Description
In 2016, we decided to take a new direction and produced the first Czech heavily peated whisky with 45% alcohol by volume. At the Bruntál malt factory, we used three times the usual amount of peat for drying the malt, achieving a value of 30 PPM, comparable to very smoky whiskies in Scotland.
We ran the distillation as slowly as possible. For the maturation of the distillate, we used refurbished Slivovitz barrels from the production company Barina. The larger amount of peat not only gives the whisky a strong smoky character but also introduces a whole new dimension of taste.
This is the first Gold Cock whisky that is not characteristically fruity; instead, floral tones prevail in both aroma and taste, naturally followed by a dry, smoked aftertaste.
LONDON SPIRITS COMPETITION 2021 – SILVER MEDAL
Producer Profile
A STORY SPANNING FIVE DECADES
The first lines of the GOLDCOCK whiskey story were written in the 1970s in Tešetice near Olomouc. However, its modern renaissance is connected with the RUDOLF JELÍNEK distillery in Vizovice, where a completely new chapter in the history of this pure Czech whiskey began to be written in the fall of 2013.
VERY AMBITIOUS BEGINNINGS
An unprecedented and very ambitious idea at the time, that one of the countries of the socialist bloc should have its own whiskey, was born in the early 1970s . The place where it was supposed to be implemented was the Tešetice plant under Likérka Dolany and the national enterprise Seliko Olomouc. Preparation for production began in full in 1972 , the first distillation took place in December of the following year. The result was a whiskey with 43% alcohol content, which was named King Barley . The comrades wanted to show it off at the Olympics in Moscow, but only spirits with an alcohol content of up to 40% could be exported to the Soviet Union, so in 1978 the team from Tešice started developing a new whiskey. Its formula was derived from the original one, but it had the required “voltage”. The wine was named Gold Cock and the label featured a rooster composed of golden ears of corn, which was supposed to symbolize Hané’s fertility, where the basic raw material – malted barley – came from. Malt was already supplied to the distillery by the Bruntá malthouse. If the malt was smoked, then with peat from Mount St. Sebestián. The water came from deep underground wells in the Jeseníky foothills.
RISE AND FALL
For the first two decades, Gold Cock was bottled as a three-year-old blended whiskey with 40% alcohol. The volume of its production grew happily, and with it the fame of the Tešetic plant, to which various delegations regularly went. But then came 1989 and with it political and economic changes and the subsequent stagnation of production. The decline in interest in Hana whiskey was largely due to the fact that its biggest customer, the Soviet Union, collapsed and stopped paying for it. The Tešetice plant became a branch of Selik Dolany, which was privatized. The Tešice team under new management made several attempts to raise whiskey production again. For example, investments were made in the redesign of bottles and labels as well as in an advertising campaign. At that time, three whiskeys were produced: the three-year-old blended with a red label was called Gold Cock Red Feathers , the single-malt six-year-old Black Feathers had a black label, and the twelve-year-old single malt Green Feathers had a green label. However, despite all efforts, the financial situation of Likérka Dolany did not develop well, which understandably also affected the distillery in Ceské Budejovice. The last whiskey was fired here in 2002 . The distillery, distillery equipment and years-old distillate stocks were subsequently auctioned off.
UNDER THE WINGS OF THE VIZOVICE DISTILLERY
The company Rudolf Jelínek became the new owners of the Gold Cock trademark , which also acquired part of the technology and stocks of whiskey in the auction, which were gradually transported to Vizovice. Here, the bottling of the three-year-old blended and twelve-year-old single malt whiskey Gold Cock from the Dolan stocks continued , and at the same time, everything necessary for our own production, which seasonally complements the production of fruit schnapps, began to be prepared. The first distillation of whiskey in the Vizovice distillery on specially adapted columns took place already in 2008 . In the fall of 2013, for the first time, the question came up for the first time, whether it would be possible to offer malt distillate lovers whiskey that is several decades old as well, in the form of a single malt reflecting the slightly wild 90s . The representatives of the Rudolf Jelínek company decided to revise the archive and to the tasting of six selected samples, which took place in Vizovice on June 20, 2014 , they invited the organizer of the whiskey festival in Malá Moravka, Petr Krenek, and two dozen other whiskey lovers. Two favorites emerged from it: the 1992 and 1995 vintages . They looked promising already in cask strength, but in the end the decision was made to bottle them at 49.2% alcohol – Vizovice is located at 49.2º north latitude.
WHISKEY FROM THE ARCHIVE AND OUR OWN PRODUCTION
Gold Cock Single Malt Whiskey 1992 was launched in spring 2015 in 1,948 bottles, followed by Gold Cock Single Malt Whiskey 1995 in the fall of the same year with 2,004 bottles. Even more economical – in the order of dozens of bottles – was the special edition with cask strength, i.e. 61.6% or 61.5% alcohol. The interest in all four fillings was so great that the stock ran out very quickly and today they are difficult to find. They also attracted the attention of businesses from various corners of the country, which showed interest in their own Gold Cock whiskey . The pioneer in this regard was the Olomouc bar Black Stuff, which since then regularly collaborates on whiskey bottled with its logo. In the meantime, enough time has passed for the whiskey distilled in 2008 in Vizovice to be bottled. She started bottling in 2016, when she was eight years old. From 2018, its ten-year variant is also available. It is the single malt Gold Cock 10 Years Old that should become the flagship of the new whiskey portfolio of the Rudolf Jelínek company . But you will have to wait for the next one – whiskey was distilled for the second time at Jelínky only in 2014 . Since 2016, this has been happening regularly, always in May and June, and production is gradually increasing.
