“Yes, it’s starting to get extra exciting now,” the stoker admits while he plays his first batch of more than four hundred bottles. After his first distilled whiskey has been stored for three years and one day, the first buyers can collect their bottles. “After all that hard work you are very curious about the opinion of others.”
“Laying for three years is a law in whiskey land. Otherwise it’s not whiskey. Where that one day comes from? No idea,” laughs Poutsma. “I think it’s a bit of a squabble with the Irish. They also have three years. And that the Scots have added a day.”
Cromlech is the name of the new Drenthe whisky. “That’s Celtic for dolmen,” explains the Havelter stoker. A story about the dolmen builders who lingered in Drenthe and went from a nomadic existence to a permanent residence follows. The first barley was grown, and they used it to make beer, among other things.
“And I continue that tradition, but on a slightly different level. And with a slightly different drink,” a satisfied Poutsma laughs. Who with barley from Havelte, ground in the local mill, brings a new drink from Drenthe to the market. Or as he calls it: “A drink with balls.”