Puni - The Italian Malt Whisky

Hi maltmates I hope you are all doing well. Last wednesday I've written that this weekend would be quite a whisky fueled one and I can tell you that it didn't disappoint. I got the chance to try a lot of new stuff which I'm going to tell you about so stay tuned for some new articles flying in. In todays post I want to tell you a little bit about two new whisky discoveries that I made last thursday when I travelled to Basel to meet up with a friend and to go to a whisky tasting. You can read more about the tasting in this article. The whiskies that I am going to talk about were quite special because they aren't produced in Scotland but in Italy. The distillery that made these whiskies is called Puni and it's quite new, actually the whiskies I had were only the second batch of Italian whisky ever produced, the first batch was bottled in October 2015.
Puni is located in the region of Vintschgau in South Tyrol, not far from the Swiss border and was named after the nearby river. It was founded in 2010 and startet production in 2012. Therefore it is located in a rather modern building as you can see.

The Puni Distillery

What I really like about the distillery is that unlike some other distilleries in Europe they don't use stills that are meant to distill fruit brandy but got pot stills made by Forsyth & Sons in Rothes, Scottland like most of the Scotch distilleries. 

Punis Potstills produced by Forsyth & Sons

Contrary to Scotch malt whisky which only consists of malted barley, Puni also uses malted rye and wheat. The distillery states that the barley gives the spirit the typical malty and spicy base, the wheat gives it mellow sweetness and the rye gives it body and deepness.

They mature their whisky in different types of  casks which are matured in two different types of warehouses. One part of the casks is matured in old bunkers, where the temperature is quite low and the humidity is constant. The other part of the casks is matured above ground where the temperature is hot in the summer and cold in the winter and the air is rather dry.

The two expressions that I had the chance to taste were the Puni Nova and the Puni Alba

The Nova  is matured for 3 years in first fill ex-Bourbon and virgin European oak casks. It is a delicate, sweet and fruity whisky but I also got some nice spice notes which come from the European oak.

Puni Nova

The Alba is matured in Marsala casks for 3 years and then gets a short finish in casks that previously held peated Islay whisky. It has some really nice fruit notes but also a smoky touch which is more intense than I expected. 

Puni Alba

I have to say that I was quite impressed how mature those two whiskies already were even if they are only three years young. I think they are very promising and I'm looking forward to seeing more of this distillery. I hope that I can pop in for a visit someday as it is only a 3 hours drive away from my home and I would love to give you guys a post about a visit of this rather fantastic looking building. Go check out their website and I would recommend you to try their whiskies if you ever get the chance.

Slàinte mhath, U