All the Elements Come Together in Austria for Waldviertler Whisky J.H.

I’d had a very disrupted start to my Czechia trip… which started with a brief interlude in Austria. Missing my planned night train, I had to take a series of buses and trains overnight, which did have the silver lining of letting me watch the sunrise between Munich and the Danube. All that left me standing at Linz Hauptbahnhof, where I was met by Jasmin Haider pulling up in her Tesla. 

Her whisky distillery - Whisky-Erlebniswelt & Destillerie Haider - isn’t really accessible by public transport, so Jasmin kindly offered to give me a lift for this last section. We ascended from the Danube valley, climbing into the hills of the Austrian Waldviertel. It's a 600 metre climb, making my ears pop noticeably - this is far higher up than any Scottish distillery.

The Waldviertel refers to one historic quarter (viertel) of Lower Austria. As far as whiskymaking is concerned, this region has it all: grain, oak, peat, and water. I know that last one isn’t special, but you get the point. It’s a wonderful landscape to step into, and the weather is great on the late August day of my visit: the mountain air is wonderfully fresh.

HISTORY / STORY

Destillerie Haider was Austria’s first whisky distillery, and it celebrates its 30th anniversary this year. This distillery has a unique history. Remember #ryegate earlier this year, when everyone said that nobody was making rye whisky in Europe before 2003? There was one notable exception to that - here! 

Back when Austria joined the EU in 1995, the ensuing economic reshuffle left the Haiders asking what they should do with the family farm. Growing rye (hence ‘roggenhof’, as you’ll see around the distillery) and herding dairy cows, they looked to diversify. Jasmin’s father saw a documentary about grappa makers in southern Italy and had a brainwave.

Their then-pioneering move to start making rye whisky garnered a lot of media interest, and Jasmin recalls how 100 buses came to their little farm in the first year of production, just to see what all the fuss was about!

Many of the buildings at Destillerie Haider are repurposed farm buildings like barns, and everything is beautifully presented. Lovely plants grow around the grounds, satisfying the gardener in me. Apparently these are a personal touch from Jasmin’s mother, Monika. She also designed the fire and water garden (so named as it brings together multiple ‘elements’ at once, in a scenic spot for relaxing) in 2008. 

Over time, the Haider family shifted increasingly away from the dairy side of their farm and increased the proportion of time and resources dedicated to whisky production. A visitor’s centre was added, with Jasmin joining the family business in 2009. Besides working in the distillery itself, she also spent two years working in PR in Vienna before forming her own company and training formally as a distiller. With all this experience, she combines distilling work with marketing and communications. As if that wasn’t enough work to be doing, Jasmin also manages the warehouse and blending, though mercifully she shares those duties with her parents.

The whole distillery and brand got a facelift during COVID, with Jasmin redesigning the labels and logo. The existing whisky brand hadn’t changed much since its inception in 1995. While it wasn’t poorly done, there was no long term vision or expertise in the marketing: Jasmin fixed that. The distillery now gets more than 40,000 visitors per year, who come for a ‘world of whisky experience’ (whisky erleibniswelt) set up in 2005. 

Jasmin naturally owes a lot to her parents, who she continues to work with every day. She describes her skills as a synthesis of her parents’ own complementary talents: her mother’s financial nous and her father’s creativity. They all get on well: ‘my parents support me a lot, but they let me lead’, she says.

The first ever Haider whisky was a 60% malted rye / 40% malted barley mashbill, and this was soon followed by a 100% rye malt. The latter was a particularly unique dram in 1995, let alone 2025, especially as the family worked with dark roasted rye malt. This is actually a prominent ingredient in local muesli brands, but the Haiders wanted to see if its chocolatey flavour would transfer to a whisky. They must have liked the results because dark roasted rye malt is (apparently) a pain to work with, and they’ve persisted with it for 30 years now! 

One key thing to note as we get started - you’ll see a lot of different names when you look up this whisky. The distillery is Destillerie Haider - it’s made at the Roggenhof (in the town of Roggenrieth), in the Waldviertel region, and the whisky brand specifically is ‘Waldviertler Whisky J.H.’. That J.H. is important, Jasmin emphasises. This is no longer the only distillery making whisky in the Waldviertel, and JH stands for 3 generations of the family: Johann, Jasmin, and Jankia (the last being Jasmin’s daughter). 

Unlike most first-generation European distillers (see my last blog post about Teerenpeli for more on what those are), Haider has always had her eye on the wider picture. Rather than trying to replicate Scotch whisky in another country, her family were producing rye whisky from the start. Moreover, Jasmin tried to kick-start a common whisky association for Germany, Switzerland, and Austria back in the day! Today, we have the Austrian Whisky Association and the (much newer) Verband Deutsche Whiskybrenner. To my knowledge, there isn’t a Swiss equivalent, but please, prove me wrong if you know better…

As you might guess, Jasmin did not succeed as other distillers were not receptive to her ideas at the time! For example, she suggested there should be a minimum threshold for whisky production, such as 1,000 LPA. Given how many small producers there were (and still are) scattered across Germany in particular, this did not go down well. A shame - I think it would have solved some problems! We’re finally getting a more united and professional front from these countries’ distillers today, but it has taken some time to get there.

(This is where I need to apologise for having fewer photos than normal - my phone decided to not save about half of what I took that day, just for fun!)

LOCAL MATERIALS

Destillerie Haider might be one of the single best places in Europe when it comes to making whisky from local materials. All the ingredients are here, even peat. This primarily forms from decaying trees, not sphagnum moss as you’ll find more often in Scotland. Of course, Highland peat is also woodier in character, so you might find some overlap there. I get to see a sample of this local peat, and it’s incredibly light, dry, and crumbly to the touch. 

They actually buy roasted (but unsmoked) malt from Austrian maltings before re-roasting it themselves with peat! A bit of a DIY approach (which takes a whole day to do), but it produces a doubly unique form of smoked grain to work with!

THE DETAILS

• Unfiltered wort, 72 hour fermentation
• 2,500L hybrid Carl stills 
• Dephlegmators in columns (4 plates closed when running)
• Double distillation
• Shell and tube condensers
• Hot water from condensers used to warm mash/wort
• Lees/draff used for energy generation
• Average 3% angels’ share PA
• Production = 70% rye, 30% malt
• All diluted, bottled, and hand-labelled on site
• 45,000 LPA

Haider has a beautifully circular system for cask re-use. Their casks come from Schneckenleitner, a cooperage located up the Ybbs river (so not far from where I got off the train earlier). They are all 225L new Austrian oak, charred heavily to an almost alligator level. To be extra specific, these are Manhartsberger Sommerieche (sessile oak). Naturally, these cost more than your run-of-the-mill bourbon barrel, but Jasmin still gets multiple uses out of it. Each Austrian cask is used for three to four years on its first maturation, and six years on the second. After re-charring, the cask is then used again for eight to eighteen more years. 

This way, they make the most of each cask’s lifespan while also getting several types of maturation from the same wood: the full spectrum of what this oak can do over time. These distinct qualities are further emphasised by different filling strengths for the first, second, and third fills: 55%, 60%, and 65% ABV respectively. When Jasmin started training as a distiller, she always heard that Austrian whisky was a bit of a ‘wood bomb’: customers were sceptical if it could be brought under control. She’s been changing minds for many years now, and it seems to be sinking in!

In this main building, temperature/humidity conditions sometimes lead to the ABV increasing inside the cask! It’s something I know can happen from US distilleries, but you don’t find it that often in Europe. We do also see some barrels with slow-leaking ooze on the cask ends - I’ve seen this before elsewhere, but Jasmin gives me a new name for them, ‘whisky tears’. 

At this point I get a sample straight from the cask - light rye malt put into a third fill cask on 16/11/16, making it 8 years, 9 months, and 10 days old exactly! Invited to press my nose to the cask bung, I find an amazing vanilla rum-like smell rising out of it.  In the glass, this dram has an amazing toasty depth. Some of that vanilla is there, but adding a drop of water eases back that sweetness. The finish sneaks up on me slowly but is truly amazing. Jasmin estimates this sample is around 68% ABV!

The main space inside the ‘erleibniswelt’ is broken up into a cinema room on one side, and a large maturation space on the other. There’s a distinctly toasty smell in here. Combined with the wooden walls, it's easy to see why this gets you in the mood to learn about how this Austrian whisky is made: it’s like being inside a cask yourself!

Whisky Cellar III, completed in 2009, can fit 500,000 litres of maturing whisky. 200,000L are already here, but at current rates, it will take them a decade to fill it! Everything is ready: Haider is well future-proofed! The temperature doesn’t fluctuate in here as much as it does in the older buildings, so you don’t get the same steep increase in ABV over time. One smaller lager in this building still contains original barrels of JH whisky from 1995. A decorative water feature ends up also reducing the angels’ share by slightly humidifying the air. 

TASTING

The regular range of Waldviertler Whisky JH includes Original Rye (100% rye malt, 41% ABV); Dark Rye Malt (100% dark rye malt); Single Malt; Dark Single Malt. You might remember that I tried a series of Waldviertler JH whiskies last year after my visit to Farthofer, where I met Jasmin for the first time. Of course, it's a different story tasting these Austrian whiskies at the distillery, with the distiller! And we naturally include a wider range of JH drams too…

Peated whisky is still a niche part of Haider’s whisky production, but their blended malts are becoming increasingly popular. ‘A bit more everyday drinking’, as Haider puts it. Haider’s blended malts replicate the old 60/40 mashbill from 1995. The regular Blended Malt is 42% ABV and aged for eight years. It has that strong Austrian oak aroma, musty and earthy, yet the body is light and pleasant, lightly sweet with just a hint of Campari bitterness to it. 

The Rare Blended Malt ages in sweet wine casks, and is bottled at 46% after six years. This one has a deeper hazelnut note on the nose - it’s a bit sweet, but not in a way that jumps out the glass at you. The palate is more peppery than the standard blended malt, but it’s not too much… There's definitely more bite to this one as well, and the finish is more rewarding. It even shifts to a creamy note with time!

A single malt made with dark roasted, peated malt (before ageing for ten years in sweet wine casks) comes up on the tasting slate. Bottled at 46%, it has quite a light finish. Clearly present, the Waldviertel peat smells like a less acidic reminder of Kyrö Wood Smoke. The finish is less persistently peaty than a Scotch malt. Again, it has just enough sweetness to make it work. The grain and smoke combine well, and the effect is nice - I only wonder if it’s so light that this kind of smoke might grow stale quickly in the bottle, as Connemara does.

Leaving all traces of barley behind, we move on to a series of dark rye malts. First, the simplest named one - JH Dark Rye Malt (aged eight years, 41% ABV). This has an almost sour-gummy sweetness on the nose at first. I get to pair this one with dark chocolate, and somehow the whisky and chocolate make each other sweeter? Cards on the table, I am not a dark chocolate fan. I can appreciate it, but I don’t enjoy it on its own. However, it somehow tastes creamy alongside this whisky. They mutually balance each other’s bitter notes in a fascinating way.

The Rare Dark Rye Malt ages in pinot noir casks from a vineyard who normally does white, so these casks are extra rare - but it’s Jasmin’s favourite! She even got a cask of this wine for her wedding. This dram pairs really well with the local mohnzelten Jasmin offers me, and Jasmin mentions that she often pairs her dark rye malts with chocolate or cheese. I can taste fennel, redcurrant, blackcurrant… the pairing really brings out a lot more depth and sweetness. The mohnzelten are sweet themselves, but not that heavily - it really is lifting up the whisky. 

Next, a Laphroaig-finished Dark Rye Malt (46%). It gets six years in Austrian oak before four years in ex-Laphroaig, so it’s a double maturation more than a finish! The taste is certainly well developed, moving through three or four different phases and giving you a different smoky sensation in each one. Deep and rich - hard for peat-lovers not to like!

Jasmin also brings out a Dark Rye Malt Cask Strength (55.5%), aged for just four years in Gruner Veltliner Eiswein. I can’t find my tasting notes for this one unfortunately. What I do know is that I enjoyed every JH whisky aged in sweet wine casks (similar to the effect I found with Gewurztraminer casks at Brennerei Psenner). These dark rye malts are, overall, warm, soft, and cozy; Christmas-pudding-like.

Especially rare is the Original Rye 18 year old! At 46% (with the classic 60/40 mashbill), it has a smell you don’t find in any other JH dram. It just has this immediately present, intangible older quality to it. The rye sweetness is there, but it has a seaside quality to it (if that makes sense). There’s some coconut in the nose, Jasmin points out. I got some paprika, apricot, and… sachertorte! Jasmin notes that the famous cake pairs well with the dark rye malt too, but I think I still got some brownie points for that particular tasting note… The slight bitterness on this whisky’s finish is more like sea salt, putting a neat full stop on the deep rye notes that come before. There is a truly crazy range of notes to explore and discuss in this one bottle!

A 100% Rye (light roasted) aged for eighteen years in small 114L barrels ends up at 76% ABV - definitely not a normal dram for sale! What an absolute privilege for me to taste this alongside Jasmin when she is also trying this dram for the first time! All I can tell you is it’s very fruity and floral on the nose, with a bready rye aftertaste. This whisky was produced using a different yeast from the JH usual, so it has more banana-y esters to it as well. The overall effect is very Schoko-bananen! 

While this and some of the straight-from-the-cask samples aren’t part of the Waldviertler Whisky JH range, I really appreciate how these are giving me extra information. They’re helping me hone in on the whisky terroir here. It seems that the longer you age JH whiskies, the more classic rye notes emerge from them. 

However, they lack the pungent vanilla of a North American rye (having aged in very different casks to vanillin-laden quercus alba). Instead, they fit the more earthy style of other European ryes, becoming a little more fresh and bready over time. Adding a drop of water, blackcurrant emerges - I think that has to be a signature tasting note for the JH range. Overall, I’d say the Original Rye and Dark Rye Malt are your ideal starting points for the Waldviertler range. 

I also got to try the JH new make. It’s bready and smooth, not sour as I might have expected. There’s a plain, dark rye note, but it shows by contrast just how much of the spice in regular JH whisky comes from the Austrian oak, not the rye itself as I had assumed.