Hello Everyone. Welcome back to another review. Today I have something very interesting for you. We have a new Single Malt produced here in Hungary. I am always very happy when there are new experiments to create a nice single malt in my home country. Eventually one is going to turn out to be amazing. Will it be this one? Let's see.

About Seven Hills Distillery

Seven Hills Distillery is a small craft gin, vodka and whisky distillery in Tokaj-Hegyalja. They opened in 2020 and since then they won several awards for their gin and vodka products.

You might be familiar with the name "Tokaj". Tokaj is a region in Hungary where a traditional wine, well more types of traditional wines are produced but one of them has a very good reputation and is known all around the world. I am of course talking about the sweet Tokaj wine. Whisky distilleries often use Tokaj wine casks for maturation or finishing periods for their whisky. If the cask is good then it leaves a nice grape-y, sweet honey flavor in the whisky. If the cask is bad, then it leaves a rotten, mushroom-y taste that I can't stand. And sadly I had more bad Tokaj finished whiskies than good ones.

According to their website, they opened their distillery in Tokaj because it is the most suitable area for whisky production in Hungary.

They purchased the distilling equipment from the Netherlands specifically for gin, vodka and whisky. They use a single-round distillation method. I couldn't find it on their website, but I presume that they use a column still.

They purchase everything they can from the local farmers (grain, barley, etc.) to represent the region as much as possible. They use Hungarian Oak Casks for maturation.

Seven Hills Hungarian Single Malt Whisky - Natural Color, Non-chill filtered, 48%

"Malt, smoke and Tokaj, this is SEVENHILLS Smoked Single Malt Whisky. A smoky malt whisky made from 100% Hungarian malted barley, where the malt is smoked in a special smokehouse using a cold smoke process, on organic ash turpentine, and then the barley grain with its husk is fermented with the help of a French champagne yeast. It is distilled twice - first in a traditional "kisüst" still, then in a column still - and then aged in a 136l charred oak cask from Zemplén.

The aroma is sweet, fresh pears and dried fruits, walnuts, ash and hay, then roasted oak appears, malty, ​​oaky, the smoke arrives, the dry taste is like munching on bourbon vanilla in a vat.

Only 250 bottles are sold as a single barrel."

First impressions. The bottle, the label and the stopper looks amazing. It is not a cork tho, it is a screwcap as it turns out. It is only 0.5l and for that, the price is eyewatering. It costs about 62 EUROS. Just for comparison, for that price I can buy a 0.7l of Glenfarclas 15 yr old whisky. Why is it so expensive? Is this so good, is this such a premium priduct? Let's find it out.

Nose: Sweet right away. Grapes and honey. It doesn't smell like a single malt whisky at all. It also doesn't mell like "pálinka", our national drink. It smells more like a brandy / American whiskey. Grapes, raisins and dried fruits. There is no smoke at all. A hint of malt with a Strong oak influence. I mean it's ok, but it is not a typical single malt whisky.

Taste: Hefty. Oily. The 48% is very nicely integrated. Again it is very sweet and tastes more like a brandy, than a single malt whisky. Grapes, honey and toffee. Malt, espresso and some dried fruits. Very oaky. Almost too oaky. That's it, not much to say. It's not complex. It's not bad, it's not too good. It's drinkable, and it's more on the pleasant side.

Finish: Medium finish, with sweet and oaky notes. Dried fruits, malt and brandy. It's ok.

Overall it is an honorable experiment but it is still very far away from a genuine single malt whisky. I think I can pinpoint where it all went wrong.

Firstly I think we have to look for the problem in the distillation method. The "Kisüst lepárlás" method is used to distill "pálinka" (a brandy for all intents and purposes) and that can really be felt here. There is another brand called Gemenc whiskey, they also use "Kisüst lepárlás" method and they also have this taste in all of their whiskies. I also reviewed the GoodSpirit Experiments which where created with the same method and those also had this taste. Well I can safely say now, that "Kisüst lepárlás" is not good for creating single malt whisky.

Secondly the maturation. The Hungarian Oak is a very dominant one. And they also use 136l casks which are extremely small and hence the contact with the whisky is huge so it will leave a very strong influence. At this point with this combination it doesn't matter what whisky you put in the cask, it will be killed off by the extreme dominance of this oak. It could be an Ardbeg or anything else, this cask would kill the distillate.

I think these 2 "mistakes" are the reason why it doesn't taste like a single malt whisky. And my opinion is that if you don't use a pot still like they do for all single malts, you will never ever get a genuine, good, tasty single malt whisky. I know that it is a big investment, but it's worth it. Just look at distilleries like Carpathian from Romania, St. Kilian from Germany. They all invested in a good pot still and their whisky is amazing. Much better than any Hungarian whisky I have ever tried.

In Scotland, single malts must be made in a pot still from 100% malted barley. I think this is the golden standard everywhere. IF we want to make a single malt, then I think we should follow these. (The Romanians and many other countries treat it this way, and the result also tastes like Scotch whisky. BUT it's not surprising because they followed the golden standard.) If this whisky was made in Scotland, it would be Single Grain. But it wanted to be a single malt. But it is not a single malt. There's nothing wrong with it tho. I also would like to point out that it is a good drink, but it is far from whisky. I hope that the nice team that made it (go ahead, keep it up') will read the reviews, take it as constructive and thus move in a better direction.

I will award this whisky 77/100. I think it's a good start but there is a huge huge way to go and a huge mountain to climb if we ever want to have a great single malt whisky in Hungary.

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Thank you for reading! I hope you enjoyed it. To many more. Sláinte.