Avadis Distillery

Production
Production

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More about Avadis Distillery

Status Operational
Established: 1824
Visitor Policy: Not generally accessible
Tel: +49 (0)6583 993 9998
Website: http://www.avadisdistillery.de
Andreas Vallendar comes from a family of distillers but the distillery he has built at the family home where he grew up has become recognised for the quality of the Threeland Whiskey he makes there. Production is limited to a few months a year so consequently his whiskey is in short supply and much sort after. Thanks to a partnership with drinks marketeers Erik Wimmers and Denis Reinhardt of Capulet & Montague Ltd, along with Dorothee Zilliken, a revered winemaker at the nearby Zilliken wine estate, Andreas is now also well-known for the Ferdinand’s Saar Dry Gin he produces with his partners at Avadis.

Address

Bilzingen
Wincheringen
54457
Germany

Production of Ferdinand’s Saar Gin starts with the production of the base spirit. This involves first mashing and then slowly fermenting wheat with a little barley to provide the enzymes needed. The beer-like wash produced is then double distilled.

The first distillation is in a 500 litre wash still and lasts two-and-a-half to three hours. This produces a distillate (low wine) at around 35% alc./vol.. The still rises into a short column and water cooling at the top of this column creates reflux - forcing some of the vapours to fall back down into the still, so producing a purer spirit. The lyne arm carrying the vapour from the still to the condenser is unusually long and this also affects the character of the spirit produced. No cuts are made during this first distillation.

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A second distillation in a 300 litre spirit still rectifies and concentrates the distillate with the vapour from the still directed through a short rectifying column with its five plates closed. Again there is water cooling at the top of this column to encourage reflux. The switch from heads to heart and then tails is judged by experience and olfactory assessment. The heads and tails are discarded rather than being added to the first distillation as is commonplace in other distilleries.

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The stills at Avadis are steam jacket heated and computer controlled with probes at various points in the still and condenser displaying temperatures and pressures on the touch control screen. This allows Andreas to monitor and finely control the speed and temperature the distillation runs at. The combined use of the column and reflux produces a distillate at 94 to 95% alc./vol..

While the spirit produced is very pure, it is a few percent under the 96.3% alc./vol. neutral spirit used by most other gin distillers who buy in third-party produced spirit rather than making their own, so retains more of the grain’s character. This is an important first contribution towards giving Ferdinand’s Saar Gin its distinctive flavour.

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Over 30 hand-picked botanicals are used in the third distillation and include quince from trees directly behind the distillery, lavender from fallow vineyards close by in the Konzer Tälchen Valley and lemon-scented thyme grown in the distiller's own garden. Other regional ingredients include, sloe, rosehip, angelica, hop blossom and rose petal. Along with juniper, more regular gin botanicals include almond, coriander and ginger.

Dry botanicals such as lemon peel are soaked in water before being steeped in alcohol. Andreas has found this results in a better infusion. Asked why he doesn’t instead use fresh peels he says “fresh lemon smells like cleaning spray but the dried lemon has a rounder more mature aroma.”

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The botanicals are steeped in the distillate in large stone jars before for five to seven days before the contents of the jars are poured into the pot still with a little water to ensure the still doesn’t run dry. More of the floral botanicals, such as rose and lavender with some juniper and lemon zest are also spread over a tray which sits at the top of the still allowing additional vapour infusion.

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Unusually for a gin distillation the vapours from the pot still are directed through the five plate rectifying column. The use of this column produces a purer distillate but it also strips some of the botanicals flavours so three times the quantity of botanicals are used than would be necessary to flavour the gin if the column was not employed.

Only around one half litre heads are discarded at the start of this third distillation before cutting to the heart of the run (which will comprise the finished gin) at around 92-93% alc./vol.. The cut to tails is judged according to aroma by Andreas but is around 70% alc./vol. This is a very high cut to tails but Andreas says there is little aroma after this point in the distillation and “there is only 6 to 7 litres of alcohol left in the still because we have a distillation that’s very balanced.”

After this third distillation the now botanical flavoured spirit is reduced to 70% alc./vol. and then the Riesling wine is added. Although only around 2.5% of the bottled gin, the Riesling wine added to Ferdinand's Saar is an important element to the finished gin as it contributes much of the flavour and some faint sweetness. And it is not just any wine, the Riesling used is made by one of Germany’s most noted estates, Weingut Forstmeister Geltz-Zilliken, but better known simply as ‘Zilliken’. Dorothee Zilliken represents the 11th generation at this family owned winery and is one of the five partners in Ferdinand's Saar Gin.

When the partners started working on the gin they tried numerous different Zilliken wines but older vintages were found to work better with the botanical flavours of the gin. For Ferdinand’s Saar Dry Gin a Spätlese 2009 is used, while for Ferdinand’s Gold Cap Gin a Auslese 2010 (97 Parker points) is used. A Kabinet 2011 (92 Gault Millau points and therefore the best Kabinett of the year) which is not as sweet as the Spätlese is used for the Quince Gin.

Finally the gin is reduced to bottling strength and gently filtered at a temperature of 5 to 8°C prior to bottling by hand.

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