Flóki Icelandic Young Malt

The Eimverk Distillery was founded only in 2009 near Reykjavik, the Icelandic capital. They have two spirits on the market: Vor, a premium gin and Flóki, a single malt. My whiskybuddy Dominic provided me with a sample of the latter, cask 23. Bottles of 50cl are around 60 EUR which is not cheap. They are currently available only in the duty free shops in Iceland. The nose is very aromatic and spicy and reminds me of walnut liqueur at first. Gingerbread and raisin bread. Mildly burnt cake. Speculoos. All goodies from the bakery, but it is not really top in my glass. Special, to say the least, but it does not bring whisky to mind. It is quite oily and tasty, warm and feisty. Think chili pepper, cloves, cinnamon and nutmeg. But hardly any fruit. Maybe some raisins and a single fig. Brown bread in abundance. Very grain driven as they say. You can also taste the oak. Reminds me a bit of an Austrian rye that I totally disliked. Luckily, this is not so bad. The finish is medium long, very spicy with loads of tannins at the death. This is the precursor to the ‘first impression’ that is set for release in 2017. It still has a ways to go, I think. Thanks, Dominic.