I can’t believe Kyrö hasn’t featured on this blog before. Even though I regularly hear people talk about this Finnish distillery, it managed to stay under my radar. No wait, I reported on their first rye whisky release back in 2017. They are also mentioned in the recent Top-50 Most Admired Whiskies list, as one of only two distilleries in mainland Europe. That said, I never managed to review any of their whiskies.
This changes today as we try a 100% malted rye whisky from Kyrö, bottled exclusively The Whisky Exchange’s Whisky Show 2022. It is finished in a Monbazillac wine cask (sweet noble rot wine similar to Sauternes).
Kyrö Rye Whisky x Monbazillac Cask (53%, OB ‘Kyrö’s Choice’ for The Whisky Show 2022, cask #71993)
Nose: a lot of rye bread up front (lightly toasted with a bit of butter), spiced with clove, caraway seeds and juniper berries. Hints of black sesame seeds and roasted pine nuts. Hints of genever. There’s some plankish wood as well, even whiffs of wet cardboard. Subtle hints of sultanas in the background.
Mouth: still very grainy, now showing a more pronounced winey sweetness as well. Hints of pepper(mint) and aniseed, as well as clove-studded oranges. Oak char and wood dust. Then back to sultanas and roasted apple. Some milk chocolate comes out after a while, alongside toffee notes, with a sourness and winey tannins in the end.
Finish: quite long and drying, with hints of sour berries and heavy wood char.
Long story short, a very grainy and spicy whisky, with sweetness underneath. A tough one to score – it’s daringly different but the wood and wine also go off track here and there. Still available from The Whisky Exchange (also samples if you like).