Spirit of Hven Distillery in Sweden is one among numerous Nordic whisky makers including new and thrilling expressions to the world’s stage.
Let me take you to a land of volcanoes and glaciers, rugged coastlines and deep fjords, Viking legends and the aurora borealis. The Nordic area is admired for its up to date inside design, inspiring structure, and timber summer season cabins tucked into forest clearings. Now, Nordic whisky may be included in that array. It’s a vibrant time for distilleries from the Jutland Peninsula to the Arctic Circle and throughout to Iceland, the land of fireside and ice. The spectrum of this area’s whisky flavors is as numerous because the Nordic panorama itself. Over the previous 20 years, distillers all through the area have constructed a tradition of expertise and innovation, turning this particular place into one of many world’s prime places for making whisky.
Finland
Teerenpeli Distillery—Based 2002
Teerenpeli is situated in Lahti, about 60 miles north of Helsinki, and operates a brewery, seven eating places, and a downtown distillery with a brand new customer middle. The distillery attracts water from a considerable underground aquifer of glacial meltwater that’s filtered by means of a deep gravel mattress. It additionally has a prepared supply of native barley from native malting suppliers. The one lacking aspect is native peated malt, so its new U.S. launch, Teerenpeli Savu, makes use of Scottish malt peated to 55 phenol components per million (ppm) that’s blended with Teerenpeli’s native malt. Each customary and small casks are used for maturation, and Teerenpeli ages all its whiskies inside insulated transport containers the place the air flow may be adjusted and the temperature monitored. Founder Anssi Pyssing expects to make use of this maturation technique for all of the distillery’s whiskies for the foreseeable future.
Seize a tasting and a tour at Teerenpeli’s new customer middle.
As Teerenpeli passes its twentieth anniversary, a handful of different Finnish spirits producers have emerged in recent times. The newer ones are turning to rye whisky and single malt, whereas additionally producing gins and aquavits. Pyssing’s aim is to create higher cooperation amongst Nordic distillers to assist the area’s whiskies achieve wider worldwide recognition.
Attempt It:
Teerenpeli Kaski—90 factors, 43%, $130
Teerenpeli Portti—90 factors, 43%, $130
Teerenpeli Savu—88 factors, 43%, $130
Denmark
Stauning Whisky—Based 2005
Taking its design inspiration from native farm buildings and fishing huts, Stauning opened its present distillery in 2018 with an ingenious custom-designed malting ground—the barley is turned with a novel system of spinning rakes like a mix harvester—24 squat stills, and an annual manufacturing capability equal to Springbank Distillery’s 750,000 liters of pure alcohol (lpa). Co-founder Alex Munch likens the local weather on Denmark’s west coast to Islay, however emphasizes that his aim is to craft Danish whisky, not Islay-style scotch.
Stauning Whisky makes use of 24 squat stills to make rye and malt whisky.
“We wish to create a Nordic terroir,” he says. “We have now a number of farmland right here, nice clear water, and native grain.” Barley and rye are domestically sourced and malted on-site. A Highland-style Danish peat is used for Stauning’s peated malt, nevertheless it has augmented its smoky batches by burying native heather underneath unfastened peat within the kiln so as to add taste.
Stauning’s whisky has a weighty mouthfeel, the results of a protracted fermentation producing extra fruity esters that create pear, apple, and citrus flavors. Its kiln is heated with the new air produced by its 24 direct-fired pot stills, and distillation is gradual. “Making whisky won’t ever be tremendous power environment friendly, however we’re actually making an attempt to do higher,” Munch says.
Attempt It:
Stauning Bastard—92 factors, 46.3%, $78
Stauning Kaos—91 factors, 46%, $79
Stauning Rye—88 factors, 48%, $73
ICELAND
Eimverk Distillery—Based 2009
In its pursuit of genuine Icelandic whisky, Eimverk embodies the admirable qualities of autonomy, freedom from conference, self-sufficiency, and sheer inventiveness. Though the distillery first gained notoriety for utilizing sheep dung fairly than peat, there’s rather more to its story.
Iceland is the closest whisky-producing Nordic nation to the U.S., and that proximity has had a determined affect. “We’re in the course of the Atlantic, and there’s at all times been a robust connection to the U.S.,” says Halli Thorkelsson, founding father of this family-run enterprise on the outskirts of Reykjavík.
Halli Thorkelsson based Eimverk Distillery in 2009 on the outskirts of Reykjavík. The distillery ships its Flóki whiskies to 19 nations.
Eimverk, producer of Flóki whisky, mashes equal ratios of malted and unmalted Icelandic barley. It makes use of previous milk tanks repurposed as wash stills in addition to different hand-built gear to run in-grain fermentation and distillation, the place the grains are nonetheless within the answer when added to the fermenters and wash stills, fairly than being drained off after mashing—fairly unconventional for Europe. The distillery faucets into Iceland’s ample provide of geothermal water, passing it by means of a warmth exchanger to decrease its power footprint. Predominantly utilizing charred virgin oak casks lends Eimverk’s whiskies a bourbon or Tennessee whiskey slant. The distillery has an lively ending program, utilizing sherry casks but in addition extra unorthodox decisions like birchwood, Icelandic craft beer, and mead casks.
This island nation is on the restrict of the world’s barley-growing zone, which presents a elementary problem to creating whisky. Eimverk makes use of native barley grown and malted on the household farm. Two species of two-row barley are planted, specifically chosen for these robust rising circumstances. The ensuing harvest is usually about half of what a farmer may anticipate in Scotland, and every ton produces 10% to twenty% much less alcohol. Barley grown this far north is inherently spicy, with a comparatively low quantity of sugars because of the quick summer season, imbuing the whisky with recent grassy tones and a definite spicy pepperiness.
Eimverk Distillery has the capability to make 34,500 lpa, and it ships Flóki whiskies to 19 nations. “We’re on this for the long term,” confirms Thorkelsson. “We’ve even planted some oak bushes, nevertheless it’s going to take some time to get our personal barrels!”
Attempt It:
Flóki Icelandic Birch-Completed Single Malt—92 factors, 47%, $100
Flóki Sheep Dung-Smoked Reserve Single Malt—91 factors, 47%, $100
Flóki Single Malt—89 factors, 47%, $100
NORWAY
Aurora Spirit Distillery—Based 2016
Winter is probably the most spectacular time in Norway; you’ve acquired monumental snow drifts, clear skies, and the aurora borealis,” says Colin Houston, cask program supervisor at Aurora Spirit Distillery, the northernmost distillery on this planet. Located in spectacular environment inside the Arctic Circle, over 1,000 miles north of Oslo, this facility was constructed on the positioning of a former WWII German army fort. At latitude 69°N, that is the land of the midnight solar and the polar evening; within the depths of winter the solar doesn’t come over the horizon for 2 months.
Aurora is the northernmost distillery on this planet, making whisky, gin, vodka, and different spirits.
The distillery makes a wide range of Arctic spirits utilizing its hybrid pot and column nonetheless, although it brings in a pilsner malt-based wash from the Mack microbrewery, situated 50 miles away, for its whisky manufacturing. “I’ve watched the Mack supply lorries come up right here with monumental studded tires and chains as they belt their manner by means of the Arctic climate to get to us,” describes Houston.
For maturation, quarter casks are usually used, although lots of Aurora’s experimental casks are even smaller for sooner maturation. Virgin Hungarian oak, chestnut, cherry, sauternes, madeira, rye whiskey, palo cortado, and aquavit casks are all within the pipeline. The small barrels are rolled into the tunnels of a close-by former NATO base to mature, although a brand new warehouse resembling a Viking longhouse will quickly be accomplished.
Whereas there isn’t a oak rising within the Arctic, Aurora’s distilling workforce began the Arctic Barley Undertaking two years in the past with the purpose of rising native barley for its whisky in collaboration with neighboring farmers. The primary 12 months produced about seven tons and, utilizing an previous farmer’s yeast on the unmalted barley, Aurora made a grain whisky and crammed two casks. “The flavors it offers are insane,” beams Houston. “We’re getting a mix of floral and fruity notes that I’ve not skilled in different whiskies.”
Aurora Spirit’s debut European releases, Bivrost Niflheim and Bivrost Nidavellir, offered out shortly. At the moment Aurora Spirits is in discussions with U.S. importers, and plans twice-yearly Bivrost releases in Europe with the anticipation of higher availability by 2025. The nascent craft spirits motion in Norway has inspired round 10 distilleries to make whisky—with Myken, Det Norske Brenneri, and Feddie all price watching.
Attempt It:
Search for a U.S. launch of Bivrost inside the subsequent one to 2 years.
SWEDEN
Mackmyra Whisky—Based 1999
Vertical distilleries are unusual, however Mackmyra has pioneered the idea (and is now being adopted by Edinburgh’s Port of Leith Distillery, presently underneath building). Mackmyra opened its second manufacturing website in 2010, a particular 35-meter-tall gravity distillery. Apart from the power effectivity of the operation, it provides guests the chance to take an elevator to the highest to study whisky manufacturing as they descend ground by ground. Mackmyra makes the quintessential Swedish whisky, and with the talent of grasp blender Angela D’Orazio, it captures the essence of Sweden by means of the usage of native barley, peat, yeast, oak, and ending casks.
Mackmyra shops a bulk of its whisky 164 ft underground in a mine that first opened in 1857. The distillery additionally has six different satellite tv for pc warehouses.
Mackmyra makes use of a Swedish white moss peat filled with forest matter. Distinctively, the distillery provides twigs of freshly minimize juniper to the peat. Its malting facility is a custom-made transport container the place it smokes the peat for 36 hours to realize peat ranges of fifty to 60 ppm. “The Swedish peat offers us a fairly natural character, however including the dominant taste of the juniper twigs, we get this oilier, chilly barbecue aroma into it, which is improbable,” enthuses D’Orazio, “It has this Swedish forest essence to it.”
Mackmyra works extensively with Swedish oak, which has its personal distinctive taste profile with decrease ranges of wooden sugars than American oak. “Our oak could be very slow-growing, and it offers us fairly huge flavors, much like French oak,” says D’Orazio. “It has an attractive, oriental fragrant composition when it’s recent, with notes of ginger, coriander, aniseed, cedarwood, sandalwood, and tobacco leaf. Collectively, it’s like a most stunning fragrance.”
Mackmyra shops a lot of its whisky 164 ft underground within the Bodås Mine, an previous iron ore facility that opened in 1857. It has six different satellite tv for pc warehouses, together with Europe’s highest warehouse on the Lofsdalen Skybar restaurant, nevertheless it’s the chambers within the mine which are cherished for his or her steady temperatures of 44° to 48°F.
Mackmyra is a fruity whisky, with notes of citrus, pear, and grassy natural tones, plus ginger and aniseed spiciness. Whereas the U.S. solely has one expression of Mackmyra at current, D’Orazio oversees an lively program of experimental casks that seize completely different seasonal moods, from lingonberry, cloudberry, and birch sap wines to espresso, amarone, Japanese inexperienced tea, and calvados, which have helped Mackmyra domesticate a robust identification amongst its legions of European followers.
Spirit of Hven Distillery—Based 2007
This Swedish island distillery is located between the Danish and Swedish mainland within the strait of Öresund, the place it makes single malt and grain whiskies and natural gin, and collaborated on the primary Swedish blended whisky. Grain is sourced on the island, with a lot of the barley being licensed natural; a novel microclimate means it enjoys higher humidity and extra hours of sunshine than most of Sweden. Acutely aware that the whole lot must be transported on and off the island by boat, founder Henric Molin hopes to supply 100% of his uncooked supplies from the island by 2023, from cereal grains to gin botanicals. He maintains a robust give attention to natural barley: “We wish to do the perfect for the atmosphere and meet our sustainability objectives whereas being as environment friendly as attainable with the native harvest.”
Spirit of Hven began making single malt whiskies, then added a lab, a grain facility with column stills, and a uncommon picket Coffey nonetheless. “Our goal from the start wasn’t world domination, however to be small and attention-grabbing and hunt down these completely different taste traits,” says Molin. Whereas each Swedish distiller has their very own distinctive method to creating whisky, Molin sees frequent floor. “It’s not like we scent this and say this can be a Swedish whisky, such as you may determine bourbon or an Islay scotch, however I feel we nonetheless see a Swedish profile. It’s very intense in taste, and tends to be fairly peppery and spicy in comparison with scotch.”
Excessive Coast Distillery—Based 2010
The Excessive Coast of Sweden is a UNESCO World Heritage website and Excessive Coast Distillery (previously Field Distillery) stands right here on the financial institution of the colossal Ångerman River. Whereas it makes use of delicate, clear water for making whisky, it takes full benefit of the mighty river and the 128,000 gallons of ice-cold water that cross each second to chill the vapors in its condensers. Distillery supervisor Roger Melander says, “Actually chilly cooling water is integral to the flavour of our new-make spirit.”
Excessive Coast has a bigger U.S. presence than different Swedish whisky producers, with its Hav single malt incomes the No.-6 spot on our 2021 High 20.
Melander experiments with maturation by various cask dimension, warmth therapy, oak species, and filling power, bearing in mind the efficiency of the variables in opposition to the big seasonal fluctuations in warehouse temperature. He prefers bourbon casks and American oak sherry casks. Throughout maturation, alcohol power will increase barely at Excessive Coast, so Melander has adjusted the filling power from 63% right down to 60% and is considering reducing to 58% to provide even higher flavors.
In stark distinction to many distilleries, Excessive Coast revels in temperature fluctuations inside its warehouse, which might fluctuate over a spread of 100°F. The black warehouse roof absorbs warmth in the summertime highs of round 82°F, however in winter it will probably drop to -22°F, leading to ice forming on the floor of the barrels. “This interactive maturation forces spirit out and in of the pores of the oak,” explains Melander. “Yoichi Distillery in Hokkaido, Japan is the one distillery on this planet that has comparable seasonal temperature adjustments, however sadly, they mature almost each drop at Miyagikyo Distillery in Sendai.”
Excessive Coast has a much bigger U.S. presence than every other Nordic distillery, and Melander is assured concerning the long-term prospects for Nordic whisky total. “Japan began making whisky nearly 100 years in the past, and at present the marketplace for Japanese whisky is big. Sweden, Finland, Norway, and Denmark may simply be the following Japan.”
Attempt It:
Excessive Coast Älv—92 factors, 46%, $50
Excessive Coast Berg—92 factors, 50%, $60
Excessive Coast Hav—93 factors, 48%, $50
Spirit of Hven Hvenus Rye—91 factors, 45.6%, $77
Spirit of Hven Mercurious Corn—90 factors, 45.6%, $55
Spirit of Hven Tycho’s Star Single Malt—87 factors, 41.8%, $130
Mackmyra 1st Version—91 factors, 46.1%, $90/liter
