A year ago I was supposed to be en route to St Kilian distillery for a weekend of discovery. When the plan was set-up it was at a time when optimistically we thought the worst was behind us and it would be possible to bring together a collection of whisky appreciators, vloggers and bloggers from around Germany.

Alas plans had to be changed to an online event which I unfortunately missed. However undeterred, I thought to create an evening of exploration myself – ordering the “Four” and “Six” to join my “One” from the Messe whisky festival. These bottles made their way to Berlin then London then Mumbai. In the meantime, I ordered another set – this time adding the “Seven” to round out the collection, with samples sent to Paris for another tasting company.

The date was set and we were primed to explore what St Kilian has to offer.

• Signature Edition ‘One’ (2016/2019) 45% with 37% ex Bourbon, 37% ex Martinique Rum, 18% ex PX Sherry, 5% Chestnut, 3% ex-Bourbon quarter cask (Eur 43)
• Signature Edition ‘Six’ (2016/2020) 47.5% with 45% Rye, 30% late Burgandy, 25% ex Bourbon (Eur 38)
• Signature Edition ‘Four’ (2016/2020) 48% with 51% ex PX Sherry and 49% ex Olorosso Sherry, peated to 54 PPM (Eur 41)
• Signature Edition ‘Seven’ (2017/2021) 51.7% with 73% ex Sherry Olorosso and 27% ex Sherry PX (Eur 43)

St Kilian is approx 1 hour drive from Frankfurt in Rüdenau and has been in operation for approx 6 years. Their inspiration is clearly Scotland – using pot stills – hence their pot still styled whisky bottles. They use both German and Scottish barley and play around with approx 200 different types of casks – not just your typical Oak but Chestnut as well.

The black labels are for the non-peated line and the white labels use peat. All but “Four” is currently out of stock direct from the distillery however I was able to find them from a German distributor.

As for who are the folks behind this distillery? The founder is Andreas (Andi) Thümmler partnered with Irish Master Distiller David F. Hynes, joined by Master Distiller Mario Rudolf. The distillery was built on an old factory site (Meixner textile dye)  with a ‘mere’ Euro 15 million.

I’m curious to see how their expressions and explorations evolve… particularly the unpeated ones!

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