Smögen Whisky is a malt whisky distillery on the west coast of Sweden, founded in 2009 by lawyer and whisky author Pär Caldenby.1,2,3 It makes its Smögen whisky from heavily peated malt, and all of its new make is bottled as malt whisky.1,4,5
It makes, stores, and bottles its whisky on Ståleröd farm near Hunnebostrand, and takes its name from nearby Smögen island.1,2,3 It began production in 2010, after a government grant of almost a million Swedish kronor, and Minister for Rural Affairs Eskil Erlandsson attended its opening.2,6
A rich, precise whisky with glorious campfire smoke, charred lemon, sea salt and dark chocolate, balanced by bright herbs and restrained sweetness.
A magnificently simple whisky, balancing quince, ashes, seawater, fresh bread, green pepper and lemon juice with a long, superb, tightly focused finish.
Simple and perfect, with lemon, seawater, peat and green walnut, followed by an expressive earthy, rooty character and a long liquorice-tinged finish.
The distillery buys its malt from maltsters in Scotland or Sweden.5 Since 2020 it has used mainly Swedish barley that is heavily peated and floor malted.1 Its Askeim spirit, made from older strains of barley, uses lightly peated or unpeated malt instead.1,4 Each mash fills one of 3 washbacks with 900 litres of sugary water.5 Yeast ferments it for six to seven days, which the distillery says forms the building blocks of fruity flavours that appear as the whisky matures.5 Its two stills, a 900-litre wash still and a spirit still of up to 640 litres, are heated electrically.5 Worm tub condensers turn the still vapour back into spirit.4 In 2021, the distillery called its new spirit oily.7
Casks, mostly first fill with some virgin oak, are normally filled at just over 60% alcohol and stored in the warehouses on site.5,8 The distillery says its warehouse is not temperature controlled and is open to the outside temperature and the humid coastal air.5,8
Every bottle in Peated with a vintage year.
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