My journey to Highland Park Distillery!

Friends and followers! As some of you might have understood from a post on my FB-page I recently experienced a fantastic journey to the Orkney Islands. More precisely the destination was the little town of Kirkwall (sort of the capitol of the Orkney Islands) and even more precisely: The Highland Park Distillery! But what was the background for this trip? How did it come about? Well, as you all know I’ve been working the whiskyfestivals and fairs for Edrington since 2012, mostly taking care of my favourite brands Connemara and Laphroaig. 

During the last night of this years festival in Gothenburg, Senior Brand Ambassador Martin Markvardsen and Dani, the Fair Coordinator of Edrington, shared the fantastic news to me and my fellow colleague Stefan, that they were both very happy with our contributions during the recent years and that they therefore wanted to show their appreciation. Hence, we were invited to see Orkney and the Highland Park Distillery partly as a ”Thank you!” and partly as a training. Perhaps you could even call it an education trip in order learn more about the distillery and the whisky being produced there. Now if you ask me, that’s simply a great way to say ”Thank you”! So, in this post I will share my journey, experiences, and some nice pictures with you my dear friends and followers. Oh, and further on in this post I also have the great privilege to share some exciting news of what the future holds… 

Sunday 24th of July

We had travelled from Stockholm to Amsterdam and from Amsterdam to Aberdeen. In Aberdeen we were lucky enough to enjoy some Highland Park 30yo! 

HP 30yo, what an amazing dram!

Then, in the early afternoon we found ourselves boarding the very small propeller airplane (30 seats) that was taking us the 30 minute ride or so to the Kirkwall Airport. The plane indeed turned out to be quite bumpy…  

Stefan to the left, SamuelWhisky to the right. Copyright belongs to Dani Skaff

Bumpy ride but Stefan seems fine about it all :)

Looking down on beautiful Orkney

We arrived safe and sound at the Kirkwall Airport!

Finally back on the ground! Copyright belongs to Dani Skaff

Martin met up with us as the airport. During our stay he was our ”personal guide”, sharing and knowing all that is worth to know about the Viking history of Orkney, as well as all there is to know about the past and present of Highland Park Distillery! Wow, what an honor! 

After checking in at the small and picturesque Orkney Hotel... 

The entrance

The view from my room!

we headed for the bar to have some lunch and a couple of pints. 

Having a peedie pint!

After that Martin took us all to see the great and beautiful St Magnus Cathedral situated in the very center of Kirkwall. 

The grand St Magnus cathedral!

The cathedral was built in honour of Magnus Erlendsson, earl of (half of) the Orkney Islands between 1108-1115. The building of the cathedral started in 1134 or in 1137 depending on which source one turns to. Anyways, why were we taken there to see the cathedral? What relation is there beetween the St Magnus Cathedral and the Highland Park Distillery? Well, as Martin tells us in this picture 

the ”churchman” Magnus Eunson, and more importantly the founder of Highland Park Distillery, hid away some stocks of his maturing whisky from the exciseman. Where he hid it? Below the church floor of course! 

Inside the cathedral, wow! Copyright belongs to Dani Skaff

During the service in the church (!) Eunson took notes of who of the people in the congregation that wanted to order some of his whisky. What a daredevil! 

Beautiful right?!

We ended the day by having dinner at a really nice restaurant, as a starter I had some local beer and deep fried Haggis, served with what seemed to be a mango chutney, yummie!

The best Haggis I've ever had! 

Monday 25th of July

After a full scottish breakfast at the hotel (yummie again!), Martin took us to see the moor/bog where they cut the peat used in the kiln for drying the malted barley. The name of the moor is Hobbister.

Hobbister peat! Copyright belongs to Dani Skaff

Martin points out to the boundaries of Hobbister. Copyright belongs to Dani Skaff

"Some" drying peat

Seeing the moor and its surroundings was a great experience, I now understand a lot more about peat and its different layers

The peat layers from above is "Fogt", "Yarphie" and finally "Moss"

I’ve also experienced what makes the peat of Highland Park so special. That’s right, Hobbister is litterally covered in heather, and the peat is full of it as well. This is what makes Highland Park whisky smell and taste so beautiful of heather honey!

Lots and lots of heather on Hobbister!

Old Man of Hoy?! Nope, it’s ”The Young Man of Hobbister”

The four Young Men of Hobbister. Copyright belongs to Dani Skaff

After seeing Hobbister we went to see ’The round church of Bu’ 

Bu!

and more importantly we visited the great ’Ring of Brodgar’! Wow what a mysterious and beautiful place! 

Some of the mighty stones at the 'Ring of Brodgar'! Copyright belongs to Dani Skaff

SamuelWhisky next to one of the "small" stones...

Before leaving we where lucky enough to taste Earl Magnus Edition no.1

Earl Magnus Edition no.1. 15yo at 52,6% ABV

After some lunch and a pint we finally headed to the Highland Park Distillery! 

SamuelWhisky at the gates of Highland Park Distillery. Copyright belongs to Dani Skaff

While we visited the distillery there was a kind of ”silent season” at the distillery, or rather  ”refurbishment season” lasting for three whole weeks. This means there was no production going on. However, that did in no way stop Martin from showing us just about everything worth seeing at the distillery! 

(Unmalted) barley

SamuelWhisky turning some barley at the malting floor. Copyright belongs to Dani Skaff 

Entrance to the new Kiln, one of two kilns at the distillery

SamuelWhisky standing by the new Kiln. In this kiln the peating goes on for 20-24 hours resulting in a peating level of around 45ppm. This peated malt is then mixed with unpeated malt resulting in a peating level of 12-15ppm. Copyright belongs to Dani Skaff

One of the two kiln dryingfloors (just above the kiln). 

We went all the way up the rooftop and stood just beside the two pagoda-chimneys, it was a bit windy... An absolutely amazing view from up there! Copyright belongs to Dani Skaff

Mashtun

Martin standing beside one of the washbacks. This is where the yeast converts the sugar to alcohol, reaching about 7% ABV. The fermentation goes on for about 55-79 hours. 

SamuelWhisky in the Still House. The two wash stills bring the ABV to 28% and the two spirit stills brings it all the way up to between 69-71% ABV! Copyright belongs to Dani Skaff.

The entrance to warehouse no.3

Unfortunately we were not allowed to take any photos in there, but it had the most wonderful scents!

The cask filling room, completely empty for another three weeks...

The cask filling station

At the end of the distillery tour we had the opportunity to smell an empty bourbon cask and then an empty sherry cask. 

Mmm! Wonderful scents! Copyright belongs to Dani Skaff

Right next to those casks stood this beautiful cask marked ”1968”, which we also had the opportunity to sniff, unfortunately is was empty...

Laid down in 1968, emptied in 2016

I was so sad cause I really wanted to taste something during our visit that was drawn straight from cask. When we had sniffed the 1968 cask, Martin asked with a secretive voice: ”Do you wanna taste it?!”. To our joy and surprise he had actually prepared a peedie dram for each  one of us from this very cask. The ABV was 40,1% so as you can all understand it had been bottled in order to prevent it from going below 40% It was an amazing experience to taste a single cask HP at such a prominent age as 48yo! The whisky was drawn in the month of april 2016 from an american white oak hogshead that had previously contained oloroso sherry! I think you can all imagine the feeling... As with all of Highland Parks sherry casks this one was built and filled in Jerez

Yay! 48yo SC HP!

After the tour we were invited to Martins office for an absolutely amazing tasting.

SamuelWhisky is ready to have a taste! 

As you can see from the pictures below we sure enjoyed some very, very special bottlings!

The line-up! Copyright belongs to Dani Skaff.

 And, in order to get some perspective, we started of with some Highland Park New Make. Oh no, not the 50% version available in the shop, instead Martin had managed to source some of their new make at filling strength (69,8%)! Wow! After that we enjoyed and old version of the 12yo, bottled in 1998 (The average age in this version is 18 years old but it goes all the way up to 25 years old). Then we tasted the core range 18yo that is produced today, followed by the core range 21yo, also produced today. Then we were happily surprised to see the Bicentenary 21yo! A great dram indeed

Bicentenary vintage 1977!

After that we moved on to a very special whisky: A distillery exclusive hand filled bottling, just over 600 bottles, a 13yo at vatting strength 53,3% ABV, matured in american oak sherry hogsheads. Let me tell you people, this was a great one and so I am glad that I decided to buy a bottle to bring with me home. 

Nice and wow! 

And finally, the tasting ended to our joy with the Vintage 1970, at 40 years old! 

Tuesday 26th of July

We started off our last day with visiting and having a tour at the Scapa Distillery (but that is another story). After that we drove on to see the very kind Mr. Ian Moir. As some of you know Ian is the Orkney-based ambassador of the fanclub Highland Park Appreciation Society. Ian generously invited us to the bar he built by himself from scratch, and very, very genrously he also let us enjoy a couple of drams of our own choosing. 

Dani, Ian, Martin and Stefan

After that, we visited a place that I had really longed for. Yes, the Cliffs of Yesnaby! I have only experienced something similar once before, namely the Cliffs of Moher in Ireland. But the Cliffs of Yesnaby was so much greater and in some ways grander with its rugged, mysterious and boasting surroundings. 

The Cliffs of Yesnaby! Copyright belongs to Dani Skaff

Simply incredible!

The experience was even more amazing when Martin pulled out a bottle of the very recent bottling ”The Battle of Jutland” 11yo, at 64% ABV! Wow! 

"The Battle of Jutland", sadly sold out by now...

As you can see from this video an absolutely amazing experience and feeling to try this fantastic whisky at such a fantastic place! Then and there I felt so alive!

Sláinte and Skål! Copyright belongs to Dani Skaff

After this great experience and some lunch on the move, we headed for the last stop of our journey, which was the Swannay Brewery!. Truly a microbrewery. Their founder and headbrewer Rob Hill is a fantastically interesting and eccentric man and here his work has rightly been described as "Genuinely at the intersection of art, science and madness". Rob welcomed us with open arms and basically showed us the entire brewery inside out. 

Rob Hill :)

Beautiful brewery!

The best part of our visit to his brewery was when he ran off into one of the rooms in the brewery, asked us to follow him and then let us sniff all kinds of more or less extreme hops of all varieties. The most extreme had a nose reminiscent of curry and cheese! Before leaving we of course visited their shop to pick up some of their fantastic beer. 

The shop at Swannay Brewery

In the bar at the hotel we had already tried some of their beer, and since we already knew they produce some really good stuff we could kind of just buy anything, knowing they would all be great! Oh, by the way, Swannay Brewery and Highland Park Distillery will soon start with beer and whisky paring, so if you are headed to the distillery, don’t miss out on some great beer and some great whisky in combo!

Soooo happy! 

Well friends, that’s about my whole story about this journey to Highland Park Distillery, and if we meet at some of the festivals in Sweden I am very happy to tell you some more about it if you feel like it! Oh yes, I almost forgot! I have som very exclusive news to share exclusively with you my friends and followers: During our visit to Highland Park Distilery it came to my understanding that later this year, there will be two (maybe three) Highland Park single cask bottlings launched in Sweden, that have been chosen exclusively for the Swedish fans of Highland Park! Who more than me longs for that moment?!

Anyways, big, big thanks to Martin and Dani for inviting me and Stefan to visit Orkney and Highland Park Distillery. An absolutely amazing experience… Also a special thanks to Johanna at Edrington! It was amazing and I can’t wait to see you soon and work with you all again! Sláinte! 

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

Highland Park – ICE 17 yo 53,9% ABV

Friends and followers! Two months ago (the 10th of march) I was very fortunate and lucky to attend the release event of Highland Park ICE at the Edrington head quarters in Stockholm, Sweden! I think you can all imagine that I was pretty excited to be one of the first people in Sweden, in the good company of other bloggers, whiskywriters, connoisseurs and guests, to try a new whisky from Highland Park Distillery!

When we entered the tasting room a beautifully decorated table met our eyes. 

Especially cool was, standing at the back of the room, the visually attracting BIG cube of Ice, with an actual bottle of the new whisky frozen in to it, cool right?! 

ICE in ice :)

I soon understood that we were not only going to taste ICE but also five additional whiskies from HP. The line-up consisted of 12yo, Dark Origins, 18yo, Harald, and Sigurd (followed by ICE). In my opinion, Dark Origins definitely kicked the living crap out of the other four first whiskies. (ICE did the same with the entire line-up!). 

the line-up of the evening!

Guiding us through the tasting and the release event, of course was non other than the very entertaining and highly knowledgeable Senior Brand Ambassador, Martin Markvardsen. 

Martin Markvardsen

The info on ICE that I received during the tasting was as follows: 

Yes, it has an age statement; 17yo, but moving all the way up 19yo. The strenght is 53,9% ABV (vatting strength rather than cask strength). ICE has been fully matured in firstfill bourbon casks, namely 250 litre hogsheads that has been rebuilt from 200 litre barrels. AND (!) the ends/lids of the casks consist of new american oak. Here in Sweden, 1400 bottles (out of 30k worldwide) will be released this Thursday at the swedish state monopoly (direct link here). It will cost 1999kr (approximately 200 euros). 

Martin and I after the tasting

Those of you following my facebook-page, know that I at the night of the event posted my quite brief tasting notes. Since I received a little goodiebag contatining a sample of ICE

and given the fact that some time has passed and the release here in Sweden is getting closer, I decided that it was time to do a second, in-depth tasting and share these impressions with you dear friends and followers. So here we go!

Nose:

The thing that first appears on the nose is that ICE is very, very, very rich on fruits. First and foremost ”tropical” fruits, in this case being peach (peach jellycandy), passionfruit, lemon and lime, even lemon jucie and/or lemon curd. We also have some really floral stuff. There’s also red apples and a slight touch of very ripe pear. Below the fruity layer is quite a big whiff of vanilla, light honey and also some almond paste. I would’nt say that there is much peat though, if there is peat in there, i’d say it’s presenting itself as something quite distant/fleeing, maybe moving towards leaves and bog, the early stages of autumn… very intriguing nose, a great experience just to nose this one in fact… (mmm, dreaming away…). But, I have to taste it of course!

Palate:

Begins very sugar-y-sweet, fruity (peaches and overripe banana) and vanilla for less than a second. Then everything indeed does explode! First into big, big, almond paste, nutty-ness (or rather ”almond-ness”), then very quickly comes some really green and bold herbs, and finally, what I’ve been waiting for, the PEAT! A very dry peat, drawing on gunpowder, peatbog, a medium big body/base. It really fills up your mouth. There is quite a lot of a ”strong” and powerful alcohol character in this phase of the palate, very mature/grown up, wow! In the aftertaste we have milk chocolate, warm vanilla and slight traces of coffee. Also, my mouth is watering although everthing is very dry towards the end…

an actual bottle of ICE!

To sum up: 

The nose does not at all reveal the power that is about to hit you on the palate! The explosion of tastes on the palate kind of sneeks up on you. All in all a really interesting dram that shows two very, very different sides of what Highland Park is or can be all about! A great dram for sure! Big thanks to Martin and to the nice people at Edrington for inviting me to attend this release event, and for the goodie bag! 

fellow blogger David (Tjeders Whisky), myself,
Emma from swedish whisky magazine "Allt om Whisky", and Martin

Copyright © and All Rights Reserved on all tasting notes 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@gmail.com

copyright of this pic belongs to Highland Park

Svenska Eldvatten – Bruichladdich 2006 9yo single fresh ex-oloroso sherry hogshead no. 1339!

now isn't that an incredible color?! 

Friends and followers! Once again I am very happy to be able to bring you my impressions of a coming release from swedish independent bottler "Svenska Eldvatten" (Swedish Firewater). This time it's the third release in their anniversary-series with which they are celebrating their first five years! As I've shared with you before my dear friends and followers, every release in the series has a very special and exclusive label showing a motif painted by the well-known artist/painter and whisky-aficionado alike, Petri Jäsperi. 

This third release was distilled at Bruichladdich Distillery in july 2006 and bottled in january 2016 at 59,9% ABV. The whisky has been matured in fresh ex-oloroso sherry hogshead number 1339, and the cask gave 282 bottles out of which 250 will be released tomorrow at 10 o'clock. People in Sweden can order this bottling by following the instructions given here. Ok, let's see what we they've chosen this time! 

  

Nose:

Absolutely enormous and gigantic whiffs of dried figs is the first thing that springs to mind! Or rather, it really is there, there’s simply no way to not notice it or pick it up! I’ve never felt this much dried fig before! There’s also GREAT amounts of vanilla and dark raisins. Dark milk chocolate, coconut, rhum-raisin filled pralines, overripe banana, dark dark dark rhum (almost Diplomatico-style), there’s even something cognac-esque going on here, the list goes on and on… To imagine what this whisky is like, take everything you think of when you think of a heavily sherrymatured whisky, now multiply that at least four times! I’m not kidding! It’s so big. The intereseting thing with this incredibly big sherrynose is that it’s not too much, and it’s not in any way nasty, soo incredibly soft and well-balance. It’s soft on everything, especially the figs, the vanilla and the raisins. In the very top layer is something like lime and brown dark raw-sugar… that’s been covered in sugar ☺ So far, I have’nt fealt any peat at all, let’s se if there's any on the palate!

Palate:

I did not at all expect this! Wow! Bold and very intense, in fact not at all as soft as the nose, this truly is a sherry bomb, with an emphasis on bomb! Starts of with a very, very sweet core or center-flavour, raw-sugar-sweet, mixed up with something very citric. Surrounding all of that is something instantly dry and nutty, something like a sugar coated dough of almond paste with cut-up pieces of dried figs in it. Yes, very, very bold and dry, not so much vanilla though, rather dark-brown fudge. There’s actually also coffee in there, and definitely something resembling the rhum-raisin filled pralines that was on the nose… there is also cocoa and even some desiccated coconut… But the main thing here is and explosion of very DARK sherry! And what about the peat?! Well it’s barely there actually. If it is there it’s in the aftertaste, but just traces of peat (not smoke). Anyways, the aftertaste goes on and on and on and… I think you get the picture… 

To sum up:

I’ve never felt this much sherry-influence before in a whisky, at least not this intence, this must’ve really been a really fresh sherry hogshead indeed. The guys at Svenska Eldvatten sure knows how to pick ’em, impressive work! Big thanks for the opportunity fellas! Sláinte! 

Please make sure to follow my FB-page by going here, and my twitter-page by going here. Copyright © and All Rights Reserved on all tasting notes 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@gmail.com

all rights reserved/copyright belongs to Svenska Eldvatten

Svenska Eldvatten – Wheskykôrka 2016 6yo first fill Single Pedro Ximenez Hogshead 57,3% ABV

Friends and followers! This thursday (the 21st of April), people living in Sweden will be able to order the latest release from independent bottler Svenska Eldvatten ("Swedish Firewater"). The whisky will be available from 10 o'clock following this link.

This time around it's the third release in their series of bottlings called "Wheskykôrka". Now, as you might remember the name Wheskykôrka is a play with words of a famous Gothenburg seafood market called Feskekôrka (Fish-church) thus being modified into slightly west-coast dialect resulting in Wheskykôrka simply meaning Whiskychurch.

And of course I am very happy and thankful that Peter and Tommy has given me the opportunity to try the whisky before its release! On the facebook-page of Svenska Eldvatten they describe this third bottling in the following way (freely translated from swedish):

"Very smoky/peated and matured in a PX-sherry hogshead [250 litre] makes this bottling stand out very much from the previous editions of Wheskykôrka. Also, the two previous bottlings have been produced at Bunnahabhain, but this time around the whisky comes from another big distillery on Islay... Wheskykôrka 2016 was distilled in march 2009 and in november 2015 we bottled 246 bottles at a cask strenght of 57,3% ABV"

That being said, this is to be understood as a secret malt or as we say, a "bastard" malt! Exciting, right?! Ok, let's see what's on the nose!

cask sample of Wheskykôrka 2016

Nose:

Very, very peaty! The first thing that comes to mind besides the peaty-ness is something like band aid or plaster, meaning very medicinal. The peaty-ness also includes things like big whiffs of rubber, or even burnt rubber. Underneath that layer is something like smoked vanilla-chocolate in combination with sweet liquorice and pipe-tobacco. There is black pepper, some different herbs that seems impossible to pin down, and also something reminding me slightly of dark honey… wow, this is complex stuff indeed. But let me tell you people, it’s really hard to go beneath the top layer of peaty-ness, the peat covers almost all the other things on the nose… ok, let’s have a sip shall we?!

Palate:

Ooh! Very peaty indeed! In fact, big fat smoke in combination with a sugar- and citric-sweetness, at least for the first 2-3 seconds but then instantly a quite extreme salty-ness takes over, wow, that was quick! Once I’ve swallowed, back comes that enormous peat, or rather medicinal rubber smoke, and takes over. This is powerful and warming stuff! A huge dryness dominates everything in the aftertaste, giving in to the herbs and the black pepper… it’s almost like my mouth is filled with smoke from a chocolat-y cigarillo, after a few seconds my mouth starts to water immensly… slight, slight touches of honey in the distant… this was a really interesting experience, a real beast!

To sum-up:

The agressive-ness surely is related to the age, the fact that the whisky is not so old, but let me say that I really don not experience the whisky as being ”too young” or immature, rather just BIG. Also I’ve never really felt or experienced PX-maturation expressing itself like this before. In fact, it's very brutal in style!

Please make sure also to follow my FB-page by going here, and my twitter-page by going here. Copyright © and All Rights Reserved on all tasting notes 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@gmail.com

picture/copyright belongs to Svenska Eldvatten

Swedish whisky from Hven – Megrez 45% ABV

Friends and followers! Once again I've been sent a nice package from the nice people of the swedish Island distillery Hven! This time it contained their latest whisky "Megrez" (one of the stars in the constellation "The Big Dipper"). Megrez was released about a month ago and now I finally have time to review it! 

The info regarding maturation etcetera that I have received from the distillery is the following: 

"The Base in Megrez is 5% Chocolate malt, 40% Peated malt [26ppm] and 55% Pilsner malt. The distillate has matured on 8,4% French Petraea, 33,4% French Robur and 58,2% American Muehlenbergii. The whisky has had a finish on Spanish Quercus Robur. These 500L marrying casks have previously held Pedro Ximénez Sherry... (...) This whisky is bottled at site of the distillery holding 45 vol%, no carbon- or chill filtering, no colour or other additives. It is organic certified and natural, as should be. Every bottle is individually numbered and controlled before being waxed by hand"

Sounds great right?! Ok, let's see what we have here! 

Nose:

When nosing on a distance of say 5 centimetres from my nose I pick up a sweet kind of brown sugary nose with really interesting hints of iron or some other kind of metal… I also pick up something like weak and refrigirator cold coffe, touches of milk chocolate mixed with that iron thing again. With the nose in the glass I feel a soft peat, dried peach, vanilla in the background and leather in the very distant. There is also something wine-ish, or port-ish, moving towards an oloroso-esque nose. Nosing deeply and even closer I feel something a bit, not really sour but, citric in combo with that iron thing again, hmm, interesting with that iron thing, I’ve never really felt that before… In general, the nose is medium dark in style, quite fruity (peach) and medium peat.

Palate:

Sooo incredibly smoooooth! Wow… Very much on brown sugar, soft vanilla, overripe banana, whisky soaked dark raisins, and a slight but thick or forest-y kind of peaty-ness… also milk chocolate and in the distant that cold coffee thing is present. Taking a bigger sip the citric stuff shows itself for fractions of a second but quickly moves on into what might best be described as a very appealing ”malt-y character”… Taking an even bigger sip the aftertaste has a medium ”burn” to it that gives a bit of a fire-y charachter, nice!

To sum up:

People, if there was a price in the category ”Perfect balance”, tastewise, this whisky would definitely win the gold! This is a masterpice in balance, not meaning boring of course but perfect balance between all the elements in first and foremost the palate. The peat-yness is present to perfection, just enough peat to match the overall character, wow!

Big thanks to the nice people at Hven for the opportunity to try this beauty!

Please make sure also to follow my FB-page by going here, and my twitter-page by going here. Copyright © and All Rights Reserved on all tasting notes 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@gmail.com

Swedish Whisky from Smögen – Single Bordeaux Barrique 61,3% ABV

Friends and Followers! During the Linköping Whisky Expo I was very lucky to retrieve a sample of the coming release from the Swedish west coast distillery Smögen! The festival was in february and I have had the sample for quite some time (trying to balance between resisting to taste it and to publish my review in time for the release), so as you can all understand I am today very eager to taste the whisky! As you know by now, at Smögen they only produce peated whisky, and in this release they have used 40ppm malt. 

Being casked 100827 and bottled 160106, the whisky is 5 years (and 4 months) old. It has spent it's entire life in Single Bordeaux Cask 3/2010 (european oak 225 litres). At 61,3% ABV (natural cask strength), the cask gave 424 bottles out of which 300 bottles has been sent to the swedish state monopoly. The 300 bottles are ready to go on sale this thursday at 10 o'clock as a web-release. International buyers can find the products of Smögen Distillery here. 

Just now I wrote an e-mail to Pär Caldenby, the master distiller, asking how much time the Bordeaux-wine has spent in the barrique (simply meaning "cask"), before the spirit went in to it and this is what he replied (freely translated from swedish): 

"Usually barriques are used for 2-3 fillings, roughly 1-1,5 years per filling (a little bit longer for Sauternes-wine), so if I guess, around three years in total. There are no clues regarding this written on the cask ends besides an incomprehensible number/code" 

So my friends, the cask has had Bordeaux-wine in it for quite some time indeed, this should be a treat! But before I try let me just send out big thanks to Pär for the opportunity! Ok, let's see what we have here! 

Nose:

When opening the bottle and pouring some of the whisky in my glass I initially pick up very, very slight touches of baking yeast. Besides the somewhat expected sherry-esque/wine-ish stuff like sultana raisins, dark raisins and  liquid dark honey, I also pick up under-ripe pear (sliced), but most of all very generous whiffs of fullfat whipped cream, vanilla dryness and something like redwine liquorice. The vanilla in this whisky is quite special indeed, not really fudge-y but rather something like vanilla powder (the kind one uses when baking), so a very dry vanilla or austere if you know what I mean… when nosing I can almost feel how the vanilla dryness would feel in my mouth sort of. For me there is also very obvious stuff reminding me of chocolate/cocoa powder infused with vanilla, so all in all a quite bake-ish/dessert-ish style. I must say that there is actually a focus on vanilla rather than the sherry-esque/wine-ish stuff you might expect from a whisky that’s matured in this kind of cask. Now, I haven’t even written anything about the peat, I guess I didn’t event hink of it because it’s so extremely well integrated into the whole nose. If I would even try to compare this whisky with anything (nose-wise) I can only draw my mind to something like a heavily sherry matured and medium peated, Springbank of say the age 12-15yo, veeery good stuff! Ok, let’s have a sip!

Palate:

Wow! Soo much more peat on the palate than on the nose! Also, a beautiful and very intriguing red/pink style of flavour, yep, that’s it! when having the first sip and closing my eyes I saw a cloudy beautiful pink colour. Further on the palate it really does remind me of heavily sherry matured and medium peated Springbank, we have a very, very dry but mouthwatering style of sherry-esque/wine-ish style going on here people! And the dry vanilla is definitely there also on the palate, in combo with something as slightly bizzare (?) as smoked strawberry bubble gum and spruce shoots, hehe never had that before in a whisky! Moving on from that, I also happen to find something like ginger slowly moving up my nostrils, sounds weird but it does… The aftertaste is really warming my chest, a very more-ish peated aftertaste in combo with black pepper, epresso and something like gunpowder and/or fireworks

Anyways, to sum up: 

You might remember me raving on about how freakishly great the previous SC release from Smögen was (the Sauternes one), folks, this is if possible even better and I simply can’t believe this is only 5yo! Given the fact that this whisky has been matured in a full-size 225 litre barrel it’s f-ing amazing that it has reached this very mature state already, so don’t miss out when it’s launched, if I had the possibility I would definitely buy a whole case of this whisky! Sláinte! 

Please make sure also to follow my FB-page by going here, and my twitter-page by going here. Copyright © and All Rights Reserved on all tasting notes 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@gmail.com 

Ailsa Bay – 48,9% ABV

Friends and followers! A couple of weeks ago I was fortunate enough to be contacted by the nice people at the PR-firm Edelman Deportivo, working for the swedish drinks-distributor Nigab. They wanted to know if I would like to review their coming release of a whisky called Ailsa Bay, of course I wanted to, and so they sent me a sample, so big thanks for that!

Ailsa Bay was founded in 2007 and is produced at the distillery with the same name. It’s situated in the Lowlands, right beside the grain distillery Girvan. Both distilleries are owned by drinks giant William Grant and Sons. 

The whiskey is a peated (21ppm) NAS, and has been matured in bourbon casks from Hudson Whiskey. It’s bottled at 48,9% ABV. Ok, let’s see what we are dealing with!

Nose:

Seems very peaty and dry! Touches of newly grounded black pepper, also very ”green” in style. In the distant there are layers of citrus/lemon-y-ness, quite a big rubber-y-ness, something like unpacking collectors card from it’s package. Since this is most definitely matured in bourbon casks I thought I’d find something vanilla, but not really, maybe a tad vanilla below all the peat and the rubber-y-ness but that might be imagination/psychological… not really any traces of newmake which in my opinion is something good to lack in a whisky that’s probably quite young, the lack of newmake-scents might also be because of quite low strength. Anyways, definitely an interesting and promising nose that kind of reminds me of a young and peated anCnoc! Let’s have a sip 

Palate:

Hmm… cool stuff! The initial taste is very soft (for about half a second) but then the peat instantly takes over with actually quite a lot of the black pepper from the nose coming through! I also get a quite pepper-y feeling in general and something like salt liquorice taking over when the peat has gone away (which it does quite fast). Even if there’s not really a feeling of newmake on the nose it’s sort of there on the palate mixed up with something kind of vanilla-esque, so the ”young whisky”-style is quite well hidden because of the slightly bourbon-y stuff… Style and profile-wise, this is a quite interesting whisky indeed, but, the aftertaste is very short only lasting 2-3 seconds after swallowing. This probably happens due to age and because of a too low bottling strength, for my taste that is. Also, the aftertaste almost only consists of the feeling of black pepper… Really looking forward to trying the coming releases though! 

Please follow SamuelWhisky on my Zuckerberg-page by going here and my bird-page by going here. Copyright © and All Rights Reserved on all tasting notes 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 Sláinte!

Svenska Eldvatten – Bruichladdich 2004 11yo first fill single bourbon barrel

copyright belongs to Svenska Eldvatten

Friends and followers! As promised in my last post, I now bring you a tasting note of the second bottling in the anniversary-series celebrating the first five years of Svenska Eldvatten (”Swedish Firewater”) as independent bottlers! 

Every release in the series (as you can see from the picture to the left) has a very special and exclusive label showing a motif painted by the well-known artist/painter and whisky-afficionado Petri Jäsperi

This particular whisky was distilled at Bruichladdich Distillery in november 2004. It was put into barrel no.1407, a fresh Ex-Bourbon Barrel (that is to say first-fill) and then bottled in november 2015 (11 years old) resulting in 102 bottles at 59,2 % ABV. 

Peter and Tommy will bring this whisky (and the oloroso matured Laddie) to the Linköping whisky festival this weekend! It will be released at the swedish state monopoly and you will pick it up if you have 1295kr (circa 140 euros) in your wallet, or on your card ;) Ok, let’s have a taste! 

Nose:

At first holding the glass on a distance of say 15 centimetres from my nose, I pick up some very exotic fruits, more precisely slightly immature pineapple, yellow kiwi and pealed non-ripe slices of pear together with some carbonated elderflower soft drink. Also something a tad ”sweet and/or sour” mixed up with something creamy (dairy), together reminding me almost of a brie that’s been out of the fridge for a couple of hours… Moving closer to the glass I pick up loads  and loads of nutty-ness (yes of course I mean marzipan/almond paste). The creamy-/dairy-ness also reflects itself through something like white chocolate mousse. A very distant peaty-ness is also traceable, or maybe more moving on into a faded fire/ashy-ness? Trying to dig into that layer of scents I also pick up a slight touch of ground coffee and, wait for it, mint that strangely enough (given the age) mixed with raw-spirit. Ok fellas, a very complex and special nose on this one indeed, let’s have a taste! 

Palate:  

Oh wow! Lots and lots more peat on the palate than on the nose! Not really the ashy kind of peat that was on the nose but actually classic and very straight forward peat. Quite a medium-sweet centre in this dram, moving very much towards the pear and the brie from the nose. Then quickly moving on into a distinct woody-/cask-y-ness with lots and lots of the almond paste from the nose mixed up with something like herbal vanilla… sounds strange but tastes really good, and exciting if you know what I mean (?) In the aftertaste some lemonzest reveals itself in a very direct way, moving on into some bubbly-ness or a carbonated feeling. All in all a very creamy and nicely peated dram, I’ve never really tasted anything like it! 

Big thanks to Peter and Tommy for the oppurtunity! Please follow SamuelWhisky on my Zuckerberg-page by going here and my bird-page by going here. Copyright © and All Rights Reserved on all tasting notes 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 Sláinte!

copyright belongs to Svenska Eldvatten

Svenska Eldvatten – Bruichladdich 2006 9yo first fill single oloroso sherry hogshead

copyright belongs to Svenska Eldvatten 

Friends and followers! When working at the Örebro Beer & Whiskyfestival this november, I stopped by Peter and Tommy of the swedish independent bottler Svenska Eldvatten (”Swedish Firewater”) to see if they had any interesting news, and of course they did! Enthusiastically they shared info on their coming anniversary-series for this year, consisting of a number of bottlings celebrating their first five years as independent bottlers! 

Every release in the series (as you can see from the picture to the left) has a very special and exclusive label showing a motif painted by the well-known artist/painter Petri Jäseperi (well-known in the world of whisky that is). Please note that every bottling in this series will have it’s individual motif. 

The whisky that I ended up obtaining a sample from was single sherry hogshead no. 511 (first fill oloroso matured) Bruichladdich, 9yo. It was distilled in june 2006 and bottled in november 2015. Bottled at cask strength 60,2% ABV the hogshead gave 285 bottles. Sounds great right?! This particular whisky will have it’s premiere release at the Viking Line Cruise Whisky Festival starting tomorrow and lasting this weekend. According to the pricelist it will cost 879kr (around 90 euros). On the 1st of february it will be released at the swedish state monopoly. 

To the festival they will also bring an 11yo single bourbon cask Bruichladdich from 2004 (seen at the bottom of this post), that will also be available on the swedish state monopoly on the 1st of february. I am very lucky to be able to review also that release in a week or so, so please stay tuned!

Now, enough talking, let’s have a go at the sherrymatured one!

the label should say 2006/2015 of course :)

Nose:

Very, very dark sherrynotes! On the nose this one reminds me a lot of something like a mix of heavily sherrymatured Macallan and heavily sherrymatured Clynelish. The sherrynotes in this dram are very raisin-y, also very dried dates-y, and something like milchocolate with touches of oranges. In fact the sherry stuff is so heavy that I can barely get through it all! Trying really hard, I find some almond paste thats been absolutely soaked in oloroso, some heavy port wine and some definitely overripe pear, there is even a touch of cucumber water in there! (I’ve never nosed that before in a whisky…). There is also some very dark vanilla notes, not at all like vanilla fudge but rather something like vanilla pods simmering on the stove in whole fat cream, or like old style vanilla ice-cream, mmm… Well what about the peat? Isn’t this an Islay? People, the peat is very hard to pin down in this one! I do however find a slight, slight, slight touch of peat but it’s all mixed up with something quite citric. Well what about the strength? Isn’t it too strong on the nose? People, it doesn’t even strike me as being strong, feels like 50% ABV at the most. Anyways, summing up the nose, if you like sherry monsters, you will absolutely love nosing this whisky! Let’s see what’s on the palate! 

Palate:

Ooh! Starts of very classic sherrymatured with lots of dark raisins, dried dates and maybe even some figs. Touches of violet, there is even some sweetness from dark, dark, honey. Then the strength really hits me! BOOM! After the boom and a big whiff of the cask strenght we have some citric stuff mixed up with dark milk chocolate. There is evident notes of coffee, almost Rhum-esque in fact! Very interesting mixture of flavors! There is loads of vanilla, but still no real sign of pure peat, maybe the peat manifests itself as something like an earthy soft peatyness with elements of sweet licorice? But I wouldn’t really say I miss the peat cause this is a Great Dram with capital G and D. The dryness is over-medium, moving towards very dry in fact. In the aftertaste I actually pick up something like vanilla and cream infused black tea (!) It all ends with a very long aftertaste, fading out into something I can only descibe as raw-sugar or palm-sugar sweetness mixed up with dark raisins…

cask sample! 

In conclusion:

If you like heavily sherrymatured drams with just a touch of peat, you should definitely not miss this one! When it comes to the sherry influence versus the level of peat, I’d say that the sherry definietely dominates the peat. The only thing that comes to mind for a comparison is something like Bowmore Devils Cask but of course with very little peat. If I compare this release to previous heavlily sherrymatured releases from Svenska Eldvatten, say something like the Clynelish 1996 which I find to be way up there, I would rate this release as even better than that! So, big thanks and Sláinte to the guys at Svenska Eldvatten for a truly great dram! 

Please follow SamuelWhisky on my Zuckerberg-page by going here and my bird-page by going here. Copyright © and All Rights Reserved on all tasting notes 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 Sláinte!

copyright belongs to  Svenska Eldvatten