Just a few Nordic whiskies


October 11, 2023

Just a few Nordic whiskies

Okay, this might just be an excuse to taste some brand new Smögens. But you never know what you'll stumble upon…

Smögen Distillery (Smögen)

Isle of Fiona 'Little Isle' (43%, OB, Nyborg, Denmark, bourbon, STR and Port, 2023)

It is organic. We've tried some 'Ardor' by Nyborg a few years ago and thought they were very good (84-85). Now this one's been heavily treated with wine a.k.a. turbo-casks, apparently, so let's not hope we'll find any proper distillery character. Colour: salmony (why?) Nose: rosé wine, really. Crushed raspberries, maize, grenadine, Red Bull, also brioche and cherry liqueur, Heering… Don't get me wrong, I find it pretty… Mouth: good, sweet, rather on blood oranges this time, Schweppes, cake, gingerbread… Typical STR. Finish: very sweet and fruity. Red berries and a little ginger. Stewed pears in the aftertaste. Comments: the thing is, distillers are not making this style only on the little Isle of Fiona, they're making it all around the world, and soon on the Moon and on Mars. But yeah, this globalised whisky is good and extremely sippable, no question about that.
SGP:731 - 79 points.

Teerenpeli 'SAVU' (43%, OB, Gently Peated, Finland, 2022)

80% ex-bourbon and 20% ex-PX, but we don't know for how long, do we. Colour: white wine. Nose: rather a feeling of pears and peaches smoked over beech wood smoke at first, then rather soft beers, hops, IPA and all that. A tiny candle burning in a corner. Easy, pleasant, balanced, elegant. Mouth: funny notes of cheeses at first (gouda, comté), then rather ashes, cranberry juice, nectarines and orange squash with some vanilla extracts inside. Something made by Starbucks, in short. Don't they finish their coffees, in a way? Finish: very pleasant, on smoked peaches shall we say, which cannot not make us think of some Ardmores. Comments: the 43% vol. work very well here, no need of any extra-watts. Very pleasant drop. By the way, I don't think they've been cutting corners, as so many distillers do these days, they distilled some peated malt indeed, they did not just pour some unpeated fillings into some ex-peater cask (a.k.a. the very fashionable poor man's way).
SGP:644 - 81 points.

Smögen 10 yo 2012/2023 (53.8%, OB, Sweden, Tawny Port finish, 1,420 bottles, 2023)

Smögen 10 yo 2012/2023 (53.8%, OB, Sweden, Tawny Port finish, 1,420 bottles, 2023)
I know, this is a finishing too, but it is Smögen (what?) and what's more, they've been distilling some heavily peated Optic barley. Colour: golden (not pink). Nose: pine-smoked bacon, then more gouda and some wild leek, pink grapefruits, a little tequila, genever, lemongrass, ginseng… Boy is this intriguing at this stage. With water: cherries fallen on the ground, some metal polish, baker's yeast, leaves and leaven… Mouth (neat): pepper, smoke and cherries, For me, we're flirting a bit with the boundaries, but just like in rugby, it's around the edges that the game becomes interesting, right? With water: more citrus, oranges, pink grapefruits, some pepper… Finish: same flavours. Pretty long. Comments: of course I largely prefer Smögen and any other top-tier distillery au naturel, but this sure isn't half-bad.
SGP:656 - 83 points.

Smögen 9 yo 2014/2023 (59.6%, OB, Sweden, for Kirsch Import & Wu Dram Clan, 1st fill bourbon barrel, cask #9)

Made with heavily peated Concerto barley this time. Colour: white wine. Nose: pure crystalline peat and a little lemon and vanilla. And fresh bread as well as green bananas and pancakes. As we say, it's down to the millimetre. With water: chalkier, with even some plaster and certainly crushed slate. Mouth (neat): funny how it reminds me of ex-bourbon Chichibu and Kornog. No? Pure lemons, pure peppery peat, slight vanilla, high horological precision. Sorry, do you say 'distillatory precision'? With water: it got even better, with vine peaches and pink grapefruits popping out, plus hops and Szechuan pepper. Finish: long, ultra-clean, fruitier yet, with some maracuja joining the dance. Comments: immaculate beauty. We kept this short.
SGP:666 - 90 points.

Down south by a few miles, for a last one…

Millstone 25 yo 1996/2022 (44.92%, OB, Netherlands, for Canada, oloroso sherry cask, 244 bottles)

Hardly a Nordic country, but there. I mean, Holland, not Canada. And we know what's gonna happen, do we not… Colour: dark amber. Nose: prune juice and umeshu, vieille prune, very old PX (yep I've noticed this was oloroso), fig wine, heavy honeys, Parma ham, drop of tar liqueur, drop of green chartreuse, bits of chocolate and marzipan (Mozart Kugeln), old Armagnac, roasted pecans, pine resin… All right, this is just insane. So many scents, not a single flaw and nothing that would be even remotely out of place. Mouth: what? Black raisins, meat and wine reduction, more prune wine, very heavy pinot noir, gravy, malt extracts, cherry liqueur… etc etc etc. Finish: very long, curiously fresh, never cloying or jammed, but really loaded with prunes and brown sauces. Stunning vivid citrus in the aftertaste, like in an old Graves. Comments: ah, those 1996s. Stunning work Millstone/Zuidam, so early at the forefront of pre-Brexit (and post-Brexit) European whiskies!
SGP:762 - 91 points.

(Thank you, Andy and Sebastian)