In a world where spirits are increasingly asserting their geological roots, Rozelieures is taking a decisive step forward with the launch of parcel whisky. Rouge Côte. From a plot of just 1.9 hectares facing south on a clay-limestone hillside, this unpeated single malt is the most precise expression of the link between soil and grain, in an approach worthy of Burgundy’s finest crus.
On the nose, the malty, cereal-like intensity of the Rouge Côte opens up to fresh notes of green apple. On the palate, a combination of dried fig, salted cookie and subtle spices, followed by a long, saline, almost chalky finish – a rare minerality in the world of whisky.
But Rozelieures doesn’t stop at the unit. With the launch of its parcel tripack (3x20cl), the distillery offers a comparative experiment between three non-peated expressions: Rouge Côte, Blanches Terres (silty) and La Sous Dique(clay). The boxed set offers an educational tasting of the influence of soils on barley, in an approach hitherto unseen on this scale in French whisky.
This visionary project is spearheaded by Christophe Dupic, a pioneer of terroir whisky. At the head of the family distillery between Nancy and Épinal, Dupic applies a winemaker’s logic to the world of malt whisky: plot selection, fermentation, distillation, ageing and bottling are all carried out on site, with remarkable energy autonomy. The estate even has 90 different types of cask, some of which are used in the 6 cellars to play the angels’ share with millimetric precision.
This quest for the soil as the key to taste has transformed Rozelieures into a major player in a new paradigm: that of a French terroir whisky worthy of the greatest wine signatures.
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