Black Mountain launches new smoky whisky « BM Notes Fumées »

Black Mountain has revealed a new addition to its award-winning range (World Whisky Awards 2015, IWSC 2016). The expression comes in a stylish black painted bottle and sees the French brand go smoky. Well, delicately smoky.

According to Cédric Leprette, co-founder of Black Mountain, such an addition had been made natural and obvious since the very beginning of the adventure: « When we first met with our future consumers, a significant part, although not a majority, of fine whisky enthusiats showed a real interest for peaty/smoky whiskies. Committed to answer their needs in the best possible way, we then went on a quest to find the nectar that would suit their palate. »

The Black Mountain team still attached great importance in remaining true to themselves and stick to the house style, a style that has earned its whiskies many awards since its creation in 2013 : « The biggest challenge for us was not to shift away from our specific aromatic profile, mainly based on fruity and floral notes with a hint of spices. »

BM Notes Fumées appears quite light, floral and fruity with subtle herbal notes, a slightly medicinal profile and some aromas of toasted bread, dried fruits and vanilla. Despite its willingness to create a smokier expression, Cédric Leprette declares that « it wasn’t about offering a whisky meant to compete with the famous peaty beasts of Islay, renowned for this specific aromatic profile, but more creating a pleasant whisky with character, showing both a certain lightness and clear smoky notes that would appeal to smoky-whisky fans and novices alike. »

After some long months of researches and experiments, BM Notes Fumées is finally born from a savvy recipe: « We use our main whisky blend from Scotland, showing a 3-year-old age statement on the certificate but most likely aged for an average of 5/6 years. We then mature it for an extra 12 to 16 months in the heart of Occitania here in Southwestern France within very special casks that used to contain a famous local grape-based spirit (that we can’t tell the name by law). The next step for us is to add two different smoky whiskies in a proportion of 20% following a special allocation enabling us to achieve the desired aromatic profile. Finally, the whisky stays for several further weeks in a 3rd-fill or 4th-fill cask in order to let it blend together perfectly and thus create the most harmonious whisky possible ».

So, why deciding to go smoky instead of peaty ? The reason is pretty simple, with its Selection range, Black Mountain is willing to provide whisky enthusiasts with an idea of the future whiskies distilled in the soon-to-be distillery, still at pre-building stage, and « in France, unlike Scotland and Ireland, peat

bogs are rare and protected as they are fragile natural environments being home to sensitive flora and fauna. They also cannot regenerate. It is therefore completely impossible for us to use French peat and that’s why we chose to go smoky instead of peaty. »

A first release of this new expression will see 3000 bottles put onto the market by the end of the year 2016.

Black Mountain Compagnie

The story of Black Mountain begins in 2011, when 4 passionate friends came up with the idea to use the exceptional waters of a high altitude spring (1000m) located within a natural wonder, the national park of Haut Languedoc, which will be the location of the future distillery, meant to be built by 2018.

Before the distillery starts operating, and with the aim to demonstrate its know-how, the founding team at Black Mountain Compagnie has launched two blended whiskies, finished in the best French spirits casks and named “Black Mountain Selection”.

BM N°1 was named Best European Blended Whisky at the 2015 edition of The World Whiskies Awards.

BM N°2 Received a Silver Medal at the IWSC 2016.

To find out more, please visit www.blackmountain.fr