What’s in a name? Well… apparently a lot! Back in 2010, a distillery was founded in the Höga Kasten or High Coast of Sweden…dubbing itself “Box Distilleri”.
Fast forward to 2018, a few years after Barcardi gained a stake in Compass Box, a potential ‘brand conflict’ was raised and Box CEO Thomas Larsson acquiesced, changing their brand name officially to “High Coast“.
Our previous brushes with this Scandi distillery were quite positive – from samples of The 2015 Festival and a special Shareholders 3 year dram in 2016 to a full bottle brought from Sweden to Mumbai – Dálvve – in 2017.
Here is what I found…
High Coast Hav Spiced Oak 48%
- Nose – Light smoke, youghurt, malty, sweet spices of clove… started to open up more sweet grass peat, candies, then malty mocha, chocolate, almond biscotti, vanilla icing sugar, a light citrus twist
- Palate – OK that has some kick, a bit harsh at first, spicy peat, some dry oak, then becomes friendlier, fruitier, sweeter… almost flowery
- Finish – Black peppercorn, cinnamon brown sugar chaser, vanilla
More punch on the palate than the aromas initially indicated, but becomes more fun and tasty. I was struck with how the freshness also had a nice complement of character depth – considering “Spiced Oak” rather apt, particularly appreciating the light peat.
Somehow I found myself sipping and enjoying and… well.. not really thinking about creating detailed tasting notes as I was simply liking it!
What more do we know?
Lots! Thanks to the transparency in sharing the recipe and process…
I’ve reproduced content from their website below, starting with the overall description and tasting notes… and for the geeks keen to know all the details, I encourage you to read on!
Here is what the folks at High Coast have to say about Hav:
Hav is a lightly peated single malt whisky from High Coast Distillery (formerly Box Distillery) in Sweden. It has been matured in both ex-Bourbon barrels and small 40 litre casks made from Swedish and Hungarian oak. ‘Hav’ means ‘sea’ in Swedish and is part of The Origins series celebrating location, history and geography of the Swedish distillery.
Official tasting notes:
- Aroma: Fruity, Spicy, Cloves, Light Peat Reek, Nutmeg
- Palate: Well balanced, Fruity, Spicy, Peat aroma
- Finish: Oak, Cloves, Vanilla
Recipe:
Hav consists of 76,82% unpeated whisky and 23,18% of peated whisky. 66,85% has matured in small casks of Hungarian and Swedish oak up to 5 months then transferred to Bourbon barrels for an average of 6,09 years. 30.84% has matured solely in Bourbon barrels and 2,67% has been finished in 40 liter Hungarian oak casks.
Casks used:
- 200 liter Bourbon barrels (Quercus Alba), delivered empty direct from Kentucky
- 40 litre Swedish oak casks (Quercus Robur), made by Thorslundkagge
- 40 liter Hungarian oak (Quercus Petraea), made in Hungary
- Until October 2014, our casks have matured in a damp warehouse, where they lost slightly more alcohol than expected. Since October 2014 until bottling, the casks have been maturing in a dry environment in warehouse number 3.
- 14/03/2019 48 Bourbon barrels containing 6610,5 kilos of whisky, with an average strength of 61,69% abv, were emptied into our blending tank. There we added, 2154,7 kilos of water to reach the desired strength of 48% abv.
Ingredients:
- Yeast: Fermentis Safwhisky M-1
- Unpeated malt: Pilsner malt from Vikingmalt in Halmstad.
- Peated malt: Pilsner malt from Castle Maltings in Belgien as well as peated malt from Scottish maltsters.
- Peated to a phenolic level of 31 and 46ppm with peat from Scotland
- Barely types: Henley, Sébastian, Rosalina, Scarlett, Quench, Tipple, Barke
- Process water: From Bålsjön, filtered through sand and carbon filters
- Cooling water: From Ångermanälven
- Batch size: 1200 kg malt / 6300 liter wort
- Average fermentation time: 80 hours in stainless steels washbacks.
- Distilled between: 09/01/2012 – 12/12/2013
First Cut:
Unpeated spirit: 13 minutes head (foreshots)
Peated spirit: 30 minutes head (foreshots)
Second Cut:
Unpeated spirit: 67 % ABV (20°C)
Peated spirit: 60 % ABV (20°C)
Key facts:
- Strength ABV (alcohol by volume): 48 % ABV
- Age: 5,24 – 7,12 years (Average: 6,26 years)
- Phenol content PPM: 0, 31, 46 ppm (Average: 11 ppm)
- Cask: 40 liter Hungarian oak, 40 liter Swedish, 200 liter Bourbon barrels
- Number of Bottles: 11 614 st
- Bottle Size: 700 ml
Gotta admire the passion, precision and creativity that goes into such an approach…
And the other drams sampled in this Peaty Persuasion trio?
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