Stauning

Founded in 2005 in the western part of Jutland, Denmark, Stauning – name after the small village it is based in – was set up by nine friends who had little experience in whisky-making but a great passion for the subject as a whole. The friends included a doctor, teacher, helicopter pilot, four engineers and a butcher – the latter of which was able to procure a former abatoir to begin operations, adapting any equipment they found to start production. Malting took place in the butcher’s old cold room, and milling used a old meat mincer.

Initially the team attempted to emulate smoky whiskies from Islay, and a chance meeting with whisky writer Jim Murray let him to encourage them to escalate production after he compared their spirit with Ardbeg from the 1970s. As a result the distillery was moved from the abatoir to a small farm 1.5km away in 2007, before moving to a purpose built distillery complex in the farmland in 2018. From an initial 5 stills, Stauning now has 24 small ‘pod’ stills of 2000L, with direct fire supplied by gas. All the barley and rye used is sourced within 10km away, and the entire process, including floor malting, takes place on site.

Such is the ingenuity of innovation, a purpose built machine sprays cereal with water to encourage germination while a rotating arm on a track continually turns it, removing the need for traditional hand-turning. It’s an amazing invention which so far is completely unique.

Stauning are supplied peat by the Klosterlund Museum pulled from an ancient lake 90km away, with heather also sourced from the fjord that the village overlooks – the combination of heather and bog peat creates an incredibly unique smoky character, which, when coupled with the sweet/sour notes of their spirit, produces a whisky with phenomenal depth and complexity.

This is truly a stunning spirit – there is SO much going on it almost defies belief. The smokiness has a coastal feel of sea salt and chargrilled seafood, which is then warmed and enriched from the malted barley element, introducing hints of dark chocolate and roasted nuts. And yet there’s also notes of green apple. It’s amazing.