Nordic Whisky #125 - Box Whisky The Festival 2016

Box Whisky The Festival 2016, 5 YO, 53,9 %

The third annual festival bottling from Box Whisky is under review today. Every summer, for ten years, Box Whisky have arranged a whisky festival. The last three years they have handed out certificates with unique codes allowing the holder of the certificate to purchase a bottle of the festival release. The Box Whisky The Festival 2016 is an unpeated 5 YO whisky. It was initially matured in 200 litre bourbon barrels, then finished for 7 months in heavily charred 40 litre virgin Swedish oak casks.

The spirit was distilled between 2011–03–21 and 2011–06–16. The whisky was bottled on 2016-09-16. The total outturn was 1012 official bottles (for sale as described above), and  385 non-official bottles to be used at festivals and tastings. All bottles were 50 cl, and sold at SEK 995.

For all the nerdy details see here.

Nose: Chocolate, cinnamon, white pepper, mild licorice, soft oaky maltiness. Mild touch of sweet wood smoke, way in the back. Probably the heavily charred Swedish oak teasing me. With time fluffy swirls of milk chocolate, caramel and vanilla.

Taste: Smooth mouthfeel. Pepper, oak and sweet licorice. We're talking the really dark, caramel like, sweet licorice here.

Finish: Medium long finish. The sweet licorice stays for the distance. It has a weird mix of chocolate and meat like note as well. This is weird in a good way, though. A touch of warm and smoky ancho chilli pepper.

Comments: This dram brings back fond memories of the Box Festival 2016.

Score (86/100)

Sláinte! - Thomas