Origin: Lombardia (Italy)
Type: Italian Single Malt Whisky
Strength: 52%ABV
Ageing cask: Ex-Wine and ex-Beer
Chillfiltered: No
Added colouring: No
Owner: Strada Ferrata
Price: € 79,00 distillery only
Official website: www.stradaferrata.xyz
Vote: 84/100
For some years now, there has been talk in Italy of this whisky project, which finally saw its first distillation in February 2021 and which has shown itself to the public in the various stages of maturation with the On The Way bottlings, made by taking the distillate from the casks at different times (but always less than three years) and with different raw materials and processes.
The founders come from the world of beer, hence the knowledge of cereals and fermentation then put at the service of whisky, seeking, like others in the peninsula, an Italian way to distillate starting from the heart of Brianza area, in Seregno.
Today I’ a’m going to taste their first whisky, which after the fateful three years of maturation can finally bear the name.
A single cask coming from a French winery, which contained sour beer before being filled with the distillate produced from peated malt (48ppm) of British origin, bottled at the end of September 2024 in 301 bottles, which can only be purchased at the distillery but are available for tasting at the various whisky-related events scattered around Italy.
Tasting Notes
On the nose, the lack of alcohol leaves room for a full-bodied aromatic palette that oscillates between carnivorous evocations of sausages and barbecue ribs (complete with BBQ sauce and Tabasco) and those of caramel, roasted chestnuts, maple syrup and cooked quince. Side dishes of spices (sweet paprika, cloves) and herbs (rosemary, thyme) complete an energetic and fatty picture. A rebellious teenager.
In the mouth, it loses much of its meaty aspect, with a dull grill that exudes the distant memory of sizzling meat, but with a strong presence of red fruits (blackberries, sour cherries), sultanas, baked apple, nuts (almonds, pine nuts), candied orange and citron, and again the balsamic and aromatic vein of herbs, which acts as a common thread between nose and taste. Grafting of spices veering towards the spiciness of ginger and paprika, and smoke, which appears only at length in a lazily lit Caribbean cigar in the background.
Quite long finish of ginger and nutmeg, red fruits, maple syrup, balsamic notes and a dull cigar.
Definitely a fine debut, powerful and boisterous, lacking in subtlety but already with something to say, just waiting for time to allow it to express its full potential.