Big horns, better rye

Need more evidence that rye spirits are experiencing a comeback? Meet Vulson White Rhino Rye, the new brand of Xavier Padovani, of Hendrick’s Gin and Experimental Cocktail Club fame.
Xavier Padovani has a storied history in the drinks industry. Where do we start? Having worked at Paul Bocuse, The Morgan Hotel Group in London and Philip Starck in Paris, Padovani is also renowned as a Director and Partner at the Experimental Cocktail Club and most recently for his work at William Grant & Sons – as Global Brand Ambassador for the launch of Monkey Shoulder followed by two years as Global Brand Ambassador for Hendrick’s Gin. Nobody would deny that he’s got credentials. And now he’s got a brand-new brand to boot. It’s time to meet Vulson.
A Collaborative Effort
The first in a range of 100% French organic rye, differentiated from American rye’s containing corn and grain in the mix, Vulson White Rhino Rye exemplifies the comeback of rye based spirits. And that’s not it. Craft distilleries are on the up, and Vulson is as craft as it gets. It’s a collaboration between sustainable distiller Domaine des Hautes Glaces and Padovani, with the rye distilled by the Domaine in their small live flame onion-shape stills, before it rests for two seasons or more (a minimum of six months in stainless steel).
Then, comes the final bottling. Domaine des Hautes Glaces is a young distillery, founded in 2009 by whisky maker Frédéric Revol, that produces single malt beverages. Distilling only their own organic crops, it’s also one of the few distilleries to utilize renewable energy. The Domaine is terroir at its finest, following a tradition of distilling grains in the Alps like Distilleria Beretta from Switzerland’s Val Mustair, who also use wood fire.
With absolutely everything done on site, from the seeding to the bottling to the unusually long fermentation process that lasts around five days, Vulson’s a true original in the market. Find an American moonshine that harvests and malts its rye on site! And it’s one where process matches taste – Padovani proclaiming that the spirit shows that sustainable distilling has its place in the industry and can produce an excellent spirit. Will this collaboration produce a “brown rhino” in the future? He’s cagey, just saying that regarding age, there is “more to come”.
Behind the Rhino
The name is a testimony to the Marquis Vulson de la Colombière, a heraldist, historian, poet and a staunch Huguenot, who built the castle in which the distillery is based. Wondering about the rhino reference? In his book ’la science heroique’, Vulson incorporated a rhino! Tempted by the idea of using the Rhino (“an animal strong in armour yet rare in vision”) and a little of research later into the 16th, 17th and 18th centuries, Padovani came across the Ambroise Paré Rhino, in French barber/surgeon Paré’s 1583 tome “On Monsters and Marvels”. And that’s your Vulson Rhino! “Rhino has a good sound to it, but it just was an organic fit”, Padovani then adds.
Available on the Whiskey Exchange for £46.95, it’s only available in a few bricks and mortar shops in the UK to begin with. Find it in London at the Whisky Exchange Shop within Vinepolis, in Edinburgh’s Bon Vivant Companion and Glasgow’s The Good Spirits & Co. And how to drink it? That’s up to you, but as Padovani admits, he mostly drinks it pure and is partial to a Vulson Bloody Mary or a Vulson Negroni.