Whisky from...? Sweden 3

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 is probably High Coast (formerly known as Box before Compass Box got their lawyers involved).

They are still producing some great whisky in northern Sweden.

High Coast, founded in 2010, were once known as Box, inspired by the distillery’s location in a former wooden box factory power plant. Unfortunately Compass Box, which is part owned by huge multinational Bacardi, thought this name was too much like theirs so got their lawyers got involved. Poor little Box Distillery had to change their name.

They are located at 63°0' North just outside of the Arctic Circle but have a unique climate as described on their website:

"We gladly admit that we are at the absolute outskirts of the whisky world. Far from the motorways and far from the world’s whisky stores, but we are where we are because we know what the nature up here provides to us. It is not the northern nature in itself that makes our whisky special – even if the forests, expanses and the high clean air certainly do their part. We do not believe that there is any distillery in the world that has such large temperature variations in its warehouses as the High Coast Distillery."

"The temperature variations between summer and winter and between day and night are dramatic in Norrland. A cold winter can take the temperature to 30 degrees below zero and hot summer days it can be almost 70 degrees warmer. Whisky that matures in the large, unheated warehouses is exposed to the enormous forces of nature. During hot days, the pressure in the barrels increase, the whisky expands and penetrates deeper into the oak. Deep inside the barrel, the oak’s flavours are released, which come out when the temperature and pressure drop again. The temperature changes are ongoing, day and night. They accelerate parts of the maturation process and contribute to a unique flavour development."

The distillery notes for each of their whiskies are quite extensive:

Distillery notes: 

Hav is the Swedish word for Sea.

In the majestic landscape of a world heritage site, High Coast Distillery sits where the beautiful river Ångermanälven merges into the sea. Here, the river is just about to reach the coast and slowly disappear out into the world, just like our single malt whisky.

The message Hav brings to the world is an expression of oak, with a touch of spice and a little northern hardiness.

Hav consists of 76,82% unpeated whisky and 23,18% of peated whisky. 66,85% has matured in small casks of Hungarian and Swedish oak up to 5 months then transferred to Bourbon barrels for an average of 6,09 years. 30.84% has matured solely in Bourbon barrels and 2,67% has been finished in 40 liter Hungarian oak casks.

Hav contains no artificial colouring and is not chill-filtered.

200 liter Bourbon barrels (Quercus Alba), delivered empty direct from Kentucky

40 litre Swedish oak casks (Quercus Robur), made by Thorslundkagge

40 liter Hungarian oak (Quercus Petraea), made in Hungary

Until October 2014, our casks have matured in a damp warehouse, where they lost slightly more alcohol than expected. Since October 2014 until bottling, the casks have been maturing in a dry environment in warehouse number 3.

Ingredients:

Yeast: Fermentis Safwhisky M-1

Unpeated malt: Pilsner malt from Vikingmalt in Halmstad.

Peated malt: Pilsner malt from Castle Maltings in Belgien as well as peated malt from Scottish maltsters.

Peated to a phenolic level of 31 and 46ppm with peat from Scotland

Barely types: Henley, Sébastian, Rosalina, Scarlett, Quench, Tipple, Barke

Process water: From Bålsjön, filtered through sand and carbon filters

Cooling water: From Ångermanälven

Batch size: 1200 kg malt / 6300 liter wort

Average fermentation time: 80 hours in stainless steels washbacks.

Distilled between: 09/01/2012 – 12/12/2013

First Cut:

Unpeated spirit: 13 minutes head (foreshots)

Peated spirit: 30 minutes head (foreshots)

Second Cut:

Unpeated spirit: 67 % ABV (20°C)

Peated spirit: 60 % ABV (20°C)

Strength ABV (alcohol by volume): 48 % ABV

Age: 5,24 - 7,12 years (Average: 6,26 years)

Phenol content PPM: 0, 31, 46 ppm (Average: 11 ppm)

Cask: 40 liter Hungarian oak, 40 liter Swedish, 200 liter Bourbon barrels

Number of Bottles: 11 614 st

Bottle Size: 700 ml

Aroma: Fruity, Spicy, Cloves, Light Peat Reek, Nutmeg

Palate: Well balanced, Fruity, Spicy, Peat aroma

Finish: Oak, Cloves, Vanilla

My thoughts:

Appearance: mid gold in the glass, swirls cling as a thin line, bead up slowly and fall as slow thick legs.

Nose:  Gentle peat smoke, orchard and tropical fruit notes - apples, apricot, pineapple, mango. There's some meaty new make notes but they disappear with a little air.

Palate: Smooth buttery arrival, huge sweet fruit notes - stewed apples and pears smothered in vanilla custard, a little honey and toffee then the smoke comes in blanketing everything. The box suggests lightly peated but is comes across as much more. Then the spice kicks in - dry nutmeg and cinnamon - driven by the Hungarian Virgin Oak?

Finish: Lingering fruit and spice.

Overall: This is the first Box (sorry High Coast) whisky I've tried and I'm really impressed. I bought it at a huge discount for £25 on Amazon not really expecting much but it's a really nice dram, lovely fruit and smoke notes which you'd say were from Islay if tasted blind. It's young does show through a little on the nose but it's great on the palate.

Geeky stuff:

Swedish Distilleries
Name	Founded	Location	Link
Agitator	???	Arboga	Link
Gammelstilla	2005	Torsåker	Link
High Coast	2010	Bjärtrå	Link
Mackmyra	1999	Gävle	Link
Nordmarkens	2014	Årjäng	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!