Alfred Giraud is expanding its line up with the release of Voyage, the first Whisky in its new Exploratory Blends range. With its new series, the boutique French brand aims to curate the finest single malts to blend in rare or distinctive casks sourced by the Giraud family. These blends are matured using unique ex-wine and spirits casks, as well as woods not typically used to age spirits.
Voyage by Alfred Giraud features a blend of two single malts, one aged in Sauternes wine casks, the other in French Robinia casks. According to the brand, “the Sauternes casks give notes of custard, sweet grapes and acacia honey. Robinia, a powerful wood that requires skills to balance, is seldom used in whisky. It gives notes of white flower.” From there, the blend is finished in Cognac casks.
On the nose, the Whisky offers aromas of white flower, custard and honey, balanced with black currant and ripe grapes. The palate is soft and round with a sophisticated sweetness, where matured sweet grape, fresh flower and acacia honey are balanced by a bold structure. The finish offers a luxurious mouth feel, sweet floral complexity with a slight presence of wood on the finish.
Bottled at 48% ABV, Voyage by Alfred Giraud is priced at €145 ($172 USD) and is of natural color and non-chill filtered. You can purchase the release via Cognatheque.
In other French Whisky news, Armorik have launched a new, heavily peated single malt Whisky, dubbed Yeun Elez. The Brittany-based distillery named their new offering after a swamp considered in Breton legends as the Gateway to Hell.
According to the Yeun Elez legend reported by Anatole le Braz in 1893, it is the place where the evil souls who haunted the living were thrown into hell. Tadic-Coz, knew the secret and the ritual of locking the souls of ghosts in the body of a black dog. He instructed young Jobic to guide the dog towards the underworld gates. The latter, going from presbytery to presbytery, led the black dog to the rector of Commana. Together, at sunset, they threw the black dog into the Yeun Elez swamp, condemning the ghost to hell.