Hej min ven. Hvordan har du det i dag? As the title would suggest, today I'm reviewing a Danish whisky. And no, I can't speak Danish... I just used my good ol' friend Google Translator. Hey my friend, how are you today? I hope all is well. I feel great, the sun is out finally. Happy days. In the past few days it has been really cold here in Hungary. By really cold I mean -5 to -10 Celsius in the morning. It was normal a few years ago but lately winters were very warm so it was very unusual for everyone. I like cold, I got no problem with it. I dress up well and I am ok. Before we go any further please check out a few of my previous reviews of international whiskeys from all around the globe.

To the point tho. Danish Whisky. Sounds interesting right? I was looking at the bottles of Stauning for quite a while, but I never purchased one. Why? I dunno. On the 14th of February however the Høst was in promotion. Usually it is around 47.99 euros, but with the discount and a coupon code I got the price down to 33.33 euros. It is a whopping 30% off. How nice. I picked it up this Monday, took it for a photoshoot and later that night I opened it. I was extremely curious. Let's see what this whisky is all about.

About the distillery

Stauning Whisky is a whisky distillery in Denmark. It is located in the western part of Jutland just south of a small village called Stauning near Skjern. 

The distillery was founded in May 2005 by nine Danish whisky enthusiasts and is the oldest whisky distillery in the Kingdom of Denmark. The idea was originally to create a whisky resembling the peated whisky produced on the Scottish isle of Islay.

The preparations started in a building owned by one of the nine founders, formerly used as a private slaughter-house. The building was renovated and official permission obtained.

The first distillation took place in August 2006 and the following months the test production continued with ongoing improvements and streamlining of the process. In the fall of 2006 the nine owners met the whisky expert Jim Murray and presented the new spirit to him for a tasting. Murray was very positive and compared the results to the Ardbeg of the 1970s while recommending the owners to increase production.

I gotta mention here, that I am not in love with the work of Jim Murray. He tends to give extremely high points to whiskies that are absolutely abhorrent. Like 95 points for the regular Balantines? Please. Nonsense. Take whatever he says with a pinch of salt.

In 2007 they purchased a small farm and moved the distillery from the private slaughter-house in the village of Stauning, to its current placement approximately 1.5 kilometers south of the village.

In March 2009 production finally restarted. The production was increased to 6-8000 liters of whisky a year, from the 2-400 liters the owners had originally planned for. In March the first grain was malted and in April the distillation started for the first time in the new surroundings.

In 2012 they sold their first bottle, in 2013 they won their first medal and in 2015 Diageo came on board, buying 40 per cent of the distillery and investing an enormous 850000 euros into its further development! From that money a brand-new distillery was built right next to original farm house in which much of Stauning's one-of-a-kind success story took shape.

In 2018, Stauning opened a modern & purpose-built distillery. Even though capacity now has risen a lot, it's still a small distillery. And inside, the Stauningers are still making whisky their own way with small pot stills, open floor malting and direct fire heating.

The production

The founders have chosen to do all parts of the production themselves. Everything is produced following the traditional Scottish methods of whisky production. The grain is bought locally and the malting takes place in the form of floor malting in a process that takes about one week. This process is activating enzymes within the grain (be it barley or rye) which will convert its starches into fermentable sugars. After that the malt is dried in a kiln using hot air blown from below. For it to be a smoky whisky, the grain is dried with warm, smoky air from the burning of peat supplied by a Klosterlund Museum. This takes 2–3 days.

The grain is then grounded, mashed and set aside for maturation in 3 days. Once this process is done the wort is first distilled on a 1000-liter pot still and afterwards on a 600-liter pot still. Following the double-distillation the new spirit is ready. 

While most distilleries of Stauning's size would have 2 or 4 giant pot stills, you will find 24 small pots at the distillery. The stills in the old farm were small, by necessity. To ensure the same character, they had to retain their shape and size. Increasing capacity, therefore, meant quintupling the number.

The alcohol percent is between 68 and 69 and is diluted to 63.5 percent before it is put in oak casks where it matures for a minimum of 3 years before it is finally bottled as whisky. 

There are racks of casks which once held bourbon, adding notes of vanilla and coconut; brand new virgin American oak with its rich mix of pine, butterscotch, and spice for the rye. There are also a variety of ongoing experiments: casks which had held mezcal, cognac, calvados, or vermouth.

The bottlings

All the whisky editions from Stauning Whisky are non-chill filtered and there is no color added in the process. All bottles are 70cl.

Stauning Whisky has four core range whiskies:

• Høst Double Malt: Using 100% floor malted local Danish rye and Danish barley.
• Kaos Triple Malt: It is a distinctive Danish triple malt whisky, crafted with a marriage of their signature rye, single malt, and heather and peat smoked single malt.
• Rye: This rye malt whisky is crafted from 100% locally sourced, floor-malted Danish rye and barley.
• Smoke Single Malt: Crafted from 100% floor-malted local Danish barley. The grain is kiln-smoked using locally sourced heather and peat.

The distillery has also launched a small variety of special edition whiskies

These pictures are taken from stauningwhisky.com

Stauning Høst Double Malt- Natural Color, Non-chill filtered, 40.5%

"Stauning HØST is a smooth, fruit-forward, and floral whisky, reminiscent of the warmth and comfort of the late summer Danish sun during the harvest time of our meticulously selected and locally sourced rye and barley. This double malt whisky is crafted in Denmark with a marriage of single malt and malted rye whisky, aged in American oak casks and with a touch of Port wood.

A distinctly Danish approach to whisky: designed with intentionality, simplicity, sustainability, timeless style, and a touch of "hygge". Using 100% floor malted local Danish rye and Danish barley, we craft a timeless whisky style distinguished by its profound depth of flavour and quality. Double distilled in 24 small, direct-fired copper pot stills to produce malt whisky with a rich flavour. "

Nose: Different. Right away you can tell that this is something else than your regular single malts. Very aromatic, very full. Very malty but I do believe that the rye takes the leading note here. Heather honey and camomille tea. There are some citrus and vanilla notes. Rye spice and more honey. Caramelized golden apples and overripe pears. Rye bread, granola and dried figs. I detect forest fruits in the very back. Earl grey tea and tobacco leaves. Some milk chocolate and a hint of toasted oak. Freshly cut grass and hay. Farm-y.

Taste: Despite the 40.5% this whisky has a very full and oily mouthfeel. It is very spicy and flavourful on the tongue. Very surprising to me. The rye dominates here too. Rye bread, rye spices, cracked black pepper, cinnamon and cardamom. Nutmeg, coriander and bergamot. Then the sweet aspect comes in with heather honey, caramelized golden apples and pears. Milk chocolate, caramel and vanilla. Hazelnut, marzipan and digestive biscuits. Earl grey tea, and some forest fruits. A very nice maltiness throughout. Just a hint of oak.

Finish: Medium-long. Very nice spiciness. Rye spices, cracked black pepper, nutmeg, cinnamon and coriander. It leaves you with golden apples, overripe pears and peaches. Vanilla, caramel, marzipan and a hint of toasted oak. Lovely.

Overall WHEW. I think this is nice. I never had a Double Malt before but I do like this one. From what I heard it is 70% barley and 30% rye. In this whisky we can see how strong rye really is. Also it is very nice that it was not chill-filtered. The whisky stayed very oily and flavourful. Their different distillation method is probably giving tons of flavour to the whisky and the fact that they also used port casks for this bottle is giving even more flavours to the mix. I love the fact that they use local barley and rye. I think this is a distillery to look out for. I rate this bottle a whopping 8.1/10. I am really, truly surprised by it. For me it is a breath of fresh air in the whisky space. I look forward to tasting their other releases too. Buy it, try it. Drink responsibly.

Some pictures in this article are not owned by me, I tagged their owner and I attached a link of their site. All other pictures that have my logo on them are TAKEN AND OWNED BY ME.

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