Goldlys 12 Year Old [cask 2600] – Distillers Range

• Category: Belgian double still whisky
• Origin: Filliers Distillery
• Bottling: Official
• ABV: 43.7%
• Cost: £50 for 70cl
• Score: 79/100

What they say:

A limited edition release of Goldlys 12 year old whisky. Made by the Belgian distiller Filliers, Goldlys whisky is made with the double still technique, using both column and pot stills. This release, which came from cask 2600 and is part of the Distillers Range, received a sherry cask finish before it was bottled. Only 900 bottles were produced.

Filliers distillery sits alongside the river Lys in a small rural village called Bachte-Maria-Leerne, near Deinze, near Ghent, in Flanders, Belgium. Filliers has been distilling spirit for Gin since 1880 and also produces Goldlys Whiskey.

‘Double Still’ refers to the unique element in Goldlys’ double production process. The first distillation does not occur in a traditional wash still, but in a column still. The result is a low wine with an alcohol content of 35% vol. The second distilling process however does occur in a pot still and produces a new spirit of 72% vol. This is reduced to 63% vol. before filling the caskets. The use of the column still allows a mash in which the wort (of malt, rye and maize) is distilled together with the draft in the column still. This is a unique production process in the world of whisky that releases the specific flavours of each type of grain.

What I say:

Continuing our virtual world tour of whisky we say goodbye to South Africa and hello to mainland Europe. In particular Belgium. I decided to bypass France (Brittany) as we have already sampled a fair number of Breton whiskies and reviewed them already. The Filliers Distillery in Belgium produces a strange double-distilled whisky that first uses a column still and then a pot still. Filliers call this double still whisky.

Colour:

Bright orange/yellow gold

Nose:

Sweet, new paint, aroma of baked apricot jam (like on an apricot Danish pastry) and possibly almonds, subtle hints of ginger

Taste:

Sugary sweet with a thick syrupy mouthfeel, this has sweetcorn, toffee-coated popcorn, parma violets (sweets), very strong flavoured with a bitter, nutty, woody treacle toffee

Finish:

Initially short but bitterness in the reflux, almost savoury again with sweet and bitter treacle

Would I buy it again:

While I enjoyed drinking this, there was a serious bitter element in this whisky that I didn’t like. Not enough to stop me enjoying it, but I suspect it would build if you drank more. Apart from the bitterness, this whisky has everything else in droves. Lots of sugary sweetness and cereal flavours, the sherry finish was a little lost in here for me? Interesting to try, but not one to buy in my opinion.