Santis Cask Strength Peated Edition Dreifaltigkeit (52%, OB, 2015)

• Category: Swiss single malt whisky
• Origin: Santis Distillery (Brauerei Locher AG)
• Bottling: Official – sampled from Flaviar World Whisky tasting pack
• ABV: 52%
• Cost: CHF73 from the distillery
• Score: 84/100

What they say:

What I say:

Received as part of the Flaviar sample set.

What is Flaviar?

Flaviar is a club of spirits lovers and enthusiasts who want to discover new drinks. To help in this quest, we send our members a tasting box of new and exciting flavours every month.

We’re very, very, very, very… arrrrrrr obsessed with awesome drinks and passionate about connecting those that like to be flaviarized (we just made this one up; it means something like experiencing all sorts of flavours together with your friends). Of course we are a part of a bigger mission: change the way people drink, eat, taste. Nice!

Technologists, entrepreneurs, foodies, chefs, designers, DJs, filmmakers… These are just some of the folks who love what we’re doing. We appreciate that a lot! Because we strongly believe that quality and honest intentions matter, and that drinks should be enjoyed in good company and with style. What you drink is who you are and your home bar reflects that. By creating the opportunity for you to try out drinks you otherwise wouldn’t or couldn’t, we help you discover new remarkable drinks. There’s so much more than Jack & Cola. Let’s raise the bar a little bit.

How does it work?

Flaviar allows you to experience the best spirits from all over the world at a fraction of the regular price, helping you discover new drinks and promote a better and healthier way of enjoying drinks. Every month Flaviar members receive a hand-picked spirits box of three premium flavours (Whisky, Rum, Cognac, Gin, Vodka, Grappa, Tequila,…) selected by our experts and industry professionals. We also run special time limited offers for our members from time to time.

Colour:

Dark ruby brown (15/20) quick large-sized tears leave medium thickness legs

Nose:

Herbal and smoky, cigarette smoke and ash, sweet honey, herbal woodruff, petitgrain, pine disinfectant, germolene, burning rubber tyres, toffee oak wood

Taste:

Herbal toffee, tannic overstewed tea, rubbery car tyres, germolene and deep heat/wintergreen oil, slightly bitter and a little bit off, some bacon and smokey barbecue

Finish:

Long smoked woody herbs

Overall:

Wow! This one was quite a challenge but I actually started liking it after I had acclimatised to both the smoke and herbal nature. I could see where a lot of people would spit this out or turn there nose up in disgust. Very different from most peat-smoked scotch whiskies – the closest example I could think of to this was perhaps Mackmyra. There was something integral to this expression that declared Santis as distinctly Swiss. The herbality was nice as I discovered many unusual or rare herbal aromas and flavours in here not normally associated with say Scotch whisky. Guaranteed to split opinions but what a great whisky to include in a discover set such as this one from Flaviar.