East Meets West - Santis Edition

Not much to update for now, and it seems that the aim to hit 15 new drinks in 15 days of CNY is flagging. We will never know if we never try. The valiant and foolish effort continues today, with a tasting of a hard-to-find malt in Singapore - Santis Malt, from the Swiss Highlands!

Santis Malt is a whisky distiller that is part of a company that usually produces German-styled beers, in the German-speaking regions of Switzerland. The selling point of Santis is the usage of beer casks for the maturation of their whiskies. Tired of the usual sherry cask, bourbon cask, virgin oak, noble oak, blood oak, silver oak, american oak, fine oak, select oak, three wood, triple wood, triple cask, etc. etc.? Why not try beer cask for a change...?

Turns out, a good reason to not try is its rarity. Santis doesn't have a large output, and I've not seen anyone sell this in Singapore. Therefore, big thanks to CP for helping me bring a bottle back from Switzerland!

Accompanying the Edition Santis is Yan Lianke's novel, The Four Books, in an English translation. The novel is about the Great Leap Forward, and the disastrous economic policies pursued by Mao. For the first couple of chapters, the people in the Re-Education site (read labour camp) have been doing nothing but planting and harvesting grain. Hopefully, this Santis was made using ethically grown grain.

Santis Malt, Edition Santis (40% abv)

Colour - Light gold.

Nose - The first sniff took me aback. This is not whisky; it's obviously beer! German lager, to be exact. Fascinating. After the first whiff of beer, the nose develops a bit of raisins. Not as rich as the Glendronach or Kavalan, and a little less ripe/dried. Some green-ness in this. A little like figs too. A hint of fresh pine leaves. The nose suggests that this is young, maybe 5 years or so, but it is nice and fruity. The beer opening is intriguing and inviting, if you like beer. There's a whisky beer that they serve at the Auld Alliance. Maybe I should try that for comparison... With some time, it gets a little creamy too.

Palate - A little bread on entry, again, like some beers with a stronger yeast influence. The raisins come back, figs too, but doesn't dominate the palate. Very smooth, for a whisky that smelt so young. The alcohol seems to have blended very well with the rest of the liquid, producing a warm tingle. Very accomplished for something that's young. Body's a little thin and doesn't quite coat the mouth so well. Maybe a higher alcohol content will fix the body, but not throw off the smoothness too much? Some light spices. Some citrus on the way out, which turns a bit bitter. Like the finish of a lemon bitters soft drink that I had from the library cafe once. A little bit of oak as well, but the oak is mostly covered by the beer/yeast/bread flavours.

Finish - The bit of bitterness transits into a little whiff of smoke. Not like anything I've had thus far. It's a little...different, in a nice, "we-love-diversity" way. Apple wood smoke? Pine wood smoke? I'm not sure. Gotta burn some plants to get a better sense of it. Which is not very considerate. A bit of the woodspice lingers. Surprisingly long. The spice lingers at the back of the throat, as does the feeling that you've actually drank a beer rather than whisky.

This one is really interesting. Pity it's hard to find here in Singapore. A good whisky, with a rather unique profile. A good demonstration of what a good distiller can do to maximize what's available to him, to produce a whisky that is differentiated from the mainstream Scotches, Bourbons and Japanese whiskies. Fairly cheap too, if you have someone coming back from Switzerland. This one is a 500ml bottle, for 40-ish Swiss francs. The Edition Dreifeltigkeit won an award for Best European Whisky back in 2010 (iirc), and Santis has produced a popular Edition Alpstein (that's run into version 10 or something like that). I think there's a winter/Christmas edition as well. Worth trying, and keeping one for a refreshing sip after one gets bored of the mainstream stuff.

And with this, the CNY challenge is up to a 10. Two-thirds of the way there...