Nordic Whisky #17 - Box Whisky The Festival 2014

Box Whisky The Festival 2014, 3 YO, 53,5 %

Finally we have the second release from Box Whisky. Again the whisky is very young, a mere 3 years and 116 days, similar to their first release - The Pioneer.

The Festival was a rather special release, in that you had to be present at the Box Whisky Festival, at the distillery, on June 28 2014. Alternatively you could make an arrangement with good friends present at the festival, if you were unable to attend yourself. Luckily we have very good friends, so we managed to secure a couple of bottles.

The Box Whisky The Festival 2014 is released in a limited run of just 700 bottles, and all these 700 were allocated to attendees at the festival, as mentioned above. Since then the collector's market has been abuzz with fans trying to get their hands on a bottle. It is said that the 'market prize' for one of these bottles has already reached close to 4000 SEK. The retail price at Systembolaget was just SEK 859. Did I mention we have very, very good friends? Well, we do!

Box Whisky does a very good job in providing all possible data for each bottling. You can access all the facts for Box Whisky The Festival 2014 here. I will add a quick summary here though:

• 4x 100 liter 1st fill bourbon casks filled with 67,7 % ABV peated spirit (31 ppm) 2011-04-20 and 2014-04-21
• 5x 100 liter 1st fill bourbon casks filled with 62,9 % ABV peated spirit (39 ppm) 2011-05-18 and 2011-05-20
• The were left to mature in these casks until 2014-03-27, and the ABV was reduced by ~4 % during this time
• The spirit was transferred into 16x 40 liter new American oak casks, at 61,1 % ABV and 35 ppm
• On 2014-09-16 the spirit was watered down to 53,5 % and bottled

Nose (23/25): Well-balanced, rich and rounded. Lots of oranges, orange zest, some oak. Deep sweetness. Honey cake, fruit cocktail, white pepper, chocolate, cinnamon and honey-glazed, baked apples. There is a peat smoke here as well, but it is subtle and very well integrated. This is a completely different beast from The Pioneer. The nose just keeps developing more and more, becoming surprisingly rich for such a young age. Give it time though, lots of time - to open up and show it's true character.

Taste (22/25): Smooth, rich, peaty and sweet. Honey, fruit cocktail, pears, and orange marmalade. There's a slight smoky bitterness - a tickling edge. Thick and oily, almost like syrup. The peat  stays in the background, adding to the body of the whisky - rather than grabbing the attention.

Finish (21/25): Warm, with a real punch. Still sweet, with oranges - more like reduced orange juice now. Mild spices, apples and some oak. A hint of mint and camphor. A bit short on the finish, but that is to be expected for a 3 YO.

Balance (22/25): A deeply sweet, peaty and pleasant dram from the high coast of Sweden. Keep up the good work, guys!

Score (88/100)

Sláinte! - Thomas