Svenska Eldvatten – Sherry Cask Collection Single Cask 01

Dear friends and followers! When working at the Borlänge Beer and Whiskyfestival in November last year, I passed by the stand of swedish indendent bottlers Svenska Eldvatten (Swedish Firewater) to have a chat with Peter and Tommy. Of course I was very keen on finding out if there was any new release coming up shortly that they wanted me to review. And indeed they did have something for me, something very special; the first release in their new series called Sherry Cask Collection. All bottlings in the series will be from different single sherry casks, and of course, always bottled at cask strength, yummie!

So, what is special about this first release? Well, actually it’s a blended malt from a single cask. The new make from each of these distilleries was distilled in October 1993. Whether or not the new make was "blended at birth" is not known. However the whisky was bottled in November 2016, so that means 23yo! The whisky has been bottled at cask strength 53,5% ABV.


The cask gave 355 bottles. This first release will be available at the swedish state monopoly starting this Wednesday, please feel free to check it out by clicking here. Unfortunately I do not know from which three distilleries the whisky comes from, whether it’s american oak or european oak, whether it’s firstfill or refill, what kind of cask, or what kind of sherry, but I’m guessing Oloroso. 

Ok, this is very exciting, let’s see what we have here!

Nose:

Oooh, very, very soft and sort of ”calm”. The sherry influence should probably not be described as a sherry monster, rather as a ”whispering sherry”, however it is indeed quite ”fat”, but not boasting. The layers are two in number, the first and foremost layer consists of very mellow liquid/fluid brown sugar that is seamlessly intertwined with medium dark vanilla fudge (whatever that is), and mmm some Crème Brûlée (not the burnt surface, only the pudding itself). In the first layer there is also, of course, dark raisins and figs but they are definitely in the background hiding behind something like a mix of dark vanilla and just a tad of coconut. The second layer is very intricate, representing itself as something citric, not lemon juice, something else, maybe it is better explained as soft cucumber water mixed with just a tad of sugared lime juice… hmm, very hard to describe. Anyways, what is clearly dominating here is the first layer, and it’s absolutely beautiful… 

Copyright/picture belongs to Svenska Eldvatten

Taste:

Starts of medium salt-y, and just a peedie bit of peat actually! It swooshes by, so the peat is very fast. There is also definitely a whole lot of sherry sweetness in there (mostly reminding me of dried sugar-y dates but also some dried figs). In fact, the sherry influence is not at all as soft and calm on the taste and palate as it on the nose, that feels comforting. So that means it’s more of a bomb on the taste than on the nose! The interesting thing with the taste is that there is a constanst battle going on between sugar sweetness (brown sugar and dried raisins) and peaty salt-y-ness. Likewise, a battle between a medium dark vanilla and some kind of liquorice… very interesting. When taking another sip and swallowing and then smacking my mouth, in the distant, I really get a feeling of a very, very soft and sherried Highland Park, interesting… 

To sum up: 

1). This is a perfectly balanced and very soft and well-matured ”sherry whisperer”. The vanilla stuff and the Crème Brûlée is absolutely beautiful 

2). The peat found on the taste is not at all there on the nose! So when you taste it you will find it to be a welcome surprise indeed. 

3). Given the soft and medium dark vanilla this is probably matured in american oak rather than european oak, and probably refill rather than first fill. 

4). Whoever blended these three single malts together did a very good job, and the desicion to pour the liquid into a single cask was great, and the decision by the chaps at Svenska Eldvatten to bottle it, even better 

5. Can I have some more please?! ☺ 

Big thanks to Peter and Tommy for sharing a sample of this whisky, and to be nice enough to let me review it before release! Please make sure to follow my FB-page by clicking here, my twitter-page by clicking here, and my instagram by clicking here. Copyright © and All Rights Reserved on all tasting notes and text by SamuelWhisky and pictures likewise belong to SamuelWhisky, unless stated. If you would like to use any such material that belongs to SamuelWhisky or associated with SamuelWhisky, please ask by sending me an email to samuelkarlssonorebro[at]gmail.com 

copyright/pic belongs to Svenska Eldvatten

’Big Peat – X-mas 2014’ 53,8% ABV

Before I start digging deep into the latest shipment of samples from Clydesdale that arrived a couple of days ago (Clydesdale is one of Swedens top importer and seller of whisky), I just have to say hello to a sample that was in the shipment that arrived in September. Among the samples was the ’Big Peat’-christmas-2014-edition. I should think that most of you have heard of the Big Peat, but if not it is produced by Douglas Laing & Co. Now owned by one of the Laing-brothers, namely Fred. From what I have heard (and please correct me if I’m wrong) Big Peat mainly contains of malt whisky from a couple or so distilleries on Islay, and a wee splash of Port Ellen. In other words, Big Peat is a blended malt! 

In Sweden it will be released on the 17th of november. Ok, let’s see what we have here ☺

Nose:

Big peat indeed! A quiet ”smoky” peat and not just peatsmoke (if that makes any sense… probably not...) Anyways, we also have something very green and salt, if you can nose the salytness in salt. There are some touches of moulded cheese, and earthy dampness, that is something like earth cellar for foodstorage in ”the olden days” ;) Quiet spirity on the alcohol which makes it seem a bit young perhaps, some touches of distillate/raw-spirit. Let’s see if there is any Big peat on the palate!

Palate:

Begins very sea-salty, also salt liquorice, but in combo with a salt vanilla/fudge. Then comes the peat which I would definitely say is quite gentle! At least for the first couple of seconds. I keep the whisky in my mouth for a while and the alcohol strength is not at all overpowering, which is interesting. After swallowing I don’t have to wait long at all for the real big peat to kick in, and it does so in a really nice way ☺ Shortly after swallowing everything gets very dry on my tongue and the inside of my lips. Here I get a touch of a bit youngish feeling and also the moulded cheese is there. The aftertaste is looong, primarily ”smoke” and it warms my chest. Something for the winter night perhaps?!

A big thank you to the nice people at Clydesdale that keep sending me samples! And a big thanks to all of you out there all around the globe, thank you for following and please stay in touch via Facebook where there is a page for this blog, and likewise a profile on twitter here! Sláinte! 

Tasting an absolutely new release from 'Svenska Eldvatten'

Vintage 1994 54,5% ABV

Following the success of the very special release Vintage 1979 Single Cask Blended Scotch, here comes once again another very special release and quite rare composition of whisky from 'Svenska Eldvatten' (Swedish firewaters)! Their latest bottling of whisky is a Single cask of blended malt scotch, and it's sherry matured! As you all now blended malt (used to be called vatted malt and) means that at least two malts from separate distilleries are mixed together. In this case, as far as I have heard, malt whisky from six distilleries have been used for this composition, and here comes the quite rare part, were blended together "at birth", that is at filling (!) The vatting has then be matured for nine years in a sherry butt with the number #SE02. It was filled in August 1994 and the whisky was then bottled in October 2013 and gave 619 bottles. 

A big thanks to Peter and Tommy for being so kind to share a sample during the Linköping Whisky Expo! For swedish fans this bottling is available here. Ok, let's try it and see if this is as good as SE-bottlings usually are...

Nose:

Almost some kind of rhum-y vibes, or rhum-raisin, in combo with vanilla ice-cream... hmm... also there is... apple-pie and vanilla cream. I'm thinking also of baked apples and pistachio crème (the filling in cinnamon buns). What is this, am I nosing some kind of dessert or fika?! : ) Also there is actually, when I nose really deep in the glass, some quite salty licorice infused with lemon, cool. Also red "ferrari bilar", light touches of swedish snus and finally white chocolate, no I'm not crazy it just a VERY interesting combination! Let's see how it tastes

Palate:

Starts of on something salty, then fast over to chocolate-chip-cookies and then swooosh, within a second off and away to something lemony, citrus peel. Straight down and warms my chest. Wow, that was a fast journey! It's to bad that once you've tasted a whisky you can never go back to your first experience of not having tried it, you can never forget you first impression... Mmm, the aftertaste bids creamy but quite dry vanilla, the rhum-raisin is there and somehow the pistachio crème too, sugary finish. This whisky was a completely new experience for me, very interesting and exciting combinations! You've done it againg guys! Slainthé

The Teeling Whiskey Co. 'Hybrid'

(Originally posted december 20th 2012 to the Connemara Clan facebook-group)

Here is my tastingnote of the Hybrid whisk(e)y which is the first bottling from 'The Teeling Whiskey Co.'

As some of you might know the Hybrid is an older version of a whisk(e)y called Celtic nations which was a mix of 85% Bruichladdich malt and 15% peated Cooley malt at the age of 10yo. The Hybrid is sort of an "older brother" consisting of the same composition married together for an additional 8 years, in other words now being 18yo. Limited to only 1200 bottles and at cask strength of 44,1% Abv

Colour: Bright and golden

Nose:

Ligthly peated in style, fruity aromas, mostly towards citrus or sort of zesty, after it has rested for a while in the glass the whisk(e)y delivers whiffs of lemonpeel that flows though the room of itself. Also quite evident traces of pear and a somewhat strange and "thin" sweetliqourice in the center of the nose... in some elements it resembles Connemara! Sure has some Connemara (peated Cooley) in it : ) Also, something that reminds me just a little bit of the Cooley Poitin mixed with caraway/cumin; the Hybrid has a tale that says "Swedish schnapps"

Palate:

Wow! Sure has alot of peat on the palate, of course I knew beforehand that it was to be peated but the nose did not reveal that it would be this peated, almost a little peat monster actually! In taste it actually resembles a Laphroaig (say the 10yo but around 46% if there was to be such an expression)... Moving on, alot of peat in the initial taste, some vanilla and honey sweetness and also some rawsugar, but then it's moving on quite quickly indeed to a somewhat dry-/bitter- (herby?) taste. The dryness stays in your mouth for a long time. Quite soothy (sort of ashes) but complemented by a coastal saltyness. This whisk(e)y is rather powerful albeit it's "low" cask strength. this is a really good value whisk(e)y, especially when concidering it's a once-off and very limited!

A big thanks to Jack and Alex of The Teeling Whiskey Co. for giving me the opportunity to try this rare whisk(e)y