This post is going to be a study in being way off. Last year MvZ gave me a few samples without any labels on them, apart from a number. This was the first one. I had zero information to go by, not even an ABV if I remember correctly.

Knowing MvZ, it could be anything since he loves old Single Malts, Irish from yonder year and he’s quite a bourbon buff too. So, even that did not help in the slightest.

I tried the whiskies blind, as said. And be prepared to be surprised by both the surprising quality of this dram, and me making a complete ass of myself.

Gjoleid is a brand distilled by Arcus Distillery in Hagan, Norway. And the whisky they produce isn’t even a single malt. It’s more like Norwegian bourbon if you’d have to compare to anything.

Sniff:
Old whisky with lots of gentle fruity, there’s notes of peanut too. Peaches and apricots. Some dry spices too, but all is rather gentle and layered. Dry Fino cask like things too.

Sip:
Dry with a bit of a woody bite with a hint of white pepper. Dried yellow fruits with a quite dry texture too. It becomes a bit more sweet with pastry notes.

Swallow:
A long finish, lots of dried peaches, apricot, soft oak and hints of corky tree bark. Slightly nutty, beautiful.

So, a minor side note is that I tried it from a sample bottle instead of a complete bottle. That *could* be an excuse for some of it.

But, having said that. This is a tremendous whisky. That the Norsemen are up to something I had already noticed with Berry’s Norse Casks and their Miken whisky. This one tastes like fino sherry matured Speyside from decades ago, while it’s only a ten year old whisky from regular old bourbon barrels. Amazing, and I wouldn’t mind having a bottle of this at all!

I am very curious to try this again, if only just to see how much of an idiot I am or whether it holds up to further inspection…

89/100