On our trip through Champagne country we also visited a whisky distillery. I knew there was a distillery there somewhere, since Hans Offringa wrote about it in a Whisky Passion a long time ago. In our motel there was a brochure of Distillerie Guillon and it happened to be on our way from one champagne house to the other. A visit was imminent!

The location is rather terrific with trees surrounding the place, and it being on a hill side. Upon driving up the lane we found a nice and tranquil spot with all kinds of old trucks sitting in the yard. The visitor center was pretty crowded with a big ground of Belgians trying everything available. We settled for less (after all, whisky was the side note on this trip) and tasted only a few.

Le Guillon No 1
A dram composed of four different cask finishes (Puligny, Meursault, Sauterne, Banyuls) and very sweet and fruity. The wines they use to finish their spirit is all very sweet and local. This is represented in this whisky. Because of all the finishing going on I didn’t feel like I could taste the spirit itself very well.

Guillon 8 – Banyuls finish
In their regular range they finish everything in wine casks after maturing for five years in different wine casks. All casks are local and the recipe for all finishes are similar (Banyuls, Mersault, Champagne, Puligny, Sauterne, Loupiac, Vin de Paille). This one had a bit more focus but was still incredibly fruity with ripe plums, pears, peaches and such. The finish was still overpowering the whisky too much for my liking.

Guillon 8 – Champagne finish
This one caught my interest right away since this feels like it has the most ‘terroir’ of the area. The finish wasn’t as thick as with the previous drams and I really enjoyed that. The lighter spirit got more able to shine through and therefore, it tasted more like whisky than the other two.

After a short tasting we got to see the stills and the ‘warehouse’. The stills are odd ones set in an old stable or shed of some kind. Two wash stills and one spirit still. The spirit itself tastes and smells pretty okay. The beer and low wines were rather nasty, but that’s no surprise in any distillery. They distill only a few months per year and the rest of the period the stills are silent. I guess they should be able to grow much in this respect and become a much larger distillery!

The warehouses consist of a few old shipping containers sitting in the yard. In summer they got hot, and therefore the angel’s share is a little bit higher than in Scotland.