Origin: Veneto (Italy)
Type: Italian Pure Malt Whisky
Strength: 46%ABV
Ageing casks: Regenerated
Chillfiltered: No
Added colouring: No
Owner: Poli
Average price: € 60.00
Official website: www.poligrappa.com
Three years after the debut in the whisky world of the Poli family, grappa (and more) producers for generations in Schiavon in the province of Vicenza, here at last is the distillery’s second bottling, which recalls the previous Segretario di Stato with some differences.
If the design is similar, continuing the religious theme in the name, already on the label you can one notice the declared age (five years) differently from the NAS of the predecessor, but the content is also markedly different: no ex-wine casks but regenerated barriques, of unspecified provenance, and increased alcohol strength, taking it from 43%ABV to the more common 46%ABV.
Same grain mix, 40% peated and 60% unpeated malt, same discontinuous cycle bain-marie still.
The name, Conclave, is also read as a metaphor for the casks ‘locked up’ under lock and key (visible on the label) to ponder over the maturing distillate like cardinals when they have to elect a pope.
Who knows what part they allocate to the angels?
Tasting Notes
Cereals and balsamic notes take the olfactory stage, with rye bread and dwarf pine emerging powerfully from the glass. In the background you find liquorice, nuts (roasted hazelnuts, macadamia), cocoa, nutmeg and prunes. In time, it moves decisively towards panforte cake. Christmas-y.
If it was practically absent on the nose, the peat makes its debut on the first sip, in its vegetal and woody soul, as a mild and elegant chaperone to spices (ginger, cinnamon, nutmeg), fruit (plum, dogwood, medlar), pecans, liquorice and a background of cappuccino with a dusting of cocoa. The balsamic side has subsided but not disappeared, counterpointing the roasted and smoky side in a sophisticated counterpoint.
The finish is quite long with the balsamic spirit blowing over notes of coffee, cocoa, spices, liquorice, nuts and toasted wood.
A dram with unexpected subtleties, which compared to its equally young cousins knows how to find a path of elegance and personality with discreet evolution. And with a quality/price ratio that is increasingly rare in the sector.
Vote: 85/100