Brenne, French single malt Whisky 40% ABV.

Launched in 2012 by Allison Parc, collaborating with a French distiller in Cognac, Brenne French Single Malt Whisky is something quite special indeed. It’s made with malted barley grown in Cognac, double distilled, then initially matured in Limousin oak casks before enjoying a finishing period in Cognac casks. Each bottle is drawn from a single cask and is bottled at 40% ABV. Rather cool stuff indeed.

Master of malt

Nose

This whisky is very light gold in colour, it has a thick swirl line on my stemmed tulip glass. It creates an all over film followed by slow thick legs. 

Nose

Well, I’ve not smelt a nose quite like this, it’s rather nice to be honest. I’m getting apricots, guava, dusty strawberry bon bons, with Victoria plums, and wonderful sweet cream soda and a hint of the sweetest perfume, along with a field of meadow flowers in summer.

More time and I’m getting bananas, for the first time in a dram for some time. Cinnamon slowly appears, then followed by aniseed/cough candy, and liquorice torpedo sweets.

Palate

The palate is quite thin, expected for the ABV, and initially it’s quite spicy. Cinnamon and malt loaf mix with cocktail cherries, milky coffee, raspberry ripple ice cream. Pink wafer biscuits come next, with a drop of red wine, strawberry milkshake, and red apple skins, and it’s still staying spicy.

Waiting further and it’s a solid red fruit platter. Strawberries, raspberries, redcurrants, red apples, and cranberries, with continued spices all the way through.

Finish

The finish is quite long for me, the spices really do linger, and polish towards black coffee with fruit syrup, cigar leaves, some tannins, that strong cough syrup, and a little drying. 

My thoughts

I love trying new whiskies to me. I’d happily try something new every time i poured a dram, rather than the same old drams. I want to try every grain type, cask type, finish type, anything different. I have tried whisky from France previously, and wasn’t overly impressed. So i can to this dram worrying that it may be another “ok” whisky, boy was i wrong.

I absolutely adore this whisky, and raised this on Twitter, i asked if anyone else had fried it. Seems a few have tried it, and it’s definitely a whisky that divides opinion. Some, like me have fallen in love with it, some really don’t like it. So even though my review is a positive one, this may not be for you. I enjoyed it so much that i will be looking for other bottlings, though they are few and far between.

It’s a yes from me, i’d love a bottle, but would like to try it at higher strength too.