Stauning is the Ballast Point of Denmark

Recently it was revealed that Ballast Point was acquired by Constellation Brands for 1 BILLION DOLLARS

This is a brewery that some of you might have never heard of

http://www.pastemagazine.com/articles/2015/11/ballast-point-acquired-by-constellation-brands-for.html

It looks like small operations can be a gold mine, as the same thing now happened in whisky

Today it was revealed that Diageo is gonna invest 10£ million in the small danish distillery Stauning

http://www.business.dk/detailhandel/spiritusgigant-skyder-100-millioner-i-vestjysk-mikrodestilleri
(danish)

http://www.thespiritsbusiness.com/2015/12/distill-ventures-buys-stake-in-denmark-distillery/
(english)

Investing 10£ million in a small farmside distillery like Stauining basically means that Diageo is going to build a 10£ million distiilery on the west coast of Denmark

The similarity between these takeovers is that the money involved is around the tenfold of what I would  have thought possible

Diageo never ventured into any small european distillery before and at the same time they seem to have stopped any expansions in Scotland, so this is very interesting news. I wasn't expecting this move to be honest. Maybe they will move into other world distilleries as well ?

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

Stauning "Second Opinion"

Stauning Rye Second opinion 48%
Distilled 2009/2010 Bottled 2011

Nose: A powerful sweet rye with clear, but a fresh, youthness. The rye spices reminds me of a wet resinous morning in a pine forest

Palate: Again powerful rye. Loads of butterscotch.  A dry toasted woodyness and a light alcoholic burn. This is a bit of an infight of components I find good and not so good. I really like the butterscotch and the rye flavour of this whisky, but the toasted wood and the light alcoholic burn is not my favourite. I reckon some, if not many, will like the woodyness while most will also struggle with alcohol. This is just more or less archetype young whisky and anyone enjoying unaged spirits at higher ABV's will know of this.

Finish: Shortish to medium. But  luckily with the rye and butterscotch dominating. As typical with very young whiskies the sensation sits at the front of your mouth.

Rating 82 

The best released danish whisky I have tasted so far and this isnt really whisky as its not 3 years old. Still young and fighting, but its a clear improvement from their first release.

This is a vatting of 1 200 liter cask and 12 50l casks, all new wood. Small casks usually speeds some woodiness into a whisky

Stauning Rye First Impression versus a couple of other ryes

Last week Stauning Distillery in Denmark released their first bottling, a rye and as a rye fan I had to stock up :-)

It's distilled in 2009 and 2010 and the rye has been matured on 50 liter and 200 liter casks

The mash bill is malted rye, malted barley and unmalted rye. For some odd reason Stauning won't tell me about the exact mash bill, but they are thinking about it :-)

I think they should. Anyone following the american micro distilling scene know that origin, recipe and cask history is what the whisky fans are interested in these days. With a huge extend in bottlings available, mashbills and innovative experiments I feel it's important for us consumers to know what we are drinking. It's nice to be able to pinpoint your taste for further purchases. Maybe you DON*T like high rye mashbills but really like low rye mashbills, but it's better to know that than just "I like this whiskey and I don't like that whiskey". Good enough if you always got the same bottle on your shelf, but who has that?. I don't for sure :-)

Rant over

1. Stauning Rye / first impression

Distilled 2009/2010 Bottled 2011 52.5%

850 bottles

Nose : Vodka, or something similar to other unaged distillates like grappa, raki or vodka, with a faint spicy woodiness

Palate : Gin-like, the rye spicyness often makes people associate it to gins, so this is not uncommon, especially with young ryes, where the rye and not the wood is dominating. 

Finish : Very good, looong and powerful. The finish is surprisingly fantastic, considering the nose (unaged spirits) and palate (young rye). The true rye flavour emerges... creamy oily rye flavours with a slight woodyness. The finish is really enjoyable and more-ish

Water : A bit of water doesnt harm this rye, it can in fact take quite a bit of it. It actually removes some of the impressions saying this is a very young whiskey, and highlights the qualities of the finish, with vanilla tones coming out more clear

Rating 73  - The finish is well worth an 80 score thou

EDITED summer 2011 aftera few retastings

Yes, a hard one to rate as the very long and delicious finish really makes a huge difference to a whiskey where I initially thought "This clearly needs a couple of more years"

I am really looking forward to Stauning Rye when older, this first impression isn't putting me off at all! 

Read more about Stauning here, their first malt whisky isn't ready yet http://www.stauningwhisky.dk/

PS : Danish whisky distilleries usually comes out at horrible and very silly prices, especially first editions. I still think this should have been slightly cheaper than 495 Dkr for 50cl but it's actually nice to see something bottled at a somehow fair price. I know it's not cheap to start up a distillery, but if you insist on bottling very young whisky at the prices of single casks 70's Ardbegs I think you more interested in money than bottling quality whisky. This is the first product from Stauning. 

It's wellknown that scottish whisky needs 3 years in cask by law, but there's no law regarding whisky in Denmark. Rye is an american style of whiskey and there's no minimum age requirements for ryes in America, but a "straight rye" must have been in a cask for at least 2 years. I am still thinking about why the term "straight" is used :-)

2. Old Potrero 62.2% 

2yo single malt whiskey made from 100% malted rye

Bottling date 20/4 - 2001, barreled 9/12 -1988 bottle 422/4005

Old Potrero is from San Francisco and is made by the Anchor Distilling Co. Anchor is a lot more known for their Brewing Co. making excellent craft beers 

Old Potrero is more clearcut in it's rye expression. It doesn't show the same extent of youthness in the whiskey, but this is probably twice the age and has been matured in a warmer climate, which does speed up the maturation. Last time I checked the weather is considerable better in the Bay area than at the west coast of Denmark. The finish is no way near the finish of the Stauning. In this whiskey its the finish that reveals this is a young whiskey!

Rating 81

3. WhistlePig Rye 10yo 50%

WhistlePig (Canadian word for Groundhogs) is a canadian rye bottled by an american company. It's supposed to be distilled at Alberta Distillery in Calgary known for Alberta Premium. Hiram Walker also prodcues a 100% rye (malted) so thats a 2nd guess

100% ryes are made as flavouring agents for blends in Canada

This is bottled as straight rye, so being canadian this whiskey must obey all the straight rye regulation which are american. This means more than just mashbill, also alcohol strength of distillate and wood policy has to follow the same rules as applys to bourbons

(read about that here : http://bit.ly/gIgQMX )

This is a very good example of how rye whiskey taste. It's delicious but somehow onedimensional. If you like this dimension..great for you. I do, as it's the rye dimension, and I am a rye fan. 

We are back to longer finish with a bit of fudge butterscotch in it, the years in new wood is showing its face. It's remarkable less effected than bourbons at similar ages. Canadian enviroment when maturing or is the rye opposed to corn ? I don't know

Rating 82

If Stauning are considering going 100% rye or 100% malted rye I would say they should also consider whiskey/whisky with a lower rye mash bill. My favourite "younger" rye products have been Bourbons with a high rye content like IW Harper and "blends" from High West like Rendezvous Rye and BouRye. Don't forget that a Rye has to be just 51% rye to be a Rye according to the American rules. As well as a bourbon has to be at least 51% corn. It's the last 49% that's the art :-) and it seems like I prefer a rye a content of 30-50%