Whisky from...? Sweden 2

If you start thinking about Swedish whisky it's usually Mackmyra that comes to mind first but there are a number of other distilleries - the most well known are High Coast (formerly known as Box before Compass Box got their lawyers involved) and the subject of this blog Smögen.

Smögen Whisky was founded on a farm near Hunnebostrand in 2009 by Pär Caldenby with it's first spirit flowing in 2010. They are know for experimenting with interesting cask finishes.

The distillery has a 900 litre wash still, a 600 litre spirit still, and a production capacity of 35,000 litres. It uses heavily-peated malt imported from Scotland to produce Islay-style smoky whisky in small batches with completely manual production and direct monitoring.

Photo: Allezzoomzoom

Barrique! is an interesting 7yo, a vatting of 4 European Oak barriques (225 litre casks) that has previously matured Bordeaux wine. Casks  4, 23, 24, and 25 were filled between September and December 2010 and then bottled at 60.3% in January 2018. 1685 bottles were filled.

Distillery notes: 

Optic grain and peat smoked to at least 45 ppm phenol content. Full-size former Sauternes wine barrels are not too common in the whiskey industry as they are not available in any large quantities and are expensive to buy. But properly handled they are of very high quality, and both the French oak and the sweet white wine give a distinct character to the whiskey, which matures fairly quickly in the barrel. The distillate character is there with its maltiness and peat smoke, but it is well integrated into an elegant basket of high ripe fruits with some tropical elements; the sweetness of the little wine left in the wood has made its clear and positive contribution.

My thoughts:

Appearance: .Reddy gold in the glass, swirls leave a hairline crack on the glass which takes it's time to bead up and fall as slow thin legs.

Nose:  Wow - huge thick red wine and peat smoke notes. - I wasn't expecting the peat to be so strong. The pair aren't really in harmony but seem to be fighting for attention - I thick the high ABV isn't helping but there isn't much else I can get from this - maybe a little sea breeze?

Palate: Thick and oily arrival, lots of spice and smoke. There's loads of berry fruit notes and a little milk chocolate. There's a strong maritime note too. The spice is huge - chilli and pepper burning  the mouth and a huge drying effect wanting you to reach for the water. But it's nice! The sherry and peat notes are much more in balance here - strawberry jam, blackberries and some dried fruit married with a thick curtain of meaty bbq smoke. Duge drying note as the liquid disappears.

Finish: Long smoky drying finish with a little red fruit and some peppery spice.

Overall: Maybe this could have done with some water - the nose was all over the place but once in the mouth the spice, smoke, salt and fruit were married together perfectly. Using peated barley rather than an ex-peated cask like so many distilleries use made a lot of difference.

Many thanks to @BlackCountryWS for the sample swap!

Geeky stuff:

Swedish Distilleries
Name	Founded	Location	Link
Agitator	???	Arboga	Link
Gammelstilla	2005	Torsåker	Link
High Coast	2010	Bjärtrå	Link
Mackmyra	1999	Gävle	Link
Norrtelje Brenneri	2001	Lohärad	Link
Smögen	2009	Hunnebostrand	Link
Spirit of Hven	2008	Hven	Link

If you know of any more - please let me know!