4 Danish whisky distilleries you should know

Stauning Whisky
It started with Stauning, and the West Jutland distillery is Danish whisky's 'grand old man', if one can even be that with such a short history. The distillery is the largest and most modern in Denmark and is currently owned by Diageo, the world's largest producer of beer, wine, and spirits.

When Stauning started in 2005, it was merely some friends making whisky on an experimental basis. Since then, it has progressed steadily, and today Stauning is housed in a newly built, state-of-the-art distillery spanning 3000 square meters, capable of producing up to 900,000 liters of whisky annually.

The nine original founders are still affiliated with Stauning. Three of them are employed at the distillery and uphold the craftsmanship and Stauning's original spirit. Thus, they use grain from local West Jutland farmers, old-fashioned floor malting, and small copper stills heated over an open flame – even if it is both old-fashioned and impractical.

Stauning primarily uses used American bourbon casks for maturation, but has also experimented with tequila casks, sherry casks, port wine casks, and rum casks, among others. At Rombo, we carry all releases from Stauning whisky, and even have our own Stauning whisky bottling, which has been finished in a tequila cask.

Around half of Stauning's whisky is sold on the Danish market, with the rest distributed in countries like Germany, England, and Sweden.

Thy Whisky
Thy Whisky is owned by Marie and Jakob Stjernholm, as well as Ellen Nikolajsen and Andreas Stjernholm, who are the 8th generation on the family farm Gyrup. Thy Whisky is a single estate distillery, meaning they handle everything themselves. They use their own grain in production and malt the grain themselves, which can be both new and old, organic grain varieties, just as they age and bottle the whisky themselves.

Thy Whisky's warehouse is specially built with plenty of natural air circulation, so the maturation of the whisky takes place in temperatures and climates that reflect the North Jutland nature outside as much as possible. Thy Whisky has so far chosen to only produce single cask bottlings from a few casks at a time. And this has paid off – Thy Whisky No. 9 – Bøg was named Europe's best Single Malt by Jim Murray’s Whisky Bible 2020.

Thy Whisky produces approximately 50,000 liters of whisky per year. And soon, peat-smoked Thy Whisky might also be available – peat has recently been found on the property. At the time of writing, we have their Thy Distillate 1 in stock.

Mosgaard Whisky
Award-winning Mosgaard Whisky is a relatively new distillery, founded on Southern Funen in 2015 by Gitte and Jes Mosgaard, and has already achieved significant recognition. Mosgaard has won many prestigious awards and has been named Best Danish Distillery 3 years in a row at the Berlin ISC (2019, 2020, and 2021). The distillery exclusively uses organic ingredients for their Funen gin and whisky, and it is, by the way, organic Danish barley from Gyrup Malteri that is used for the whisky.

Mosgaard has learned from Scottish craftsmanship and uses long fermentation (one week, to be precise) to achieve the most flavor possible in the mash. Distillation takes place in copper pot stills, which Jes Mosgaard designed himself with the aim of optimal purification of the spirit and preserving the fruit notes that arise during fermentation.

Mosgaard also puts a lot of effort into cask maturation and is not afraid to experiment. First, the whisky is aged in small 50-liter casks and then collected for maturation in larger casks for 1-2 years, where the whisky is oxidized and gains more complexity. For maturation, Mosgaard uses re-built casks that previously contained, for example, bourbon, port wine, Madeira, and sherry.

And the work with the casks has paid off. Recently, Jim Murray named (now sold-out) Mosgaard Whisky Black Peat as the Best Single Cask of the Year from mainland Europe in his Whisky Bible 2023.

At Rombo, at the time of writing, we carry 7 different releases from Mosgaard Whisky, including the sought-after Mosgaard Whisky Experiment no. 2 Single Malt 58.3% and the double gold medalist Mosgaard Oloroso Cask Organic Whisky Batch #10

Etoh
Copenhagen-based Etoh aims to show that time does not have to be a factor in developing spirits with good flavor. Through science and state-of-the-art production methods, including ultrasound and a reactor, they significantly accelerate the maturation of spirits. The production time – including aging – is thus reduced from many years to just a few days. For the same reason, Etoh is not allowed to call their pure malts whisky, as whisky must be aged for at least 3 years. Therefore, their series is called This Is Not Whisky. But don't let that deter you – Etoh creates high-quality flavor experiences and has won several international awards.

Etoh was founded by inventor, entrepreneur, and brewer Tobias Emil Jensen, who also founded the successful microbrewery To Øl. Through meticulous control of the entire production process and a self-built reactor, where temperature, pressure, oxygen, and ultrasound are manipulated, among other things, Etoh succeeds in achieving fantastic results in a fraction of the time. As Etoh themselves say, this is not whisky – but the spirit of the future.

At Rombo, at the time of writing, we carry Etoh Arbejd, Etoh Been Apart and Etoh Livet