An impressive French whisky from Domaine des Hautes, this is one of two expressions of Epistémè R18P23 that are almost twins. This is Yellow Square, the other is Yellow Circle. They're both made from 100% malted rye from the same variety of rye (the local caroasse), and processed using identical production techniques during the summer of 2019.
The whisky is fermented for a long 140 hours (the tanks were inoculated with natural sourdough) and then double distilled in a 25-hectolitre pot still that is wood-fired before being matured twice, initially in Cognac casks and then in 'feuillette' casks, small barrels composed of staves of different varieties that have just 112-litre capacity.
Where they differ is micro-provenance. The idea was to create a whisky that would express terroir, so the only distinction is the plot where the rye was grown. For Yellow Square, the rye was grown at the foot of the Mont-Aiguille cliffs in a six-hectare plot cultivated by Christian Corréard, where limestone scree fed by the run-off waters of the Vercors and their sediments.
