Two weeks ago I tried the oldest French Whisky ever released (yes, for those who wonder, the first French whisky ever released is a blended whisky (single-blend to be more precise) from the Warenghem distillery, it was the "Whisky Breton" (which means whisky from Brittany) distilled in 1983 & released in 1987 from wheat (grain) & barley (single-malt). Their flagship single-malt, simply called "Armorik", wasn't released until 1999, but....this is not the first ever whisky distillery who did release this year the oldest cask (they did release their first 15 yo, though, this year), but the "Distillerie des Menhirs" -litterally "the distillery of standing stones"-also located in Brittany, who bottled their oldest cask, an EDDU (which means "Blé noir" : buckwheat -the distillery was a worldwide pioneer using this pseudo-cereal-in fact a flowering plant from the knotweed family Polygonaceae, cultivated for its grain-like seeds, as a cover crop). He deliberately used this instead of barley to stand out in whisky production & of what I know he was the first to do it) 21 yo distilled & put into cask by its founder, Guy Le Lay, and left aside for years.... Eventually, his son Loïg, this year, checked this cask & wanted to pay tribute to his father's work by selecting the best & oldest cask he could find in the warehouse & found this gem (tasting notes next week end on my youtube channel) & decided to bottle it before the angel's share was too big. So he bottled it at 43 % & called it "Graal" ("Grail" in English). I had the chance to try it at Whisky Live Paris with his wife Christelle. It was an emotional experience because of the story telling (family business always rings that bell to me, go figure why), and I was transported by its delicacy & complexity... Here is the tasting decanter, almost empty ! #frenchwhisky #oldestfrenchwhisky #eddugraal #distilleriedesmenhirs

Posted by Greg's Whisky Guide at 2022-10-11 21:12:50 UTC