Bilberry (blueberry) matured whisky
On Friday I visited Lihnell, a local Swedish distillery. They are perhaps best known for their sherry-matured whiskies.
This time they had something particularly unusual: a new limited edition with just 87 bottles. It is a bilberry matured whisky (or blueberries, depending on what you call them), and then finished in a bourbon barrel. Pretty strange and unusual, right?
But was it any good?
My friend actually opened his bottle that evening, and we were pleasantly surprised. I was expecting something fun and unusual, but perhaps not something I would actually want to drink. Instead, it turned out to be surprisingly good.
The distillery describes it as having an intense, vinous-like character, bursting with dark forest berries and a crisp, fruity acidity. The bourbon finish adds warm, toasted oak and creamy vanilla. They compare the overall experience to a caramelized blueberry crumble pie served with rich vanilla custard, with a sweet and spicy character and a sophisticated, tea-like finish.
And what about the barrels?
The whisky was first matured in small 18-litre oak barrels. These had previously been used by someone else for making blueberry “wine”. After the blueberry maturation, the whisky had become a little too "wild", so they decided to finish it in a 50-litre bourbon barrel to calm it down and bring some balance to the flavour.