St Kilian Distillers and The Angel of Retribution
Germany’s largest whisky distillery is situated in Franconia along the Main River near the medieval town of Miltenberg. The impressive state-of-the-art distillery features a Scottish set up: traditional mash tun, four wooden washbacks from Dufftown and two 6.000 litre swan neck pot stills made by Forsyths in Rothes.
St Kilian was founded in 2012 by entrepreneur Andreas Thümmler and designed by the Irish specialist David F. Hynes. It is a family run distillery.
The first St Kilian whiskies were released in 2019.
Today the LPA is about 256.000 litres.
JUDAS PRIEST – ANGEL OF RETRIBUTION - Taste
Colour
Amber
Aroma
Intensely warming peat smoke in harmony with sweet fruity notes of yellow plums and red grape jelly, accompanied by notes of ash, some soot and spicy oak with menthol in the background.
Taste
The velvety fruity sweetness of juicy oranges and yellow plums combines with spicy oak, white pepper and fine marzipan in an all-enveloping peat smoke with a fine ash note to create a true taste explosion.
Aftertaste
The creamy, spicy blend of fruit jam and oak tannins lingers for a long time with the pleasantly warming peat smoke, dry ash notes and a hint of almonds.
Alcohol content 49% abv Retail Price was € 99,90 (0.7l).
...no wonder why this Angel of Retribution was decorated with a gold medal and made Category Winner by the WWA-Jury in London in February 2023.
What is so special about the WWA Category Winner
Judas Priest Angel of Retribution?
At St. Kilian there are no so-called finishes or double-maturations as they are widely used in the whiskey industry at low cost.
Master Blender Mario Rudolf only prefers a full maturation of the Kilian Spirits in the a great choice of casks. He has more than 340 different cask varieties to choose from. This unique Kilian method is expensive, but allows the innovative distiller to select and integrate whiskeys in a strategic manner to create surprisingly complex aroma and flavour profiles.
This selective and additive approach has made the series of Kilian Signature Editions one of the most appreciated whiskeys not only in Germany. In blind tastings they are the surprise blockbusters.
Numerous gold medals prove the creativity
and
document the special value of St. Kilian products.
The strictly limited "Angel of Retribution" edition, on the other hand, was distilled by the Kilian team from Scottish malted barley which was heavily peated at 91ppm in the Glenesk Maltings in Montrose near Aberdeen. Gently double distilled in Forsyths' 6000 litre Swan Neck pot stills, the smoky distillate was aged exclusively for four years in French 300 litre former Pineau des Charentes French oak casks. Long fermentation of 72 hrs makes for a lot of fruitiness in the new make.
Pinneau, what is it?
Winegrowers and distillers had previously used these containers to develop a regional specialty, a liqueur wine from the Cognac department. This type of casks was used to mature Cognac beforehand.
An AOP Pineau is a blend of freshly pressed unfermented grape juice and a young cognac eau de vie (brandy) aged in toasted oak barrels. The assemblage of grape juice and distilled young cognac Eau de Vie of approx. 65% abv is usually mixed in a ratio of 1 to 3. The maturation period can be four years for white Pineau and three years for red or even much longer.
The sweet liqueur wine is of protected origin and is usually bottled with 17% alcohol by volume.
The ideal drinking temperature for white, red or rosé Pineaux is between 8 and 10 degrees Celsius. It is savoured as an aperitif or as a long drink with tonic water or even with some gin.
The Vieux Pineau, on the other hand, matures aerobically for a particularly long time - around nine years, twenty and even more - mostly in original cognac oak casks.
The production area of the vin de liqueur de Charentes is identical to that of Cognac.
Further detailed information in English, please see...double click photo:
Sold Out: Angel of Retribution
When the single malt was offered on the website after the web-show on Saturday 24th, September 2022 Judas Priest Angel of Retribution was sold out immediately.
More than 900 bottles went straight away to peat heads.
"Danke! Keine 5 Minuten und alles weg."
The amazed managing director Philipp Trützler wrote happily on Facebook.
But rumors have it that this year there will be another special Judas Priest single malt creation on the shelve by master blender Mario Rudolf from Rüdenau.
Who's is St Kilian?
Please see also for more information
Who is JUDAS PRIEST?
Birmingham's Judas Priest are considered one of the biggest and most influential bands in heavy metal. Originally formed as a blues band in 1969, Judas Priest turned to heavy metal in the mid-1970s.
With numerous albums and hits like "Breaking The Law", "Living After Midnight" or "Painkiller" they have been putting their unmistakable stamp on the metal music scene for 50 years now and reached an absolute peak of their metal music with their legendary album "Firepower" in 2018. Career.
This year Judas Priest was inducted into the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame and received the "Musical Excellence Award".
To celebrate their 50th anniversary, a limited edition box set containing all of the official live and studio albums and 13 previously unreleased CDs was released from the band's vast archives in 2021. Concerts are planned for 2022/2023 in Germany, Spain, the USA, Scotland, Finland, Sweden and Italy, among others.
Visit www.judaspriest.com for more information
Wer ist Judas Priest?
About the Author
Ernie - Ernst J. Scheiner is the editor of the portal The Gateway to Distilleries www.whisky-distilleries.net
He documents over 150 distilleries photographically from the inside and describes the production of the whiskies in detail. Since his studies at the University of
Edinburgh, he has been involved with the subject of whisky and has published in specialist magazines such as The Ireland Journal, Kleinbrennerei, Whisky Passion and The Highland Herold. Features and stories have appeared in blogs like whiskyexperts, whiskyfanbl, SHMKR (closed) and whiskyintelligence. As head of the VHS Ingelheim, and now as a whisk(e)y ambassador, he teaches distilling, organizes study tours and tours to the sources of whisky.