What is Swiss whisky?

Swiss whisky is whisky that has been distilled and matured in Switzerland and must comply with Swiss food legislation.

There is no separate Swiss whisky definition with its own quality mark, as Scotland has. Anyone who makes whisky in Switzerland falls under the ordinary food rules: the Lebensmittel- und Gebrauchsgegenständeverordnung (LGV, SR 817.02) and, below it, the Verordnung des EDI über Getränke (SR 817.022.12).

That last regulation incorporated the earlier Verordnung des EDI über alkoholische Getränke. It sets out the requirements a drink must meet before the name whisky may appear on the label.

Until 1999 Swiss producers of spirits were forbidden to distil grain, and that is why Swiss whisky history only begins after that.

The Swiss Federal Council puts it this way itself in the Botschaft zur Totalrevision des Alkoholgesetzes: “So war es den Spirituosenherstellern im Inland bis 1999 verboten, Getreide zu brennen.” Only after the revision of the alcohol legislation did that obstacle disappear.

Since then, the Alkoholverordnung has stated that the raw materials a distillery may process are set per distilling licence. A general ban on grain is no longer in it.

That it really is about 1999 can be seen at Brauerei Locher in Appenzell. The brewery's own site says: “In 1999 he started producing Appenzeller Säntis Malt.” A Swiss whisky of thirty or forty years old simply does not exist.

Swiss food law requires malted grain, fermentation with yeast, distillation below 94.8 percent by volume, at least three years of maturation in wood and at least 40 percent by volume.

In the Verordnung des EDI über alkoholische Getränke, which is included in the current Getränkeverordnung, these points are brought together:

• the drink is made exclusively by distillation of a mash of malted grain, optionally with the whole kernel of other cereals;
• the mash is saccharified by the malt amylases, with or without other natural enzymes, and fermented with yeast;
• every distillation takes place below 94.8 percent by volume, so the spirit keeps the aroma and flavour of the raw material;
• the final product matures for at least three years in wooden casks with a capacity of no more than 700 litres;
• sweetening is not allowed;
• the minimum alcohol content is 40.0 percent by volume.

A cask of 700 litres is the upper limit. Casks used in practice are usually smaller.

Swiss requirements for whisky are the same as the European ones: EU Regulation 2019/787 sets the same limits in Annex I, category 2.

That European category has the same list: a mash of malted grain, saccharification by the malt diastase, fermentation with yeast, every distillation below 94.8 percent by volume, maturation of at least three years in wooden casks of up to 700 litres and a minimum of 40 percent by volume. Adding alcohol is not allowed, sweetening is not allowed, flavourings are not allowed, and the only permitted colouring is caramel (E 150a). The designation single malt is reserved in that category for whisky distilled exclusively from malted barley and at one distillery.

That alignment is no coincidence. In its explanatory notes on the Getränkeverordnung, the Bundesamt für Lebensmittelsicherheit und Veterinärwesen writes that the spirits section has already been harmonised and that the definitions are kept up to date in line with the European regulation.

Swiss whisky comes from small craft distilleries, often in German-speaking Switzerland and often linked to a brewery, such as Brauerei Locher in Appenzell.

Switzerland has far more distillers than whisky makers. As of 30 June 2022 the Bundesamt für Zoll und Grenzsicherheit counted 296 gewerbebrennereien, alongside tens of thousands of farmers and small producers. Anyone who makes more than 200 litres of pure alcohol a year needs a licence. Of those 296, only a handful deal with whisky.

The whisky range in Bathmen holds 4,009 bottles. Of these, more than thirty are registered as Swiss, with alcohol percentages from 40 to 64.57. The distilleries that appear most are Seven Seals with 14 bottles, Langatun with 8, Säntis with 6 and Whisky Castle with 2.

That is a relatively small corner. Scotland has 2,859 bottles on the same shelf, Ireland 334, the United States 165, Japan 127, the Netherlands 116, Belgium 53, England 46, India 45, France 42, Taiwan 41 and Germany 19.

The Swiss and European rules say nothing about altitude and climate: they only prescribe wood, maturation of at least three years and casks of up to 700 litres.

Altitude and climate are therefore not a legal category. What makes one Swiss whisky different from another lies in the distiller's own choices: the type of cask, what the cask held before, where the cask lies and how long it stays there. Those choices are free, as long as the requirements for wood, time, cask size and alcohol content are met.

The brewing tradition can be found in the work itself. Brauerei Locher writes on its own site that the brewmaster uses his craftsmanship to make a special wort as the basis for the whisky, and that the impetus came from the old beer casks of the forefathers. A brewery already has the malt, the mash and the fermentation in house; for whisky, the still and the cask are added.