Over the last few years, I’ve accumulated a number of French whisky bottles, as I have been lucky enough to try a large number, mostly during the three editions of the French whisky dedicated whisky show called Malt in France, which is set on the first weekend of April in Rennes since 2024. I was going to review many in one single review, but as I started adding more and more bottles, I finally decided to continue tasting them and writing about them in two separate reviews. This first one is dedicated to unpeated French whiskies, from several distilleries around France, and we’ll do peated whiskies on Monday’s review.
Arlett Single Malt Finition Fût de Rhum Barbade (2020s) Review
Arlett Single Malt – Finition Fût de Rhum Barbade is a French single malt produced by the Tessendier family in Jarnac, Charente, from French-grown barley distilled in traditional Charentais pot stills. It is bottled at 48% ABV in a 70 cl format and forms part of Arlett’s regular range. The whisky matures for more than three years in new American-oak and first-fill bourbon casks, followed by six months in casks previously used for Barbados rum. Current pricing starts at around €42 in France, with most specialist listings between approximately €50 and €54, and around £40 in the UK.
Colour:
Burnished.
Nose:
Neat: Ripe banana dominates, supported by blood oranges, creamy vanilla and sweet baking spices. Caramelised tropical fruit, malt and gentle American-oak sweetness sit underneath, with toasted wood. The nose is warm and accessible, and the Barbados-rum influence is clear and slightly boozy, without completely covering the cereal character, strangely reminiscent of a rye whisky.
Palate:
Neat: Full, velvety and with a nice intensity, with ripe banana, vanilla and exotic-fruit sweetness developing into pineapple and fresh fruit. Blond tobacco and liquorice provide the darker core, while cardamom, soft pepper, rye and sweet oak make the profile spicy rather than simply sugary, again with a rye whisky feeling. The rum finish adds rounded Caribbean-style sweetness and spice, but the whisky retains enough cereal and tobacco character to avoid becoming too sweet.
Finish:
Moderately long and warmly spicy, led by pineapple, vanilla and fresh tropical fruit. Cardamom, cereal, liquorice and blond tobacco linger beneath the sweetness, leaving a gently drying and spicy feeling.
Comments:
The youth is noticeable and the rye character unexpected. The wood is a little loud, but there is a nice core, this Arlett is still really nice to sip. A dram to share with friends or sip in the evening while reading a book, but it will need a few more years under its belt to get to proper heights.
Rating: 6/10
Vilanova Roja (2024) Review
Vilanova Roja is a French single malt produced by Distillerie Castan in Villeneuve-sur-Vère, Tarn, using malted barley grown by the distillery. The current expression is bottled at 46% ABV without chill filtration and carries no age statement. It is fully matured – not merely finished – in ex-red-wine French-oak casks, with one distillery interview specifying red Burgundy wine casks. Earlier releases were bottled at 43%, but the current 46% bottle sells for roughly €65–70 in France.
Colour:
Cider.
Nose:
Neat: The nose opens with an intensely wine-driven assortment of blackcurrants, blackberries, cranberries, blueberries, dark cherry and overripe strawberries. Vanilla, toffee and salted fudge add sweetness, while dried orange peel, cinnamon, cloves and finely ground spices provide some balance against the sweetness.
Palate:
Neat: The palate is full, soft and initially creamy, with red and black berries, plum, candied fruit and dark toffee. Salted caramel, brown sugar and dark chocolate sit underneath, followed by pepper, cinnamon, clove, ginger and liquorice. The French-oak wine casks contribute substantial tannin, producing a sour-bitter contrast against the fruit.
Finish:
The finish is medium in length and increasingly dry and peppery, with bitter oak, vegetal notes, pepper and wine tannins.
Comments:
Unfortunately, the wood and wine influence are too dominant and the flavour development limited despite the busy aromatic palette for it to be a good introduction to Vilanova on More Drams, but we’ll have a second chance next week.
Rating: 4/10
Cormeil Double Wood Acacia (2020s) Review
Cormeil Double Wood Acacia is an unpeated Norman single malt made entirely at Maison Busnel in Cormeilles. It is brewed and double-distilled from malted barley, matured for three years in oak casks, then finished for more than three months in acacia wood. This expression is bottled at 42.7% ABV. Although sold within the Double Wood series, this is a finished whisky rather than a marriage of two independently matured components. No bottle count, batch number, filtration policy or colouring declaration are provided by Maison Busnel, and its official price is €65.
Colour:
Russet.
Nose:
Neat: Honeyed and gently floral, with soft baking spices. Malt, lightly toasted cereal and biscuits sit beneath the honey, accompanied by restrained vanilla and a nice woody freshness. The acacia finish seems quite aromatic. I find similarities with the Bushmills 2008 Acacia cask finish.
Palate:
Neat: The arrival is soft, beginning with honeyed malt and biscuits before moving into roasted grain, almost rye-like. Cinnamon and nutmeg develop through the middle, with a very light pepper note providing structure. The acacia wood gives sweetness and perfume, and a mineral dryness gradually offsets the honey.
Finish:
The finish is quite long, with honey and toasted cereal before becoming mineral and spicy. Cinnamon, nutmeg and a slight pepperiness persist, leaving a clean, gently drying conclusion.
Comments:
The acacia finish brought to this young Cormeil whisky some nice floral and woody aromas and flavours. The intensity on both the nose and palate is nice, and you could think (well, I could) it’s a rye whisky if you tasted it blind. Really nice. A bit expensive for the age, of course, but I’m not sure Maison Busnel’s whisky production is that big.
Rating: 6/10
Armorik Fêtes Maritimes de Brest 2024 Review
Distillerie Warenghem created this limited edition for the 2024 Fêtes Maritimes de Brest. It is an NAS Breton single malt, bottled at 46% ABV in 70 cl format, unchill filtered and natural colour, with 3,000 bottles released exclusively through Brittany. The batch combines two types of sherry butts – some Spanish oak and some American oak – with American-oak sherry hogsheads. The same whisky appeared under three labels carrying maritime photographs by Ewan Lebourdais: Le pilote de mer en mer d’Iroise, Le Français — Grand voilier école and Phare du Minou par le Portzic. Each design accounted for 1,000 bottles; the liquid inside was identical. Its recommended launch price was €60, but it is sold out. I bought the one shown below: the Minou lighthouse by Le Portzic.
Colour:
Spice.
Nose:
Neat: The nose is intense and strongly sherried, opening with roasted coffee, mocha, cocoa and nearly smoky dark-roast aromas, but also some fresh and herbal notes of menthol and liquorice. A very ripe apple develops toward tarte tatin and apple compote, accompanied by dried apricots, blood-orange marmalade and candied orange. Dark chocolate and exotic wood add depth, while cloves, pepper add warming spices.
Palate:
Neat: The palate is thick, oily and velvety, despite its reduction to 46%. Chestnut honey and orange preserve provide sweetness before Corinth raisins, dried wild blueberries and even exotic fruit move forward. Walnut, liquorice, cocoa and candied orange give the palate a darker, slightly bitter structure. Underneath, a fine mineral and saline or faintly iodine-like thread cuts through the rich sherry influence and keeps the whisky from becoming entirely dessert-like.
Finish:
The finish is long, warm and desert-like, evoking Jaffa cakes, caramelised coffee beans and cloves, accompanied by candied orange, dry cocoa and lingering sherry spice.
Comments:
A delicious and luscious Armorik, with a strong sherry influence, of course, but not overwhelming, and letting a nice salinity and iodine-like touch pass through. It really was excellent value.
Rating: 7/10
Armorik Festival du Chant Marin 2025 Review
Produced by Distillerie Warenghem for the 2025 Festival du Chant de Marin in Paimpol, this Armorik NAS was bottled at 46% ABV, without chill filtration nor added colour. The batch combined whiskies matured in ex-rum and ex-bourbon casks, with only 1,500 bottles released, principally through Breton retailers. The label reproduces Guy l’Hostis’s maritime work Vigilance et Provident, travers Maudez. The recommended launch price was €59 (and that is the price I paid), but it is now sold out.
Colour:
Old gold.
Nose:
Neat: Fresh, bright and immediately fruity, opening with vanilla and sweet citrus before moving into ripe pineapple and passion fruit. Orange blossom introduces a floral lift, while light bourbon oak and soft caramel sit underneath the fruit.
Palate:
Neat: Fresh and gourmand, with a pastry-like arrival centred on crème brûlée, custard and vanilla. Pineapple and passion fruit then bring freshness and fruitiness, before flambéed banana and light caramel create a richer, warmer middle palate. Then, the wood provides spices in the later palate, with pepper and a little chilli.
Finish:
The finish is medium in length and increasingly spicy, with cinnamon and pepper emerging after the sweeter palate. Honeyed pineapple supplies the final fruit note, leaving a warm combination of tropical sweetness, vanilla and dry oak spice.
Comments:
Lovely tropical Armorik, with the rum cask feeling appropriated for a sailor chant festival. This whisky is fruity, spicy, tropical and so dangerously easy to sip…
Rating: 7/10
Fontagard PNDC 9919-3 (2024) Review
PNDC 9919-3 is an unpeated French single malt produced at Fontagard in Charente-Maritime using a traditional 1,200-litre Charentais still. Fontagard grows, brews, distils and matures its whisky in France, presenting this expression as a numbered single-cask release in a distinctive vermilion bottle. The maturation combines ex-Cognac oak for its first two years of maturation, with an ex-Pineau des Charentes cask made from Folle Blanche, an old local grape variety, for the last two years of maturation. Although promoted as ‘brut de fût’ (meaning cask strength), its 47.4% strength is comparatively restrained for cask strength. This was an edition of 500 numbered bottles, retailing for €96, and bottles without chill filtration nor added colour.
Colour:
Burnished.
Nose:
Neat: Sweet but not heavy, opening with dried fruits – figs, currants and raisins – alongside ripe peaches, yellow fruit and light tropical notes. Candied orange peel then appears over beeswax, malt, buttered toast and a soft floral-pastry background. The Pineau cask contributes fresh grapes and concentrated fruit.
Palate:
Neat: Creamy, rounded and initially sweet, with honey, white fruit, grape and apple slices leading the arrival. Buttered toast and malt provide body before oak tannins, citrus peel and gentle baking spice tighten the middle. A restrained rancio-like wine character develops behind the fruit, accompanied by noble wood and a faint nutty dryness. The Pineau influence is well integrated rather than syrupy.
Finish:
Medium long to long, warm and progressively drier. Honeyed fruit and grapes recede into toasted oak, soft pepper, cinnamon-like baking spice and lingering candied citrus.
Comments:
I had tried this Fontagard a couple of times on whisky shows, including the absolutely brilliant Malt in France, of course, when I finally took the plunge and bought a bottle. I finally opened it to write this review, and I really don’t regret it. It really is a very good, lovely whisky. The cognac and pineau des Charente dual maturation really intertwined well with the spirit, and it feels at home, especially knowing the Fontagard spirit was distilled using the same Charentais stills as their cognac (they are cognac producers originally). It was a bit expensive at the retail price, but it’s a really good whisky.
Rating: 7/10
Glann Ar Mor Santez Azenor 2024 Review
Released in December 2024, this was the second Glann Ar Mor Santez Azenor edition following the inaugural 2023 bottling. This annual bottling pays respects to Santez Azenor, a legendary Breton figure from the 6th century, symbolising resilience, fertility and healing. Only 280 bottles were drawn from the single Bourbon cask and offered at a recommended price of €124. The whisky matured for four years in an ex-bourbon cask at Celtic Whisky Distillerie’s coastal site in Pleubian, Brittany. It was bottled as an unpeated single malt at a cask strength of 61.4%, without reduction, added colour nor chill filtration.
Colour:
Pale gold.
Nose:
Neat: Dense and intense but rounded despite the strength, opening with brioche dough, vanilla cream and malted cereal. Dried apricot is the clearest fruit note, accompanied by raisins, nuts and touches of honeyed orchard fruit. With air, the whisky becomes toastier and more mature in character. Light rancio, polished wood and warm pastry notes emerge behind the fruit, with Glann Ar Mor’s characteristic coastal salinity.
With water: Reduction releases more dried apricots, vanilla, flowers and malt while reducing the initial alcohol intensity.
Palate:
Neat: The arrival is lively, powerful and warming, but quickly becomes rounded and slightly sweet. Vanilla, brioche, malt and dried fruit form the central profile, with a creamy texture. Toasted cereal and oak then introduce a drier structure, followed by pepper, breakfast chocolate powder, cinnamon-like spices and a faint nutty-rancio quality. The bourbon cask appears active but not overwhelmingly so, leaving sufficient room for the distillate’s malt, apricot and maritime character.
With water: Reduction brings sweeter pears, apricots, honey, creamy vanilla and almonds, while softening the pepper and toasted wood.
Finish:
Long, toasted and increasingly spicy, carrying vanilla, dried apricots and malt into pepper, warm oak and mild rancio. A saline-tinged freshness persists beneath the sweetness and wood, reinforcing the Santez Azenor’s coastal identity.
Comments:
Though young, like most of Celtic Whisky Distillerie’s whiskies, this is a delicious whisky… like most of Celtic Whisky Distillerie’s whiskies, either unpeated like this Glann Ar Mor, or peated (the Kornog range, we’ll review a couple on Monday). This Santez Azenor 2024 is a quintessential example of what a Bourbon-matured Glann Ar Mor is: a delicious, complex, coastal and well-balanced whisky.
Rating: 8/10
And cheers to my friends at Malt in France!