New release from Fary Lochan

Fary Lochan Forår Batch 2 
47%

or

When a whisky distillery moves beyond "promising"

With the first of spring hitting us Fary Lochan is releasing their second "Spring" version of their malt whisky. Forår is danish for spring

"Forår" means Spring so this should be over

I really like the nose of this whisky. It's light, delicate and very moreish. Here are my tasting notes


Colour: Pale yellow

Nose is delicate malty, with notes of vanilla, honey and lemon pudding. Behind there is a faint note of the signature Fary Lochan nettle smoke. In a nutshell, this is lemon nettles.

Palate: A light viscous spirit with an earthy touch. Nutty and malty. A crisp freshness is added with the light smokiness and it all finishes out with notes of lemon and green apples.


Fary Lochan is still maturing and this is their oldest expression to date. the whisky is still not 5 years old and the youth is not very obvious in this bottling but there is a faint hotness to the palate. The minimum age for whisky to be bottles is 3 years old and with an increasing stock of whisky maturing it seems that Fary Lochan can go out and pick something good. This is my favourite danish whisky to date. Particular the fantastic nose is the reason for this.

Rating 85/100

Thanks to Fary Lochan for the sample

(Photo stolen from Fary Lochan fb-page)

The state of whisky made in Denmark - part 9

Fary Lochan
Cask sample 51.3%
3yo quartercasks + 2 month sherryfinish

Fary Lochan Wash Still

Nose : Laidback sherrynotes, vanilladominated, hints of citrus and oranges, a faint spicyness

Palate : The nose is quite laidback, the palate surprises with more intensity. Creamy, oily and fullbodied. Quite surprising for such a young whisky. The giveaway is the tasting sensation on the front of your tongue, which is typical for younger whiskies. The palate follows the nose, a creamy vanillaed mouthfeel and I get more citrus notes, orange is the dominating citrusflavour. Delicious

Finish : short to medium, again on the front of your palate

Rating 88/100

Fary Lochan hasn't bottled any whisky yet!! This is a feelgood whisky and I just want to pour more.

The state of whisky made in Denmark - part 8

Braunstein e:2
62.3%

First peated whisky bottled by Braunstein. This was sold as an empty bottle and a wooden box around the time the cask was filled and a certificate with the privilege of waiting 3 years for your whisky. The price was 2000 Dkr which is around 230£. You can still buy it for 5000 Dkr today!

Nose : Not much, faint sourness and a little peat. Cabbage - The more I dvelve into the nose the worse it gets

Palate: A little nuttyness. Not much peat. A light spirit, reminds me more of a solvent than whisky

Finish : a burn and more nuts

Well, the whisky is not as bad as the review reads

Rating 59/100

Comment : I don't think it's a good idea to predecide a cask to be bottled at a certain date when filled. Here is my suggestion on how to do things:

1. Fill cask

2. Monitor cask

3. Bottle when ready

But what do I know, I don't have a distillery

The state of whisky made in Denmark - part 7

Braunstein 13:1
46%, ex-oloroso matured 5yo

Nose : Plesant fruity. A mix of dried fruits and fresh berries

Palate: Very nice, not the most robust or fullbodied sherry whisky, it's a light style. A lot of fresh red berries. It's very fruity. Cinnamons, licorice

Finish : Fades away fast

Rating 83/100

The best Braunstein I have tasted. A very light spirit with a fragile body which is very well integrated into the Oloroso

The state of whisky made in Denmark - part 6

Nyborg Distillery cask sample, 3yo Laphroaig finish 69%
Distilled 2010, sample drawn 8 April 2013

Cask sample for presentation at the danish whiskyfair 2013

I assume this has been finished in a cask that previously held Laphroaig

Nose : Apples, small casks woodyness

Palate : quite woody and peaty and also a lot more full bodied than the pure ex-bourbon. As with the other 2 samples I have the sense of a young, drinkable and very appled whisky. Maybe Nyborg distillery is trying to target Iphone users ? Well, I got a Galaxy so I am harder to impress! The wood impact on this one (and the sherry finished) can't help making me think it has been finished on smaller casks. 

The peat, the apples and the wood is well integrated. Again a fine 3yo expression, and as with the sherry finish this is also something I could justify bottling

The third sample is again apples for me, young spirit but this time it is very well balanced out by the wood and the peat

Finish : long

Rating 78/100 

Ørbæk is a danish microbrewery that has distilled whisky (and other spirits) since 2009

This concludes Nyborg distillery (Ørbæk brewery). Different and promising spirits with two samples I enjoyed even if they were young in tasting, but all three a lot less than what you would expect for a 3 year old. The spirit has a character of apples to me which makes Nyborg distillate unusual

The state of whisky made in Denmark - part 5

Cask sample for presentation at the danish whiskyfair 2013

Nose: vanilla, just a hint of apples

Palate : This has got apples like the bourbon-cask I just tasted. I can't help thinking it has been pinpointed to my brain as I taste these two right after each other, because this is actually quite different. The texture and mouthfeel is different, this is a lot more fullbodied. I can't help think of cinnamoned apple-pies. In a nutshell this is apple, wood and cinnamon. A bit fierce, but not something you would be surprised from as its a 59% spirit. I quite like this. Looks like the distillery character of Nyborg is heavyweight apples

Finish : medium, with the prickly wood spices lingering, apples, young spirit and vanilla again in the end

Again a hard one to rate as the apple character makes this very different from what I usual drink. But I like this and if I had some young stuff I wanted to bottle to make my whisky available for the public this would be a good candidate.

rating 78/100

Ørbæk is a danish microbrewery that has distilled whisky (and other spirits) since 2009

One guest at the danish fair mentioned this at his favourite overall dram at the fair at a poll on the fairs facebooks page!

The state of whisky made in Denmark - part 4

Nyborg Distillery cask sample, 3yo ex-bourbon 59%
Cask 7, distilled 2010, sample drawn 8 April 2013

Cask sample for presentation at the danish whiskyfair 2013

Nose: Cider, apples, white wine

Palate : Weird stuff. Doesn't taste like whisky. Very appleish in character with some wood impact. Young in character. Hint of licorice. A little fierce, but it is 59%!

Finish : vodka with apple flavour

This is a bit different and I have a hard time rating this. It's young, fierce and applecider. But whisky ? It IS  different. Hardcore whiskyentusiasts will be puzzled by this. When you lift a glass of something labeled whisky you allready have some expectations. Not really unpleasant but it doesn't score high in my book. This will probably appeal more to someone normally drinking snaps, eau-de-vie or grappa, but what do I know ?

Rating  72/100

Ørbæk is a danish microbrewery that has distilled whisky (and other spirits) since around 2009

The state of whisky made in Denmark - part 3

Stauning Peated 3yo 2nd Edition 55%
Distilled 2009, bottled 2013

Stauning says they bottles this in a dark bottle to protect the phenols from disintegrate from light. LIght and whisky for sure doesnt work together very well

Young nose, a bit of peat and vanilla. There is a little bit of youthfull sourness in the nose I don't really like

Not expecting much the palate is surprisingly good. The wood has spiced up this whisky very well with some prickly vanilla notes embedding the peat

The finish is long and in the end I pick up some more sour youthness

Again a young dram, but thats what they got. In my opinion on level with the young stuff bottled by Kilchoman

Rating 80/100

Comment a funny mix of very pleasing and somewhat displeasing

This concludes the Staunings. The rye ended up as my favourite, but the vanilla part of this peated dram is really delicious and when fullly matured this will be a top class whisky

Next up is three cask samples from Ørbæk (or Nyborg distillery as the also call themselves)

The state of whisky made in Denmark - part 2

Stauning Traditional 3yo Edition 2 55%
Distilled 2009, bottled 2013

This reminds me a lot of the rye. It's quite unusual that a distillery produced a similar rye and malt whisky. Or maybe it's unusual I find it so. 

Being a few years older than the ryes, this whisky still seems a lot more untamed. It is simoultanously both a bit rough and delicate malty spirit, with a very cereal note. Again I like I get a chance to taste the spirit and not something masked in some wood experiement. Both creamy and cereal and very oily. I would say this could be a very good whisky but it needs more years in a cask. 

Finish : nice creamy finish with a little vanilaed touch

Rating 77/100

Comment : Too young but still quite delicious. Very promising whisky

The state of whisky made in Denmark - part 1

I have a page (see link to the right) where I very short list the state of the danish distilleries

This is the start of a series of at least 9 reviews of whisky made in Denmark

At the recent danish fair, I had an hour to visit the various stands of the danish distilleries that has actually made whisky that's older than 3 years old. I am going to review a big range of whiskys. Not really a big fan of these very young whisky's that the craft distilleries release all over the world, but sometimes they hit gold. I don't expect it to be as good as the 12yo's you can get from the big guys, who have thousands of casks to play with. I do expect them to be a little bit selective to what they bottle, especially concerning the higher prices these small distilleries have to charge as it isn't mass production factories. I do expect a standard single malt 12yo from Scotland to reach around 80 on my rating scale. I don't expect these new distilleries to be able to do that yet, but anything lower than 75 I tghink really shouldn't have been bottled. 

First stand I visited was Stauning, a distillery from the west coast of Denmark. 

Mini version of the Stauning stills

I had a chat with master distiller Mogens Vesterby. A fun guy to chat with, he can't really wait for his whisky to get to 10 years. He explained a bit about the production. It's very local barley and rye they use and they malt it themselves. They also use local danish peat for the peated version. So far they have bottled a range of very young, about 1yo ryes. Later in this series I will get around their 3yo malt whisky releases

1. Stauning Young Rye 49.3%

Distilled 2010/2011, bottled October 2012. 

Nose : Young and new-makey. This isn't unpleasant and the nose is very clean without offnotes. The rye is kind of laidback behind the youthness

Palate: A very nice fresh young spirit. This is more balanced and smoother than the prior versions of young ryes I have tasted from Stauning. The rye flavour itself is a lot less subtle and laid back, when I compare to other high-rye ryes I have tasted from the other side of the atlantic. This whisky is a lot more cereal than you would normally expect from a rye whisky

Finish : Medium and cereal and in the end you sit back with the rye flavour

Comment: I think it's great that the spirit of the distillery hasn't been disguised behind a lot of wood managent as often seen from other distilleries releasing ultra young stuff. The whisky is well matured for the short period it has been on cask, and it's nice you taste the actual quality of the spirit itself

Rating 83/100

Next episode  ->  Stauning 3yo traditional 2nd edition

The Danish Whiskyfair

Next weekend is the danish whiskyfair

It's a massive 10 hour event in Fredericia

Here is a link to the tasting catalogue just published http://issuu.com/whiskyrommagasinet/docs/whiskymessen2013/1

The Danish Whisky Fair

Some pours will be free, but most will cost a price, all is listed in the above catalogue

A lot of the danish importers will be present as well as a lot of the new small distilleries: Trolden, Nyborg(Ørbæk), Braunstein and Stauning. There is Cafe/restaurants inside and there is also a few non whisky stands if you need a little break.

I will be helping pouring bourbons and a rye from Willet/KBD, which is a Kentucky independent bottler/distiller from Bardstown. Come and say hello. First time, as far as I know, that I see the Willet bottlings in Denmark and if it's anywhere near the bottlings I have tasted in US and Limburg we are in for a treat.

There are a lot of exciting stands. Here is what I think are the most exciting offers: Jack Wieber, Diageo has the new Talisker Storm. MACY has a big range of bourbons from Buffalo Trace. They also have some fantastic offerings from Tomatin and BenRiach

A huge list of independent bottlers will be present at various stands: Wilson & Morga, Douglas Laing, SMWS, Duncan Taylor, Scott's and AD Rattray.  The various stands will also have an extensive number of rums and there will be a few speciality beers present as well. I think the number of rums is closing in on the whiskies these days

Here is a few photos from last years fair. Don't get too scared :-)

A visit to Fary Lochan Distillery

In May a group of friends and I visited the wee danish Distillery Fary Lochan

It's a very small distillery located in a small danish village called Farre. That's in central Jutland, not far from Billund (Legoland). http://www.farylochan.dk

The small house is for storage and the slightly bigger one is the distillery with a small warehouse in the cellar

Here's the wash-still, mashtun and washback with distillery owner Jens-Erik Jørgensen.

The Spirit Still

Here's a bottle from a test run a few years ago. These stills made its first spirit on 31.st December 2009

Here's the first 7 casks. Now here I experienced something I found very unusual. He was supposed to use 50liter casks but due to failed deliveries he had to start fill "normal" 200liter barrels. Once the quartercasks is delivered the plan is to empty some of the barrels into the quartercasks, but also leave some barrels for some longer time maturation. Now, as the batch size is smaller than 200liters (around 60-70liters) the barrels are filled step by step. I think most of these barrels are partly filled. He was eager to fill some up as the official date of filling a cask would be when the last portion goes in. But nosing two of these casks revealed the most intense butterscotch-fudge-toffee nose I ever experienced. Havent' really found the reason for this. The whisky inside was between 0-4½ months old and I guess the casks were filled to 50-75% by now

Here's another interesting thing. Jens-Erik Jørgensen told me, that when he received the casks there would be quite a lot of this stuff inside. This is from one cask just. It looks like manufactured charred chipped wood. It wasn't just something that had fallen of the inside of the cask. His theory was that it was a little gift that could help the spirit mature. (he removed it as you can see). Well I am not sure about that -the wood chips was pretty much very neutral in the smell and my theory is that it has something to do with transport/storage of casks

It was a very pleasant visit, with a nice guided tour by Jens-Erik, and also my chance to taste my first danish newmake, which semi-light compared to other newmakes I tried and I think this whisky will age well, but from the nose it seemed like it did unusually remarkable within a few months. Casks seemed to be good ex-bourbon casks

This is actually an almost repeat of a post I did on a whiskywhiskywhisky here : http://www.whiskywhiskywhisky.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=243&t=3285&p=35128&hilit=fary+lochan#p35128

An overview of danish distilleries

Fary Lochan Wash Still

Before my time the danish snaps factories did produce a whisky (CLOC) which apparently weren't very good. 


In 2016 we have approximately 12 places producing whisky, with at least one more planned. This is a mix of breweries that has installed stills, 1 winery with a side production, snaps/fruitbrandy distillery with a side production and  some distilleries with whisky as their main product

A sum up on the danish whisky situation :

1. CLOC. Whisky discontinued in 1974. Made by Danish Distillers, which since has been bought by international operators

2. Vingården Lille Gadegård, Bornholm, Denmark. Released first single malt in 2009. Winery. The production is small and there has been released about 5 bottlings. Use a Stainless steel still, double destillation, uses own wine casks for maturation


3. Stauning Whisky. Distillery. Portuguese Brandy Stills. First releases were some young 1-2yo ryes. Fist destillation summer 2006. First whisky was released in June 2012. Since then the distillery has released a older ryes approaching 3 years old and both peated and unpeated whisky. The distillery is up for a heavy expansion after Diageo invested in the company

4. Braunstein, A brewery that also distill. They use a Holstein Still (Hybrid) for a singledistilled malt whisky. Braunstein bottles unpeated, peated, 46% and cask strength versions and has released several small batch bottlings since the first release of a 3yo in March 2010. Since then the distillery has released several bottlings annually

5. Ørbæk, A brewery that also distill. They use a Holstein Still (Hybrid). First Whisky released June 2012, an organic single malt 58%. They are about to getting rebranded as Nyborg Distillery. The upstart of the new distillery site has been delayed 

6. Fary Lochan. Distillery. Traditional Scottish Pot Stills. Production started very late 2009. Various exotic white whisky products available. First Whisky was released 28. September 2013 and since the distillery has released small batches regularely.

7. Trolden. A brewery that also distill. Cognac Pot Still. Some unofficial straight whiskey from testruns released. First Single Malt was released in November 2014. Trolden operates with different mashbills, and the 2nd release was a bourbon inspired whisky with a 55%25% corn/rye mash bill with the rest being wheat and barley

8. Nordisk Brænderi. Gin/Snaps/Fruitbrandy distillery. Müller Still.  Very little whisky on the side. First whisky put on cask in September 2010 and was released in November 2013.

9. Brænderiet Limfjorden. Wash is delivered from Thisted Bryghus (Brewery) and is distilled on small cognac stills. Production started in 2013.  First whisky was bottled in July 2016 

10 Aarhus Bryghus/Enghaven. Aarhus Bryghus (Aarhus Brewery) had some beer distilled at Brænderiet Enghaven (The Enghaven Distillery) in 2013 and a whisky was released August 2016 

11. Copenhagen Distillery. Started December 2014. Beside other sprits the production will include whisky. They make whisky from emmer wheat
Here are some links to the official webpages of 2-8, you might need the help of google translate to get some sense of it. 

12. Mosgaard Whisky. The distillery focus is on gin and whisky. Production started May 2016

13. Ærø Whisky. Production Started May/June 2016

Early Danish Distillery Map

Click map for large version

Location of the danish distilleries can be found in my map section here
Updated September 2016