G – like principles

What do principles mean for St Kilian?

Principles are certain rules that we have established for ourselves and follow meticulously. For us as a producer of premium spirits, they form the basis of our daily activities.

What are the principles at St Kilian?

The principles at St Kilian are as follows: We always bottle our whiskies with at least 46 per cent alcohol (ethanol) by volume. Furthermore, we do not carry out any additional colouring of our whiskies. We only have natural colours that come from cask maturation. In addition, our whiskies are not chill-filtered before bottling. And finally, we don’t do any finishing, we only do full maturation. These are the four main principles that we have followed here at St Kilian from the very beginning.

Why are the whiskies bottled with at least 46 per cent by volume?

If the alcohol content of a whisky is below 46 per cent by volume, there is a risk that the spirit will form a haze in colder temperatures (e.g. transport in winter, cold cellar) and become cloudy. This is not a quality defect, but it does not look good.

Where does this turbidity come from?

The cloudiness is caused by certain aroma and flavour substances, the so-called congeners. Some of them are only soluble in water, others only in alcohol. An alcohol content of 46% is considered the solubility limit for certain congeners in whisky, such as certain fatty acid esters. If the alcohol content drops due to the addition of water, these precipitate and form a haze. As solubility is temperature-dependent and decreases with falling temperature, whisky bottled at less than 46 per cent alcohol by volume and still chilled forms a more or less clear cloudiness. To prevent this, the whisky industry has developed chill filtration.

Why does St Kilian reject chill filtration?

Because this process, in which the whisky in question is cooled below 0°C before bottling and the cloudy substances formed are removed by filtration, takes something out of our whisky. These removed cloudy substances are then missing from the final aroma and flavour profile of our whiskies. However, these filtered cloudy substances usually contribute to the mouthfeel, i.e. the texture of a whisky. This is partly lost through cooling filtration and we definitely don’t want that. After all, we do not end up depriving our whiskies of a certain proportion of what we have previously worked hard to achieve in an elaborate and cost-intensive production process!

Why is there no colouring?

At St. Kilian, we produce honest whisky that is made exclusively from the three ingredients water, barley and yeast through double distillation and is allowed to mature as New Make in wooden casks. As natural as possible. The colour of our whiskies comes exclusively from the wooden casks used. Depending on the type of cask and the pre-seasoning of the maturing casks, we achieve a natural colour in our whiskies, ranging from straw yellow to gold and amber to the deepest mahogany.

Why doesn’t St Kilian do any finishing?

We believe that only a full maturation in a cask, i.e. the entire period of storage of our New Make spirit in one and the same cask, reflects the full aroma and pure flavour of our whisky. For example, when we fill our Italian Amarone wine casks from the renowned Cantine Lenotti in Bardolino with St. Kilian New Make, after 3, 5, 8, 10 or 12 years in this cask we get 100% of the pure Amarone flavour of our whisky. This is not possible with finishing.

What is meant by finishing?

During finishing, a spirit is first matured in one type of cask, usually bourbon barrels. After a certain time, the contents of this barrel or those of several barrels are transferred to another type of cask. These can be Amarone, rum, sherry, port, beer or other casks, for example. As a result, the whisky already characterised by the original bourbon barrel takes on additional flavours, which mostly come from the pre-seasoning of the casks used for finishing. In addition to the bourbon barrel character, you get another component, so to speak, which both complement each other in the best case. Finishing often only takes a few months, but can also extend over a period of a year or more, depending on the activity of the cask.

Are no whiskies blended at St Kilian?

Yes, of course. For example, our Signature Editions are almost always blends of single malt whiskies from several types of cask. However, this only happens after their individual maturation! Because every single whisky in such a blend – in the wine sector one would speak of a cuvée – comes from one cask from start to finish.

Is full maturation more expensive than finishing?

Of course. As already mentioned, the cheaper bourbon barrels are often used for the basic maturation of a whisky during finishing. After a certain period of time, this bourbon barrel-matured whisky is then transferred to other wine, beer or spirits casks and matured in them, often only for a few months. These casks can then be used again for the next finishing process. This saves time and ultimately money. At St Kilian, we allow each whisky to mature completely in the desired cask. This means that our expensive red wine or Mizunara casks, for example, are used for years and therefore cannot be used as often as is the case with finishing. And that costs more money. But the high quality of our whiskies, which have won several international awards, proves us right.

Are there any exceptions to the principles when it comes to bottlings?

Yes, they do exist. In the event that a cask leaks during the maturation of the whisky, its contents must be transferred to another cask in order to minimise losses. Or a cask is overactive and releases very intense flavours into the maturing distillate after just a few years. Even then, the spirit is decanted into a different cask, so that the distillery character of our spirit is not completely destroyed. In both cases, we speak of “double maturation”, a second maturation, and of course indicate this on the label of the respective bottle. At the beginning of our first single malt whisky bottlings, there were also a few that were bottled with an alcohol content of between 40 and 46 per cent by volume. Examples include the single malt whiskies Signature Edition ONE (45% vol.) and Rhein-Neckar Löwen Edition (43% vol.). But there were very few exceptions.

What is the aim of the four principles at St Kilian?

Our aim is to stay down to earth and create honest whisky that is purely natural, unadulterated and full of flavour. This is what we stand for with our name.