Swiss Whisky

You might be surprised to hear that making whisky was illegal in Switzerland until very recently. There was a ban on distilling staple food crops such as barley or rye. When this ban was lifted in 1999, a few pioneering people began to experiment with making whisky such as Hollen, founded in that very year, and Whisky Castle, founded by Ruedi Käser in 2002. The latter works with intriguing grains such as beech-smoked barley, spelt and rye, and chestnut casks. There are now over 20 distillers distilling and ageing whisky, though most in tiny quantities which are rarely exported. The biggest name in Swiss whisky, or Swisskey as it should be called, is Langatun which was founded in 2005 by Hans Baumberger. Today it produces a wide range of single malts both peated and unpeated.