Lunatic Asylum’s Only Ash Remains
7yo Brazilian Malt from Union Distillery | 54% ABV
Score: 7/10
Very Good Indeed.
TL;DR
Good whisky knows no borders, neither do lunatics
Are we the lunatics?
I was having one of those water cooler chats with a work colleague just last week.
Only, living and working in Italy, it was more of an espresso machine chat. Water is what you drink before espresso to clean your palate: coffee is the main event and social glue here.
I know this colleague only superficially; we have occasionally crossed paths through shared projects, but besides a few cordial greetings, we have never had a chance to chat. We ended up talking about our plans for the summer holidays. As one thing led to another, I ended up explaining that I would likely take less time off in the summer to allow for what I had already used up to attend this year’s Independent Spirits Festival, and that I was planning to save up for the Glasgow Whisky Festival. More out of courtesy than real interest, I suspect, he asked about the two events.
If he was hoping for a short answer, he made a big mistake. Any chance to talk about a whisky-related event quickly turns into an opportunity to wax lyrical about my passion for the water of life and, even more, the community.
So, rather than explain about IBs, craft presented whisky and single casks - topics which, from experience, can be real conversation killers for anyone not interested in single malts - I focused on the community. On all the people travelling from around the world to Leith and Glasgow, driven by their passion, but also to spend time together, share a dram, a laugh, maybe a hug. To feel part of this community.
I was met with a look of total disbelief and a single question: why? That left me clearly startled. The question made little sense to me. I am pretty sure my face betrayed my feelings since very quickly my colleague - out of politeness - added a few conciliatory caveats. I don’t recall his exact words. The key message was fundamentally: why go through the bother in these uncertain times? Travel costs are out of hand, flights are being cancelled, so why not spend a more relaxing time at home, in beautiful Italy, with my close family?
For a moment, I felt defensive - the temptation to justify my choices was bubbling up inside me. And as much as I love my beautiful home country, the underlying suggestion that there is no need to ever visit somewhere else just puzzles me for its shortsightedness. But instead, that simple question left me startled for a second.
Is it that maybe, when you take a step outside our bubble, we're the lunatics? Is that what the average punter sees when we boast about our beloved community?
Prioritising whisky over work and (sometimes) family; spending significant money on travel and the inevitable liquid souvenir(s) - (at least six bottles for me please), can be hard to understand for anyone who does not share our passion. But it is so much more than that. In one of those rare moments of precise clarity (I usually ramble on, to be fair), the honest and truthful answer hit me.
The whisky in Leith was fantastic, and I bet it will be the same in Glasgow in November, but that’s not why I set vacation days and budget aside for whisky. The drams could be just okay and I would still look forward to these get-togethers. The simple truth is that when it all boils down, there are very few moments that make me feel as happy as when I am surrounded by similarly-minded people, all of us thrilled to see each other, share a dram and a story.
The “real world” out there might be moving to a more divisive mood. Yet, when the whisky community gets together, those moments of friendship and camaraderie we share when we get together, all that negativity, mistrust and small-minded thinking is left outside the door. It’s a little oasis in stormy times.
I am not the only one to feel it. My loving and extremely patient wife sees it too. Whenever I come back from my little whisky community escapades, she always notes how much happier and full of energy I am. She is usually a much better judge of my mood than I am, so I have to believe her.
So yes, we might look crazy to outsiders… but in today’s zeitgeist, having a precious group of similarly minded madmen makes everything better.
Let’s be honest, the world could do with more lunatics like us.
Review
Lunatic Asylum Only Ash Remains, 7yo Union Distillery, 2018, aged 6 and a half years in American oak, finished 7 months in fresh Pinot Noir casks, natural colour, non-chill-filtered, 54% ABV
£n/a gifted, now sold out
In honour of all of us beautiful, crazy people, this properly named Lunatic Asylum bottle, from Brazil’s first (and to my knowledge only) Independent Bottler, seemed the obvious choice for today’s review.
The way I came to own this bottle is another example of the ”lunatic” generosity and camaraderie from our community. During last year’s fantastic Whisky Live Paris weekend, expertly covered by Ainsley at the time, our friend Pedro organised a fantastic tasting of Brazilian spirits, ranging from a proper Cachaça, to a number of distillates from Alba Destilaria and ending with some fine examples of Brazilian Whisky, mostly from Union Distillery.
It was an eye-opening experience, confirming once more that Scotland does not hold the exclusive rights for great whisky (nor Italy for great Grappa, for that matter). At the end of the tasting, Pedro encouraged us to take what was left home. Officially because he was heading to Speyside after Paris and needed space in his luggage to be filled with Scottish bottles to take back home to Brazil. Who would not help a whisky friend in need?
I jest, clearly: it was another great gesture of generosity. And while I didn’t manage to grab the consensus winner of the night, Alba Destilaria’s Grappa Morbida, which disappeared as fast as a blink, I was very happy to leave with this very interesting Independently Bottled Union Distillery malt from Lunatic Asylum.
Talking about Lunatic Asylum goes hand in hand with talking about Alba Destilaria and getting into the broader world of distillation, not limited to whisky.
Alba Destilaria was founded in 2022 by Pedro Paiva in Monte Belo do Sul — a wine town in the Serra Gaúcha wine region in the south of Brazil. That detail will be important in a moment.
My exposure to Alba’s production only comes from the spirits Pedro shared with us in Paris last year. I can still taste the suave Grappa Morbida and the deliciously funkadelic Aguardente made from green sugarcane. Bottles I would buy in a moment if I had access to them (and which, judging from Alba’s social media, seem to sell out incredibly fast).
Lunatic Asylum is a collaboration between Pedro Paiva and Rafael Nardi, aka Barman de Apartamento, a Brazilian cocktail and spirits educator. They certainly aren’t shy about their goals, as the back label states:
“We want to elevate the art of whisky making beyond the limits of sanity.”
Marketing bravado maybe, but also a promise I won’t take for granted.
As the first Brazilian Independent Bottler, they have released four IB Union Distillery whiskies, experimenting with different cask finishes (red wine, grappa morbida, and Bourbon) and spirit styles (peated and unpeated). All their bottlings are released at high ABV (54%; the current legal maximum ABV in Brazil), with natural colour and non-chill filtration.
Before any red wine cask sceptics among you switch off, there is something very different here to your Scottish Red Wine cask finished malts. One of the issues which often gets mentioned as an issue with wine casks is their freshness. The low ABV of the cask’s previous occupier is not enough to prevent the risk of bacterial growth in the cask, and with it, increasing the risk of off flavours. If you have ever tasted a wine cask finished malt, and thought it had a slight vinegary note, you probably experienced that effect first-hand.
Because Alba Destilaria sits next door to several Brazilian wineries, it can source extremely fresh casks, and even fill them with whisky on the same day the wine is disgorged from the cask— something not possible in Scotland. I am looking forward to seeing if it might be the cask freshness that makes the difference.
Score: 7/10
Very Good Indeed.
TL;DR
Good whisky knows no borders, neither do lunatics
Nose
Bright maritime peat, vanilla and red berries. The peat takes me to a beach bonfire: seaweed, woodsmoke and just a touch of iodine and rubber. Then red fruit: fresh bright strawberries and raspberries, joined by a big dollop of creamy vanilla custard. There is a bit of spice, cinnamon mostly, ripe golden apples and a touch of refreshing orange peel.
Adding half a teaspoon of water changes the nose dramatically: the red fruit notes become more dominant, but less bright - turning jammy. The peat smoke dissipates, leaving a slightly funky, briny note and a ton of vanilla. Right in the background, a very light milky tea note pops its head up from the glass.
Palate
Quite creamy on arrival, with just a hint of alcohol bite coming from the 54% ABV. The character is similar to the nose, yet riper and sweeter. The red fruit is more like a mixed berry jam than fresh fruit. The peat becomes more of a background base note, infusing everything with its briny, woody smoke. That all melds into a background of pastry notes, apple tart and vanilla custard, which turns into creme bruleé when the peat merges in.
Adding water blends the flavours together and makes them more generic: red fruit melding into smoky vanilla. What does benefit is the texture. Gone is the light sharpness from the ABV, but that creamy, rich mouthfeel is fully there even with some dilution. All in all, I’d rather enjoy this one straight at 54%.
The Dregs
This is not the first Brazilian whisky we have reviewed here on Dramface, nor the first Union Distillery spirit. About two years ago, Ainsley and Wally positively reviewed a 2005 16-year-old. Ainsley wrapped up his intro of the whisky, fully aged in bourbon with something that almost sounds prophetic in hindsight:
“Can you imagine if they finished rare and precious 16-year-old Brazilian single malt in, say, Argentinian red wine casks? Thank god the people at Union are sensible.“
To that I will argue back… thankfully, the folks at Lunatic Asylum aren’t sensible nor do they want to be. After all, these guys are going "beyond the limits of sanity”!
I doubt that Dramface’s reach is such as to drive the cask finish choice for this IB Union Distillery whisky as a form of humorous retort. But it would be a lot of fun if it were. Wouldn’t it?
What is sure is that Ainsley and I have very different tastes when it comes to red wine cask finished malts. I am quite a fan of those expressions which pair these much-maligned casks with peated whisky (but significantly less when the spirit is unpeated). How does this Brazilian IB fare compared to what we might be more familiar with?
While the label of this Lunatic Asylum Only Ashes Remain might play on a Heavy Metal aesthetic - and it would make a great Metal album cover - in musical terms, keeping with the Brazilian theme, this is more gentle and classy Bossa Nova.
It is a mellow, softer take on the red wine-peat combo style of some of the more well-known Scottish expressions that come to mind, like Ledaig’s Sinclair Series and some of Ardbeg’s Smoketrails releases. Maybe it is thanks to those fresh red wine casks that the result has a notable lack of any off- or sharp notes, delivering instead an elegant marriage between the soft and sweet peated spirit and the fresh red fruit notes of the Pinot noir cask.
While this bottle may just be a curiosity for anyone outside Brazil (unless generous and friendly members of the mule network intervene), it is great to see not only quality whisky distillation grow around the world, but also new Independent Bottlers focusing on their domestic product. And if that is not reason enough to raise a glass to a new group of whisky lunatics, I don’t know what is.
Score: 7/10
Tried this? Share your thoughts in the comments below. HC
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