The Chinese Goalong Distillery was founded in 2017 by Alan Gao. It is located near the Liuyang River at the foot of Dawei Mountain. The Chinese Goalong Single Malt Whisky has been available on the European market since 2022.
Among the Goalong distillery's range is the Goalong Bourbon Cask, which matured for five years in American ex- Bourbon barrels and was bottled at 40% vol. The Goalong Bourbon & Brandy Barrel also matured for five years. It was stored in both Chinese ex-brandy and American ex-Bourbon barrels. However, the alcohol content is significantly higher at 48% vol. Five different types of cask were used for the Goalong Small Batch 5 Years: Tennessee Whisky casks, Bourbon casks, wine casks, sherry casks and Chinese brandy casks.
The distillery also has a blended Whisky in its portfolio, the Goalong Blended, which is characterised by a balanced taste and a complex finish.
The Goalong Distillery was built near the Luiyang River, which flows about 2.5 kilometres to the south. It is surrounded by high mountains - the Luoxiao Range to the north and the Lianyun Range with Dawei Mountain to the south - and is located in an area that is 99% covered in forest. The water used for Whisky production originates from the source of the Liuyang River. Filtered through ancient shale rock, it is particularly soft and pure, with a natural sweetness.
The Goalong distillery works with small 5,000 litre stills, equipped with a shell-and-tube condenser and a slightly upward tilted swan neck. The special feature of these pot stills is that they are built in a hybrid construction of stainless steel and copper. They are not heated with steam, but with highly heated oil, which is pumped through the stills in heat exchangers. This technology allows the stills to be heated to 140° Celsius. As a result, the master distiller can add notes of toasted bread and malt to the flavours of the raw spirit.
The fermentation time at Goalong is 96 hours. The distillery has eight 25-tonne washbacks available for this purpose.
A total of 6,666 barrels can be stored in Goalong's warehouse. The distillery has a wide range of different barrels for ageing, such as Bourbon, sherry, Mizunara and various wine barrels. A special Chinese brandy barrel is also used. This unique Chinese brandy is made from grapes and is particularly common in the Xinjian region of China.
The warehouse is divided into four different zones to represent the four seasons of the Chinese province of Hunan with its capital Changsha.
