Spread out over eight European countries, the Alps is a spectacular mountain range home to snow, glaciers, rivers and lakes. Millions of tourists visit every year for skiing, snowboarding, hiking, trail running and even paragliding but now there’s a different kind of adventure unfolding in this landscape. Scattered across the Alps is a growing number of whisky distilleries, each rooted in and inspired by the distinctive setting in which they create their spirits.
Below are three whisky producers who have made their homes in the heights of the French, Italian and Swiss Alps.
Domaine des Hautes Glaces
Frédéric Revol is founder of Domaine des Hautes Glaces, an organic whisky distillery in the heart of the French Alps. ‘To be among such wonderful, well-preserved nature with such a powerful identity, at the limits of what is possible because of the altitude; I thought it would be great if I can catch just a little bit of that magic in my whisky,’ he says.
Twenty years ago, when Revol first contemplated making whisky, he was initially drawn to the area because of its well-established reputation for organic farming. As a young agronomist, he left for the mountains motivated by a fascination for whisky, intent on creating his own barley eau-de-vie that promotes soil fertility while showcasing raw materials and terroir with a minimal carbon footprint. Now he runs a farm and a distillery, while a collective of 15 neighbouring organic farmers provides all the grains he needs, mostly rye and barley.
Domaine des Hautes Glaces is at an elevation of 900 metres, which Revol describes as ‘the roof of agriculture in Europe.’ Grains are grown on plots up to 1,200 metres across Trièves, an area bordered by the Obiou mountains (or Grande Tête de l’Obiou). As the distillery is close to a tectonic fault line, some plots are chalkier while others are on rhyolithic soils. Certain fields are exposed to the east, some to the west. ‘Vintage after vintage, we recognise similarities in whiskies from the same plot. For example, one is very close to chalk cliffs and the whiskies from this plot are always chalky and saline.’
The yeast used by Domaine des Hautes Glaces comes from the same source as the grains. Having tried commercials yeasts initially, Revol concluded they weren’t doing justice to the sense of place he was trying to capture. Now yeast is being gathered in the fields and then propagated, resulting in a vast library of native yeasts. Often, a combination of different yeasts is used, but Revol also distils batches with only one yeast variety. Over the years, he has discovered yeasts with a very specific flavour profile but ‘in the whisky that I was making before, this specific profile was already there.’ He suspects that’s because these yeasts were already present in the distillery’s atmosphere, influencing the fermentation process at Domaine des Hautes Glaces.
Villa de Varda
Revol is not the only spirits producer drawing inspiration from the Alps. The Dolzan family of Villa de Varda have been distilling grappa in the Trentino region for 170 years before branching out and launching their first whisky just a few years ago. They named it InQuota, which literally translates to ‘at high altitude’. It signals the family’s strong bond to the Dolomites, a mountain range part of the northern Italian Alps. Much like Domaine des Hautes Glaces, the Dolzan family source crops grown in the local mountains. According to Michele Dolzan, who represents the sixth generation of family-run Villa de Varda, fields in nearby mountains have been cultivated by farmers since the 16th century. Back in the day, barley was used for caffé d’orzo, while bread and cake were made from rye.
Italians take a certain kind of pride in their regional cuisine and they’ve always valued natural, fresh ingredients. True to form, Dolzan raves about the quality of locally grown produce, such as apples from nearby Val di Non or the potata di montagna (mountain potatoes). He firmly believes the grains from Trentino, grown at 1,000m or higher, are of superb quality also. ‘The cereals from the mountains taste completely different. There’s a fantastic, almost fruity aroma. It’s expensive to grow in the mountains because there isn’t much space and you can’t always use big machinery but it is worth it.’
Whisky generally matures in oak casks but European law allows for all types of wood to be used. Trentino, specifically the Val di Fiemme, is known for its spruce. Master string-instrument makers have been using wood from the area for centuries. For Dolzan, it presented an opportunity to infuse InQuota with even more local flavour. He created an expression finished in spruce casks. ‘When I smell this whisky, it is as if I’m walking in an autumn forest.’
Orma
A similar type of wood is embraced by Orma, the highest whisky distillery in the world. It sits just below the top of Piz Corvatsch in Switzerland at an astonishing 3,303m above sea level. The team has been using casks made from local Swiss stone pine, which is omnipresent in the Engadin region and is used for furniture, among other things. Orma co-founder Pascal Mittner even has ‘a room made out of this wood’ in his home. He and business partner Rinaldo Willy started producing Orma single malt almost 15 years ago, first by renting capacity at a third-party distillery but now in a high-altitude Alps whisky distillery of their own.
Orma Distillery officially opened on 10 October, 2020, in the Corvatsch mountain station, which Mittner had already been using as a place to mature Alps whisky. ‘There is a small cave in which they were already ageing cheese, ham, sausages and the like, so they were open to the idea.’ It is one of a dozen warehouses the distillery uses across Switzerland, attempting to capture the influence of different climates. Maturation has always been a key part of Orma’s philosophy and it has eschewed traditional cask types in favour of local ones, especially ex-Blauburgunder (Pinot Noir) wine casks from the Bündner Herrschaft region of Switzerland.
Distilling at altitude has added a new dimension to Orma beyond cask influence. Here, water boils at just 89.4 degrees and alcohol at 70 degrees, about eight degrees less than at sea level. It reduces energy consumption but also has certain flavour benefits, says Mittner. ‘When we distil up there, the newmake seems more floral, fruitier and fresher, even though we use the same malt and yeast.’ The long fermentation period may help too. Because of the low pressure, Orma can ferment at a cooler temperature and slower pace, allowing for a 120-hour fermentation.
As whisky continues to evolve, the Alps have emerged as an unlikely but compelling stage. The distillers here are not just adapting to their environment but embracing it, using altitude, climate, local grains and native wood to their advantage. From the organic terroir-driven approach of Domaine des Hautes Glaces to Orma’s high-altitude experimentation, producers are finding ingenious ways to capture the mountains in their spirits.
