Single Hercynian Malt Whisky -
Homepage:
www.glenels.de https://www.hercynian-distilling.de/
Maybe the interested reader is surprised about the above link to the still.
The Scottish Whiskey Association started the process back in 2013,
to copyright the word "Glen".
The association believes that the term "Glen" is intended to indicate that it is a Scottish product.
Glen Els received a lawsuit before the Hamburg Higher Regional Court
and lost in the second instance in 2019.
The reason given was:
Geographical indications in the food sector are particularly protected,
and not just against misleading use,
but also from allusions in the names of other products.
For such an allusion within the meaning of the Spirits Ordinance, it is sufficient
if you know the product immediately based on its name
can be associated with the protected geographical indication.
Therefore, whisky that does not come from Scotland cannot be called Glen.
The owner of another affected distillery said:
"We respect and accept the judgment of course - but we don't understand it.
In fact, the court has officially confirmed that valleys only exist in Scotland..."
see also
the report on their website.
Back to original report:
In case a reader of these pages actually doesn't know yet:
I am a lover of Scottish single malts and
Chairman of a small whisky club in Hamburg with its own website:
www.whisky-hh.de
And I have to admit that I completely disregarded German distilleries
(and therefore Glen Els) for a long time (ok: A VEEEERY LONG TIME!).
The first products from German distilleries were allowed to bear the name 'whisky',
But in terms of taste they couldn't even begin to keep up with the Scottish original.
This gave me a lifelong stigma: German whisky doesn't taste good!
But as it happens: it was my birthday again and
<Irony flag: on>
good friends
<Irony flag: off>
arrived with a 'very special' gift:
Quote:
You like to drink whisky - we have something very rare for you from the Harz Mountains!
For me, as an avowed supporter of Scottish distillate, it was said:
Feigning great joy and interest...
But the heading of this page already anticipates my final assessment: It was a big surprise when I had the first sip on my tongue. This bottling from a Malaga cask really didn't need to fear any comparison with the Scots! At another celebration, another bottling of this still was given as a gift. My resentment was hardly there at this point and my joy wasn't just an act. And I was absolutely right, because the second bottle was also completely convincing. That's when the germ of the idea was born to visit this strange distillery in the Harz Mountains - it's not that far away...
However, it took until 2018 until we finally managed to organize this trip. In autumn 2018 we stopped near Zorge, where the distillery Hammerschmiede (hammer forge) has its home - the Single Malt 'Glen Els' is produced there. Unfortunately, the selection of bottlings offered for sale was very small - but all the more high quality. In addition to the standard 'The Journey', there was only a Malaga- and a Sherry-bottling on sale at the time of my visit. But what does 'only' mean when you hear and read that these come from very small barrels and a total of only 35 bottles (no - no forgetting a zero, no turning a number...) were filled. Interest was immediately aroused. The aroma alone was outstanding and when I was allowed to try a drop (literally: driver!), I simply HAD to buy the two bottles (single price 119,- and 139,-)!
At a tasting in my club, I served these bottlings to the participants without mentioning the name (a so-called 'blind tasting') - and the Malaga got an incredible 90 (out of 100) points! My club members were also very surprised, that it is a German product!
And then I was also on the lucky side that the senior boss (Karl-Theodor Buchholz) was there in the sales room. Although tours are only carried out on certain dates, after a humorous technical discussion we got a personal tour of the distillery and the warehouses.
Very friendly and almost enthusiastic (you could tell straight away that he was proud of his product!), he led us through the small combustion chamber and gave us insights into the current burning process. You could tell that everyone is working with great attention to detail.
Particularly interesting during the tour was a still that had a vertical arrangement of condensers an accelerated 5-fold distillation is carried out in one distillation process (see image below). However, this is not used for whisky distillation. Of course, only the spirit stills (above) are used here!
The different barrels are lined up in the yard, which are intended for bottling.
Each with a board explaining the specifics of each barrel type:
Sorry - only in German...
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