Single Estate Bus Whisky: sipping for a better world
In the tiniest of hamlets called Bus, in the Dutch province Noord-Brabant, there is a small distillery of the same name to be found. Surrounded by farmland, the story of how whisky started dripping from the still there is a remarkable one. My dear whisky-and-food pairing friend Emy from Malt Talk invited me to tag along to visit the distillery, which is not all that far from where we live. We were kindly invited to soak up the atmosphere, sample a lot of their products, and enjoy the food offerings. Who can say no to that? Well, I could, because let’s face it, I am a malt snob. Good whisky is made in Scotland, I am a bit stubborn to see it any other way. So, in all honesty, I went in with zero expectations and came out thoroughly surprised!
On what we thought would be a quiet Monday, Emy and I were generously received by Master Distiller Marcel van Roessel and Distiller & Chief Bottling Bram Huvenaars. It turned out to be the shift change between these two men, as Marcel started the day early, while Bram was set to go on into the late hours. Covered in several whisky-related tattoos, the soft-spoken Marcel told us with passion about “his” whisky. For long, he was an interested devotee, figuring it all out by himself, until the opportunity came along to join Bus Whisky.
When also Dennis Hurkmans of the founding family of Bus joins us, we get time to sip our coffee, as he speaks volumes. Surely, Dennis must have told the remarkable story of how whisky came to flow in these farmlands a million times! I will do you one better, he even took the story into theatres!
Happenstance
Bus Whisky is a story of happenstance, trial and error, that turned into something that totally fits. I guess you need a guy like Dennis who does not know how to use Google, and in true James Bond style “kills first, ask questions later”. The farm life had been tough on the family, and with cherries from their orchard the story starts. Trading them was such a waste of energy, for little pay, that Dennis brazenly said: put it in a still and make Kirsch, a cherry-based liquor. Sure enough, the Kirsch was made, and only then Dennis discovered that not a soul on earth still drinks that stuff…
Instead of feeding a left-over supply of beer brewing grain to cows, the same idea arose. The small, rather quaint indirectly wood-fired column still did what it was supposed to do. When the spirit came off, someone actually had to point out to Dennis that he had made whisky. Today, when you drink any of the expressions from Bus Whisky, you will have production from this still in the glass. We tasted several, of which mostly the ones with a cask finish on whatever exotic variant (Amontillado! Port!) stands out. Since a year or two, Bus has moved on to using a more traditional pot still in a lamp shape form. Bought second hand but with almost no mileage on it from a Limoncello producer. We saw the equipment in action, with the spirit not really flowing but almost trickling from the still. Later that night we would taste the former new make spirit against the current new make spirit. Let me tell you this: Bus Whisky will improve their game not with one but several steps up in quality. The small pot still just produces a very bright, fruity and distinctly oily new make, that puts the rather bland product from the column still in the shadow. And even with the latter, Bus already created a very decent line-up.
Packaging
This line-up is presented in beautiful tubes, mostly containing 50 cl bottles, even though 70 cl is now also available. The rare Brabant landscape, on a fault line, is captured in works of art by local artists, and then turned into a label. Also, Bus Whisky has its own officially recognised Tartan. To make things extra special, the bottles are sealed with wax from the estate kept bees. We are truly sipping whisky for a better world here, to pass it on to our children.
Dennis shakes our hands, wishing us a good stay at his distillery, that also hosts almost thirty hotel rooms and an excellent restaurant, in which we were offered a 5-course experience later. Bram took over and guided quite a big group of tourists around. It seems that groups of this size (around 15 persons) is a regular event. People know how to find the location, not in the least because of Dennis’ rumour around the brand. I would not go as far as to call it gimmickry, but the whole concept of trail and error seems engrained in the Bus Whisky DNA, and that makes it fun! As whisky geeks, we want to focus on the product. It becomes very clear that this part of the project is in safe hands with Marcel and Bram, who experiment within the limits of their equipment with nothing standing in their way. At the same time, the whole team does their utmost best to produce the most environmentally sustainable Single Estate Whisky they can – and succeed at that too. An exciting project in the works seems to be about collecting CO2 for friendly new use elsewhere. The ideas fly off the shelf every so often, and out of every 10 ideas that do not work out, one sticks.
Beer finishesAfter a tour and a taste, seeing some casks maturing on location, and passing a pond full of draff fed trout (small detail: trout do not eat draff…), Emy and I are seated for what would be an incredible sensory experience. The farmhouse restaurant has seating for lots of guests, who can look into the stillroom while they eat. As we do, from delicious bread to excellent vegetables, tender meat and savoury desserts. The traditional borscht by the Ukrainian cook deserves a special mention – and not only because we love Ukraine. We dine while we see Bram monitor the washbacks, clean one out, and oversees the final stages of the distillation of that day. It is a lot of work for approximately one cask a week, or 50 casks a year, the equivalent of 25.000 bottles. When Bram joins us at the table to talk about the variants we have tasted, he also brings the two different new make spirits with him. We ask him where he sees it go, what experiments remain. A triple distillation perhaps? As a beer brewer, it does not surprise us that Bram enjoys playing with beer casks. The Quadruple finished Bus Whisky was indeed outstanding, with a taste you do not find in other beer influenced whisky. When we show our enthusiasm, Bram sneaks off again to find us something else in that same style. The Bus Whisky Imperial Stout (RIS) finish that will be on sale very soon, only has to be bottled, impresses us even more. The future looks bright for this Single Estate Single Malt Whisky.
Disclaimer: Thank you very much, Dennis, Marcel and Bram, and the hospitality team, for hosting us. We were treated on coffee, tour, samples and the diner (excluding drinks) to learn more about Bus Whisky. No further details were discussed about the content of this blog on Long Pour Amour, and I did not offer pre-publication insight in it, maintaining my independence of opinion.