown and harvested in Serre in 2010, where
DHG grows this cereals. It is a unique concentrate
of captivating flavors which can be enjoy as an aperitif, a digestive and also for
stylish cocktail hours.
It can be perceived as a Irish whiskey (
because of the triple distillation tradition) but not aged and using rye or
such as a tasty vodka…
Each one call it as he wants, the essential is to taste at least ones, it worth it!
Tasting notes
Colour: Colorless
Nose: Smooth, fresh and fruity through pear. Gentian and green anise notes. Hints of
acacia honey.
Palate: Creamy and smooth. Malted rye combinated with fruity taste such as pear and
plum. Pepper and cloves flavours. Almonds notes.
Finish: Soft, well-balanced and long finish. Powerful spicy taste through nutmeg and pepper. Emergence of fresh white floral notes.
Persistence of malted rye.
ABV: 43%
S11#01
S.11#01 is the previous of the rye single malts serie, the « S »
meaning rye in French, "seigle", harvest 2011, serie n°1.
Elaborated with rye harvested in 2011
(Climate Les Gabert) and matured 12 months, it’s the product of a direct heat
double distillation matured in french oak barrels: ex-cognac barrels and new
oak barrels (Tronçais forest). It allows us to discover the typicity of the rye
cereals.
Tasting notes
Colour: Copper
coloured
Nose: Almonds and
gentian notes.
Palate: Grown and
supple. Cereals, malted rye caracteristics (spicy and earthy) notes followed by
prune taste.
Finish: Long and
spicy through pepper, liquorice and tabacco notes.
ABV:
46 %
L10#03
L10#03 is the third
and newest opus of the L10 serie, made of barley from the 2010 harvest (climate
Andrieu), an ascending tasting from the spirit still to the whiskies. Matured 22 months in French oak barrels, this new single malt get closer to the universe of the malts of exception, taking its distance with the juvenile aspect of the two first L10 serie opus.
A real single malt in your own right!
Tasting notes
Colour: Pale gold
Nose: Smooth and
subtle. White flowers and slight candied white flesh fruits (peach) combined
with malted barley notes. Hints of truffle
Palate:
Well-balanced and silky.
Finish: Long and
lingering. Malted barley fade down little by little. Roots, Ginger with slight
camphor retro olfaction. Pleasant apricot tart note in the end of the glass.
ABV: 46%
Love it!
Very promising range...Awesome!
From this summer 2013, we'll be able to enjoy the distillery visit...
More informations on the DHG website:
http://hautesglaces.com/home.html (version FR)
http://hautesglaces.com/english/home.html (version EN)
