Finnish whisky

Finnish distilleries

Finland's whisky story begins in Pori, where Panimoravintola Beer Hunter's first opened its doors on 8 April 1998 as a restaurant and brewery. On the evening of 8 November 2001, self-taught distiller Mika Heikkinen started the country's first malt whisky distillation. That inaugural batch rests in casks until 2034, when Heikkinen turns 60.

A second batch, called Old Buck, saw 100 bottles auctioned on 1 December 2004; the rest went back into casks. Future releases are mostly sold to wholesalers in hand-blown bottles from Estonia's Tarbeklaas. The copper stills come from German manufacturer Arnold Holstein, while the casks are old Spanish sherry casks and new Portuguese ones.

By April 2004, Beer Hunter's had made 2000 liters of malt whisky. Jim Murray named the Old Buck second release European Mainland Whisky of the Year in his 2009 Whisky Bible, praising its nose of honeycomb-liquorice. Heikkinen says the distillery can produce both a non-smoky malt like Glenfiddich and a smoky style like Laphroaig.

In Lahti, Teerenpeli (meaning "dalliance" or literally "black grouse play") began brewing beer in 1995 and launched its distillery seven years later, in 2002. The independent company is owned by Anssi and Mrs Pyysing. In 2008, Finland's state alcohol monopoly Alko started selling Teerenpeli Single Malt 5 yo, the first entirely Finnish whisky, bottled at 43% alcohol by volume. The maker describes its palate as vanilla with a fruity aroma.

A 6-year-old release followed in 2009. Markus Pyörälä and Valtteri Vitakoski, design students at Lahti University of Applied Sciences, created the bottle and label. The whisky uses only Finnish malted barley from Viking Malt and fresh groundwater from the Salpausselkä ridge.