Box Whisky The Festival 2014 - first impressions
Box Whisky The Festival 2014, 3 YO, 53,5%
Setting the scene for this tasting might hint at a bit of a positive bias about this whisky, but I will try to be as fair as possible.
Box Whisky The Festival 2014 was released for pre-order at the Box Whisky Festival last Saturday (June 28). This turned out to be a beautiful day for an outdoor festival. While the day before and the day after were grey and cold, the festival day turned out warm and with the sun shining from a blue sky.
Box Distillery is located by the Ångermanälven (river) in the Höga Kusten (High Coast) area in Sweden. This is a beautiful rural area, and we were staying at the Sandslån Camping and Hostel just a couple hundred meters across a small bay from the distillery. From there we were ferried across on a small boat for the festival. As you can understand this made for a perfect day for enjoying the day and sampling good whisky.
After having attended Janne Groth's Whisky and Food seminar I first queued up to order my bottle of Box Whisky The Festival 2014. Then I went to the Box booth and got a sample to taste. I sat down on a grassy patch by the river and tried to focus on the whisky. An occasional puff of cigar smoke and the enticing smell of barbequing drifting by.
Box Whisky The Festival 2014 is a limited edition of just 700 500 ml bottles. It is bottled at 53.5% ABV, and the cost is set at SEK 889.
The only way to order this whisky was to queue up at the festival. All the 700 bottles were pre-ordered on the day, so unless you know someone who was there, it's too late by now.
This whisky is based on the Box peated recipe, and has been matured in 100 liter ex-bourbon casks for 34 months before being finished for 5 months in fresh 40 liter casks of made from charred, new american oak.
Nose (22/25): At first I get a hit of pepper, caramel and sugarcane. Then after a while it opens up a bit more, revealing orange peal, and some added fruitiness with apples and pears. The peaty smoke is fairly gentle and restrained for such a young whisky.
Taste (23/25): This is a quite sweet whisky. It is also spicy, with pepper and wood spices. There's a bit of a sting of alcohol as one would expect with it being so young. Fruitiness and honey lifts it up.
Finish (22/25): The finish is medium to long, with the spices still dominating slightly. The honey and peat smoke linger on.
Balance (22/25): I find this to be a very nice, summery whisky. Quite possibly ideally suited for a festival setting. It's somewhat more accessible than The Pioneer, which some people might find positive, and some negative. All in all another hit from Box.
Score (89/100)
Image from Roger Melander, Box Whisky
Sláinte! - Kjell Ove