Few distilleries can claim an extinct volcano as a production neighbour. At Rozelieures, between Nancy and Épinal, the Grallet-Dupic family has made it a central argument of its new collection: three limited-edition whiskies, including a premier cru from a volcanic plot, which embody twenty-five years of work on the Lorraine terroir.
The most emblematic of the three is called Terres Noires, and it takes its name from the 13.7-hectare plot it comes from, the first volcanic one to join the single-plot whisky collection launched in 2021. This collection, unpeated so that the characteristics of the soil can express themselves fully, is spread across eighteen plots grouped into four terroir families: clay-limestone, silty, clay and now volcanic. The nose of Terres Noires opens on malted barley and a light minerality before evolving towards roasted almond and warm biscuit, while the palate, indulgent, lets one detect in the finish the metallic notes and wood-fire aromas that betray the geological origin of the soil it comes from.
The other two whiskies in the collection take a different path, that of single-cask ageing. The Fût Unique ex-Calvados Coquerel sets Lorraine and Normandy in dialogue by maturing the whisky in a cask that once held Calvados from this family house, recognised for its know-how handed down from generation to generation, with the result of a nose of cooked apples and ripe Williams pear, extended by pastry flavours on the palate. The Brut de Fût ex-Moscatel, for its part, takes the logic of purity all the way: without blending or dilution, this whisky aged eight years in casks that held Portuguese Moscatel offers the pure expression of its container, among white flowers, fruits in syrup and a surprising note of rum-raisin ice cream.
What links these three creations, beyond their very different aromatic profiles, is the claim of complete mastery of the production process, rare in the whisky world: grain, malting, brewing, distillation and ageing are all carried out on site, in a model of vertical integration that the distillery asserts is one of the only ones in the world to practise with energy autonomy included. This end-to-end mastery, run by the same family for six generations, has made Rozelieures the largest producer of single malts in France, a status that contrasts with the still largely Scottish image the category retains in the collective imagination. Did you know? The region has two volcanoes that have been extinct for several tens of millions of years, including the one at Essey-la-Côte, located just opposite the distillery — a geological neighbourhood that the house long left as an anecdote before making it, with Terres Noires, a genuine subject of tasting.
Sold between 59 and 119 euros depending on the rarity of the cask, these three whiskies will be presented for tasting at the Whisky Live show, from 26 to 28 September, at the France Pavilion. Beyond the event, this collection illustrates a conviction that Rozelieures has defended for several years: that terroir, a concept long reserved for wine, has its full place in whisky-making, provided one accepts to explore its finest nuances, down to those of a soil that was, several tens of millions of years ago, an active volcano.
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