Pelter 10 Year Old Single Malt, Golan Heights, Israel
I have been meaning to write this review for over a year. Because when I first tasted this whisky I was, quite simply, blown away.
As you can see from the photographs, there is now precious little left in the original bottle. I have been rationing it like wartime chocolate, but I am pleased to say that I have been losing.
So before the last drops disappear, allow me to introduce the Whisky Tasters Whisky of the Year: the Pelter 10 Year Old Single Malt, from the Golan Heights in northern Israel.
A Whisky of the Year on a Jewish calendar
Most whisky writers announce their Whisky of the Year in late December or early January. I prefer to do mine in mid-September, around Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year.
However, last year I missed the boat. Between family matters and the geopolitical situation, a whisky review was not top of anyone’s list. This year I was simply swamped with work. So I promised myself I would get this out, even if a little late.
Then Whisky Live 2026 happened, and Pelter handed me a second reason to write. More of that later.
Who are Pelter?
Pelter Distillery is the spirits arm of Pelter Winery, a family business founded in 2001 by brothers Tal and Nir Pelter. Tal learned his trade in Western Australia. The winery settled at Ein Zivan, in the northern Golan Heights.
The distillery followed in 2013, making Pelter one of the very first in Israel to distil whisky, alongside brandy, gin and arak. Last year they released two age statements; an 8 Year Old and a 10 Year Old.
First encounter: Whisky Live Tel Aviv 2025
I caught up with both at Whisky Live Tel Aviv 2025. I should confess that I reached the Pelter stand late in the evening, having already done a thorough lap of the hall. My tongue was, shall we say, extremely burnt.
Even so, it was immediately obvious that both bottles were delicious. That is not something I say lightly at the end of a long evening, when most drams start to taste of “just more whisky”. I walked away with a bottle of the 10 Year Old for 450 shekels, roughly £100 at the exchange rate of the time. Best money I spent all year, and I knew that it was a fair price.
The secret is in the still
The 10 Year Old is matured in first-fill bourbon casks, and they must be quality casks, judging by the results. But because the 8 Year Old was equally impressive (finished in a wine cask), I am convinced the real trick at Pelter lies in the still.
Pelter distil in an alembic still. Even the word has done some travelling: fsome Arabic, Greek and Latin.
An alembic is wide at the bottom, with a slender lyne arm (the pipe that carries the vapour across to the condenser) that curves its way downwards. That long, winding journey gives the vapour extra time in contact with copper before it condenses. The copper is what cleans up the rougher notes.
You find stills like this mainly, though not exclusively, in the brandy and Cognac world. As I understand it, Pelter bought theirs from a Cognac producer in France.
A winemaker’s still, a whisky maker’s patience
This, for me, is what makes Pelter so interesting. They have brought the two halves of their business together. The still is a Cognac still, so the distilling draws directly on the family’s years of working with grapes and wine. The patience, however, is pure whisky.
Nobody in Israel puts spirit into a cask for eight or ten years unless they truly believe in it. That is a very long time to wait for your cash flow. And the evaporation rate is much higher than most other countries.
Altitude, heat and the angels’ share
Pelter distil, mature and bottle at close to 1,000 metres above sea level. That is higher than any distillery in Scotland, where even the loftiest sit at around 350 metres.
The climate, though, is nothing like Scotland’s. Yes, the Golan gets snow in winter, just like the Highlands. But the summers are hot, and that changes everything in the warehouse. In Scotland the angels’ share, the spirit lost to evaporation each year, runs at around 2%. On the Golan it is considerably higher.
It is impossible to be exact, but in my experience ten years in Israel is often the equivalent of something like 13 to 15 years in Scotland. The cask simply does more work, faster. Which makes a 10 Year Old from the Golan a rather serious proposition.
The bottle in question
| Distillery | Pelter Distillery, Ein Zivan, Golan Heights, Israel |
| Age | 10 years |
| Cask | First-fill bourbon. No finish. |
| Batch / bottle | Batch 1, bottle 400 of 1,000 |
| ABV | 57.8% (Batch 2 came in at 55.6%) |
| Price | 450 shekel in 2025 (about £100). Now around 600 shekel (about £150 – exchange rate changed ). |
Tasting notes
Colour: A delicious light brown. Warm and inviting before you have even lifted the glass.
Nose: The moment I nosed it, I knew this was something special. Everything I love in a bourbon cask whisky is here. Gentle spices. That touch of lemon I always seem to find (perhaps I imagine it, but I find it every time). Barley sugar, as ever. Biscuits, edging towards chocolate biscuits. And something simply inviting about the whole thing.
Palate: Smooth. Remarkably so for 57.8%. Lemon and orange, incredibly pleasant, with a warm glow that spreads rather than bites. It is like a lemon or orange drop sweet sitting on the tongue, quietly dissolving.
Finish: This is a whisky that makes you sit back in your chair and say nothing for a while. Friends and family consider this a bonus.
With water
I am not a big fan of adding water. Even at 50% ABV and above, I rarely do. But for the sport of it, I added four or five drops.
On the nose, it opened into a sweet perfume, almost rose-like. I wondered whether that would weaken the palate or strengthen it. To my surprise, it did something rather different. It became smoother, naturally, but also a touch sweeter, with lazed pears and apples coming forward. It was almost a slightly different whisky.
So why Whisky of the Year?
Simple. I have not stopped raving about it for twelve months. I have recommended it to friends, to clients, to fellow tasters and even to my wife’s family in Australia. I have rationed it, failed to ration it, and watched the level in the bottle drop with genuine sorrow.
Taste it blind and you would never guess it came from northern Israel. It stands comfortably alongside a good Speyside, or the best of the new Indian single malts. And it does so without any finishing tricks. This is a straight first-fill bourbon cask maturation.
Some people I know prefer the 8 Year Old, which has been finished in a wine cask. I understand why. But for me, the 10 Year Old is the purest expression of what Pelter does.
And then came the 12 Year Old
At Whisky Live Tel Aviv 2026, Pelter were back, and they had brought something new: a 12 Year Old, second batch, at 56.4% ABV. You can tell from the colour alone that it is a deeper, darker whisky than the 10.
I will not give it a full review here, because it deserves its own. What I will say is that it was better again. Stronger, richer, more sublime. I could happily have stayed at that one stand all night, and I suspect the Pelter team were starting to wonder whether I would.
The 10 Year Old now sells for around 600 shekels, which, thanks to the vagaries of exchange rates, is about £150. The 12 Year Old is considerably more expensive. I bought one anyway. That review is coming, but the 12 could just as easily have been my Whisky of the Year for 2026.
Hence the slightly unusual title: two years, one distillery, and a 10 Year Old that has earned its crown twice over.
Would I buy it again?
I have just bought the 12 Year Old. I think that answers the question.
If you see a bottle of Pelter 10 Year Old, buy it. If you see the 12, buy that too, and tell your bank manager it was research.
Sláinte!
Want to taste Israeli whisky like this alongside the Scottish classics? I run private, corporate and client hospitality whisky tastings. Let’s talk at whiskytasters.co/lets-talk.
Have you tried Pelter, or another Israeli single malt? Tell me in the comments, and follow Whisky Tasters for the full 12 Year Old review: Facebook @WhiskyTastersWithMichaelHoresh, Instagram @whisky.tasters and LinkedIn @whisky-tasters.
