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| The full line up (bonus dram on the right) |
For February's tasting, we visited one of the newer whisky producing nations - Denmark. Club member Marc (
you can find him on Instagram) has family connections there, and took advantage of some recent visits to bring us some of the best of the growing Danish whisky scene.
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| Stauning El Clasico |
A lot of the bottles were 50cl so we had seven to work our way through rather than the usual six. But that wasn't the case for the opening dram, a full 70cl from the best known name in Danish distilling, Stauning.
El Clasico is a rye whisky aged in vermouth, aimed at creating a flavour a bit like a Manhattan cocktail. And it does this, more or less. Other tasting notes we picked out included custard tarts, with an overall bittersweet sense about it. Very distinctive and nice, it was £64 at an ABV of 45.7%.
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| Thy Spelt Rye |
Next we moved on to the Thy distillery, and a single distilled bottling called Spelt Rye, which featured 50% rye and 10% spelt flour along with the more regular 40% barley, all grown at their local farm.
Matured in virgin American white oak barrels, this had an interesting mixture of flavours. Bubblegum and a certain sweetness, mixed with a chemical sort of taste as well, "like thinners" as someone suggested. Liquorice was another shout. The official tasting notes suggested a lingering finish but we didn't get a clear sense of that, instead finding it a little on the short side. It's 47.9% but at £84 for 50cl, there would be better value bottlings on offer later in the evening.
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| Braunstein 12.2 |
On to dram number three and Braunstein, another family-run enterprise consisting of a micro brewery and distillery, along with a range of independent bottlings. We had the Library Collection 12.2 to try, a peated dram with a sherry finish (the picture of the empty bottle doesn't do justice to the dark colour of the actual liquid).
This packed a bit of a punch considering it was just 46%, with a real woody smoke. Water took some of the edge off, though. Generally we liked this one. £86, again for 50cl.
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| Mosgaard |
After a half-time break to recharge our beer glasses downstairs at the Britons Protection, we were back for a homeward run of four more Danish drams. Starting with Mosgaard, and their PX cask finish batch 8.
Aged in French oak and then the sherry, this smelt great. And it had lots of flavour on the palate too: some coffee, chocolate and apple, along with other citrus type notes. Fantastic, we thought. At £64 we agreed this was a "mad price for a three-year-old" but was undoubtedly amazing. It came in at 46.3%, and again it was just 50cl.
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| Isfjord |
Isfjord was next, a brand made at the Braunstein distillery from dram three, but using iced water from Greenland allowing it to call itself 'premium Arctic single malt'.
This again was from a sherry cask, and we got tasting notes including chocolate and raspberry. A honey-type sweetness along with creaminess, and raisins too. It's £73 (50cl) and 42%. Not bad but not the favourite for most from the night's line up.
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| Fary Lochan |
To Fary Lochan for whisky number six, a distillery that certainly sounds as if it ought to be in Scotland somewhere. We had a 6 year-old Moscatel finish to try, an expression called Batch 5.
There wasn't loads on the nose but a truly great taste. Juicy, fresh, with a definite flavour of green apples. Water brought this out even more: Granny Smiths all round. Arguably it didn't even taste all that much like whisky, and we spent some time discussing whether that really mattered. Certainly well worth trying, although at £120 it wouldn't exactly make an everyday drinker. It's 62% (although it seems to have sold out).
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| BBR Stauning |
For the final dram it was back to Stauning and a full 70cl bottle, this time courtesy of legendary indie Berry Bros. and Rudd. This was a 5 year-old, distilled back in 2017 and bottled last year, again with a Moscatel finish.
And it was great! Lucky number seven indeed. This was "awesome" all round from nose to palate, where the only tasting note I was able to write down was "thick jam". It's safe to say we all liked this one. We got it for £125 and it was 58.9%.
That brought us to the dram of the night voting, which produced a victory for the last whisky of the evening, the Berry Bros. Stauning. Tied for second were the Fary Lochan and the Mosgaard.
Thanks to all club members and guests for coming along, and to all at the Britons for hosting us - and especially to Marc for putting together such an excellent and well-curated showcase of Danish drams. Skol!
