Foreign

Spirit of Hven Seven Stars No. 5 Alioth

The Spirit of Hven is a craft distillery located on the island of Ven, which lies in the Öresund strait between Denmark and Sweden. It is also a conference and hotel resort, replete with restaurant and pub. It is a remarkably small grain-to-glass distillery, which is why their releases are so often limited. The Spirit of Hven make a number of spirits but it is clear they are fans of single malt whisky. And astrology, as shown by their beaker-shaped bottles and copiously detailed product sheets. The Seven Stars is a series of single malts, each named after one of the stars in the Ursa Major (Latin for “Great Bear”) constellation, the third brightest modern constellation in the night sky. It is more familiarly known as the Big Dipper. One of the stars, Polaris, is also known as North Star. The fifth in the series is Alioth, which comes from the Arabic alyat al-hamal (“the sheep’s fat tail”), and is the brightest star in the constellation.

By Adam | November 20, 2021 | Foreign | No Comments |

Many an American single malt (and those the world over) take a variety of cues from scotch. Wanderback is tapping into a different tradition, one found in both Ireland and in the Bourbon world here in the United States, somewhere between a distillery and an independent bottler. This is where a brand works with a distillery to create the whisky, which is then handed over to the brand for anything else like maturation and blending. This isn’t because the company wants to shortcut the normal process, moreso that they want to explore all the prospects American whiskies currently produce already offer and take them in new directions. The first four batches, The Evergreen Collection, were distilled just a few hours to their north at Westland Distillery. The Wanderback Batch 3 has been aged in high toast, low char new American oak and finished in French oak port casks.

By Adam | October 30, 2021 | Foreign | No Comments |

Berkshire Mountain Distillers (BMD) was founded in 2007 in Massachusetts by Chris Weld. Chris tried making a still in the 8th grade, which feels qualified as a good start. The distillery sits on an old apple farm and a working spring. In the proceeding years, the distillery has made a variety of vodkas, gins, rums, and bourbon, along with corn and single malt whiskies. BMD seems to love experimenting, as they have developed multiple kinds of each spirit by making use of their small batch production. The distillery is also into collaboration with local breweries and farms, as shown by their recent Craft Brewers Whiskey Project. The Berkshire Mountain 10 Year Oktoberfest is another entry in collaboration, as this single malt is aged for ten years and was distilled from an Oktoberfest beer by nearby brewery Berkshire Brewing.

By Adam | October 5, 2021 | Foreign | No Comments |