Unlock the Editor’s Digest for free
Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.
The story of whisky is usually one that starts in the distillery; we’re told the birthplace of flavour is among the fermentation vats and stills. But now a growing number of whisky makers are shifting the flavour focus upstream to grains and agricultural methods – prompting some to take radical action to ensure their whisky is not only greener, but also tastes better, too.
It was the development of its first new recipe in 70 years, Star Hill Farm whicky, that led Maker’s Mark to make the switch to regenerative agriculture. The regime seeks to restore depleted soils through till-free farming, the reduction of chemical inputs, managed grazing and nutrient‑fixing cover crops.
“We wanted to examine where flavour comes from: how have the grains and farming practices evolved over time? And what is the role of soil health?” explains Maker’s Mark MD and eighth-generation whisky maker Rob Samuels. “And it was humbling – because pretty soon our questions led us to the ethics of it all.” Maker’s Mark’s 1,100-acre estate Star Hill Farm (and its suppliers of wheat and corn) has now been Regenified certified for two years. “It is a landmark achievement,” Regenified CEO Salar Shemirani tells me, “and they’ve done it at unprecedented speed.”
While there was a moral imperative to make the switch – there was also the fact that the regeneratively farmed grain tasted better, says master distiller Dr Blake Layfield. “We found it had more intensity of flavour, complexity and depth.” The distiller focused on the impact on soft red winter wheat in particular, because that’s the signature “flavouring grain” in Maker’s Mark bourbon – the component that gives the red wax-topped bourbon its characteristic mellow sweetness.
That variety of wheat is now being showcased in the new Star Hill Farm whisky, a £100 annual release that will have a different iteration every year (because of the time spent in barrel, the first actual Regenified certified edition won’t hit the shelves until the end of this decade). Unlike Maker’s Mark, Star Hill Farm is not a bourbon, because it doesn’t contain any corn (bourbons must, by law, be at least 51 per cent corn). Instead it is a wheat whisky, with a little malted barley also thrown in. It’s aged in a mix of oak casks for between seven and eight years and bottled at cask strength.
The wheat gives it creaminess and volume – it has hints of white chocolate, jasmine and candyfloss. But at 57 per cent abv, it is also intense, with a long, textured finish with notes of bittersweet orange peel, cinnamon stick, nutmeg and toffee apple skin.
Another distiller championing “regen ag” is the English whisky company Fielden, which pays farmers over the odds to grow heritage grains for flavour, rather than yield. The grains are grown in a polycultural mix – known in pre-industrial times as a “maslin” – that was based on an analysis of medieval thatch. This helps to enrich the habitat and make the crop more robust. The signature rye-led whisky is spicy-sweet with notes of nut brittle, honey and ginger.
Way up in the French Alps, meanwhile, is Domaine des Hautes Glaces, an organic farm distillery that makes modern, terroir-driven whisky from heritage grains grown by a local collective of organic/regen-ag farms. The distillery recycles energy, water and companion plants; its beautiful bottles are made from recycled “wild glass”. And its promising rye whiskies are already showing great freshness and character.
“Regenerative practices have the power to unite people across industries and political lines because they create shared value – for farmers, for businesses, and for the environment,” says Regenified’s Shemirani, who now has two other significant US distillers en route to being certified. For whisky shoppers, too, it guarantees a much greater degree of transparency – so you can trace that dram from the bottle right the way back to the land.
@alicelascelles
