Whisky from....? Iceland

Next in our series on Whisky from...? is Iceland

I, like you, would have found it really difficult to name a distillery in Iceland but there is one!

Located just south of Iceland's capital Reykjavík, Eimverk distillery was founded by three brothers from Thorkelsson family in 2009. Having no word for distillery in Icelandic they came up with a good alternative: 'Eim' is short for distilling and 'verk' means ‘a job being done’.



Their whisky is named after Hrafna-Flóki Vilgerðarson, one of the first viking explorers of Iceland. Flóki uses locally grown barley, Icelandic tap water with has been naturally filtered over layers of volcanic rock and is matured in new American oak barrels.

This particular dram is labelled as a "young malt", it's actually only around 2 years old, so wouldn't be classed as whisky in Scotland, but nevertheless let's give it a try!

FlókiYoung Malt at 47%

Distillery notes: Flóki is a complex and unique malt with a blend of characteristics you´d expect in Bourbon, Irish Whisky and Scottish Highland Whiskeys matured in charred American oak casks and bottled at 47%

My thoughts:

Appearance: Dark gold in the glass, gravity defying swirls eventually fall as slow fat legs. 

Nose: Wow - that's different..... very musty, doughy, a hint of smoke maybe? A little time in the glass reveals tyre rubber and green herbs. Very strange... 

Palate: Most of the nasal notes flow through to the palate - initially it's sweet and fruity but then the musty doughy notes come through. This reminds me a little of the Maple Bacon whisky that @WhiskynStuff tried to poison me with.... Persevering offers some orchard fruit and a citrus sourness. 

Finish: It's the finish which kills this for me - very bitter /sour note before a lingering sweaty sock note. 

Overall: OK, they are a little different up there in Iceland and this is their first go at making whisky... I know it's dark a lot of the time so maybe they just bottled the wrong cask? It is called young but I think this is far too young, it's needs some more time in a cask to get rid of the bitterness. It's not as bad as the Pig whisky but it's not ready for enjoying just yet. I look forward to trying something a little older in the future.

Thanks(?) to @thedramble for the sample swap!