White Peak Petites Eaux Proofing

My whisky of the year for 2024 was one I tried for the first time at Kendal Whisky Festival.

It's from White Peak distillery - let me tell you a little more...

I'm a huge fan of White Peak and their Wire Works Whisky (well all except that dodgy Amarone Cask - but the less said the better!) and I've written about them here. Two of my Top 10 from 2024 were from White Peak and a third made my honourable mentions list. The 2nd two were the Down'ards and Up'ards wine cask pair - read more here, the first, my favourite dram of last year was another wine cask STR AO 19-146 but it has quite a story!

The cask number is shown as STR AO 19-146 which indicates a Shaved Toasted & Recharred American Oak cask filled in 2019, this was the 146th cask filled that year.

Bottler info:

(Tom from White Peak supplied this information to Dougie Crystal at Dramface as part of his review of Wire Works Alto Ego here) and then explained it all to me again at Kendal Whisky Festival!

"This was purely an experiment, so not something we have applied to our whisky releases, to date, and only a small amount was laid down nearly three years ago now. It is a practice sometimes done in Cognac production, and involves ageing rather low proof spirits, in our case 15% ABV for 5 years, to access some of the water soluble compounds, and an abundance fatty acids in the wood. The fatty acids have the ability to carry flavour in the final spirit, and also provide great oily texture. 

It’s worth noting, it’s these fatty acids that get culled when the heinous crime of chill-filtration is committed. This low proof spirit can then be used as proofing ‘water’ for lowering cask strength whisky down to the desired bottling strength. 

In the case of the sample I brought along to Roy’s event in Glasgow (and the Kendal Whisky Festival), the 15% spirit (actually sat at 14% after the angels had their way over time) was used to proof down a single cask sample of an American oak re-charred wine barrique, aged in our upper dunnage, sat at a whopping 69.2% (originally filled at 70%), and tempered to a healthy 57.8% Abv. Our whisky is already getting known for its oily texture, but this process seemed to dial that attribute up to 11, and I was pleased to see the crowd at the event (and at Kendal Whisky Festival) appeared to really like it."

So what does it all mean?

"Petites Eaux" is French for "Small Waters" defined as "a spirit cut with distilled water (16 to 18% ABV.) which is used to lower the alcoholic strength of a distillate before bottling (generally from 70% to 45% ABV.)."

In this case White Peak used some circa 5yo 14% ABV spirit: 3-ish year old spirit, chopped down to 15% and re-casked into refill wood. It naturally dropped down to 14% over the best part of 3 further years pulling more water soluble compounds from the cask. Full of yummy fatty acids, this liquid was used to slowly dilute a 5yo wine cask whisky from 69.2% down to a bottling strength of 57.8% ABV.

Normally this dilution would be done with water, using the 14% Petites Eaux means that more is required to get down to the bottling ABV but importantly each dilution is adding more mouthfeel to the whisky.

We also have to remember that this was an experiment, and whilst it's allowed under English whisky making rules, the SWA would be having heart palpitations even thinking about this - I'm guessing that when White Peak come to sell this it can't be called whisky in Scotland? But when it does get released I'm getting a couple of bottles!

Anyway what did it taste like?

My thoughts:

Appearance: mid gold in the glass, swirls cling as a thin line, take some time to bead up and fall as slow thin legs.

 

Nose: Berries and cherries to the fore: blackberries, blackcurrants, strawberries and a lovely black cherry note. There's the trademark White Peak hint of smoke and milk chocolate. A little candied peel, stewed orchard fruit and a hint of liquorice.

Palate: Thick sweet arrival, all of the berries and cherries from the nose are here but it's the mouthfeel that you really notice: it's really thick - yogurt-y even. Mouthcoating fresh strawberry and blackberry notes. There's a huge bite of peppery spice, a little stewed apple and a dry as the liquid disappears. Further sips offer milk chocolate, toffee and a little liquorice.

Finish: Lingering sweet berry notes, very dry peppery spice and a hint of smoke.

Overall: I voted this dram my favourite of 2024 based on a large sample at a whisky show, a little unusual but this wasn't a pour, sip, neck and continue dram, I was asked my opinion after being offered it blind - I took my time, guessing the wine cask fairly easily from the nose. The palate was unlike any whisky I tried before - thick, mouthcoating, chewy yumminess! After I'd given my opinion Tom explained the details to me - very interesting! I was lucky enough to be gifted the dregs of the bottle after the show and here's my review!  I can't wait for this to be released!

 

Tom from White Peak explaining proofing on an app on his phone!