Review 290. The Whisky Jury St. Killian Heavily Peated

The Whisky Jury may easily be considered one of the rising stars amongst the independent bottlers. This Belgian company hasn’t been around for that long (since 2019), but in less than a decade they’ve well established themselves with a reputation of releasing high quality bottlings. One of the cool things about them (or rather ‘he’, as it’s pretty much a one man business run by Joeri Van den Broeck – the  name of his company being a tongue in cheek reference to his first name) is that he recently also started a Youtube channel, where he shares lots of interesting stuff about how he got into the business, how and why he selects his casks, what he actually looks for in a good dram and so on. What I appreciate about his channel so much is that it shows both some of the in depth stuff about whisky and the business of indie bottling  as well as the stories and anecdotes behind it all which makes it very much ‘human’ and helps give things a bit of a personal touch. Not that his bottlings would need it, because – as I’ve said – he’s built quite the reputation for releasing top notch stuff and the combo of limited outturn and a good reputation usually already does quite a bit of the marketing for you. Nonetheless, I’m very happy to have his channel around. Admittedly I find myself struggling to keep up with what’s happening at a lot of the channels on whiskytube – even the ones I’m a patreon of, but I try to make an effort of keeping up to date.

The Whisky Jury St. Killian Heavily Peated 6 year old (2017-2024). First fill oloroso sherry cask, 58.8% ABV. 314 bottles, app. €85

Germany contains about 300 whisky producing distilleries – roughly twice the amount of what we have in Scotland. But the big difference, apart from history, size and production capacity,  is probably that only a handful of those German distilleries exclusively produce whisky. Hence the phrasing ‘whisky producing distilleries’. The vast majority of them are indeed distilleries – often with a quite long pedigree and history - that have focused for decades, sometimes even centuries, on other spirits. Schnaps and fruit liqueurs being the obvious ones, but also brandy and in some parts in the north and west of Germany jenever. While many of these producers have long lasting traditions, skill and knwledge, in a lot of cases distilling spirit with the aim of turning it into whisky is a fairly recent endeavour, and in most cases something they do on the side. Be it because they saw it as an opportunity to expand and tap into new markets (riding the whisky wave of the 2010's), be it because they really like whisky, be it because it's a bit of both. The fact of the matter is: quite a few of them produce genuinely decent and good stuff. Quite a few of them also struggle to get it right. Probably that's down to whisky being something they do on the side. Which tends to imply they don't have the best kind of equipment to produce good quality whisky, or because they don't have the best approach to making whisky.

St. Killian, located in Rüdenau fairly centrally in Germany, between Frankfurt and Stuttgart, isn’t one of those "whisky-on-the - side-producers", as it’s been solely producing whisky since day 1. Founded in 2012, they are one of only a few German producers who have managed to make a name for themselves outside of Germany. Perhaps the vast majority of German producers are firmly focused on their domestic market (a lot of them are pretty small to medium scale, so it’s not unlikely that they mainly aim for local or regional markets), but St. Killian, with a capacity of roughly 600,000 LPA (that’s Ardnamurchan or Glengyle territory in terms of output) is definitely aiming at foreign markets as well. Question is, of course: can they put their foot next to some of the better other European or even Scottish producers?

Nose

Let me cut to the chase: yes, they can! This is absolutely superb! Lively, sweet, fruity, crisp… with a sensation of sweet peat and smoke running through it all. The nose is quite dense, suggesting viscosity and even some waxiness and overall the result is absolutely seductive, alluring – an absolute fest for the senses!

Palate

The peat and smoke are much more dominant on the palate. If on the nose they were the fil rouge connecting everything, on the tongue it’s immediately clear they are running the show and all the other notes are gathered around them. And again: it works a treat. The mouthfeel is medium full and somewhat dry (the oloroso casks?). There’s fruit and confectionary sweetness and rich, somewhat feisty spices. Which brings me to the ABV: even at over 58% alcohol, this is very palatable neat. Of course some water helps to put a lid on those hotter notes, but I didn’t really need it to enjoy this beautiful dram.

Finish

Long, dry and both the peat and the peppery spice linger on for quite some time.

Final thoughts

Some drams are just a lot of ‘fun’ to nose and sip. Usually these are the kind of whiskies where you’re pleasantly surprised by what they have to offer. Not because you weren’t expecting much, but because they even exceed those expectations and put a big grin on your face in the process. This is very much one of those. Full of flavour, lovely texture, plenty of character and with an excellent balance: everything just clicks. Possibly a bit harder to find these days, but at around €80-€85 an absolute no brainer should you find one. Highly recommended! Many thanks to my pal Yuri for providing the sample! Next weekend I’ll be at Spirits in the Sky festival in Brussels (apparently there’s this other obscure whisky venue happening in Glasgow as well, but nobody’s ever heard of that) and will give the palate and the liver a bit of a break afterwards, so I’ll see you in a week or two!