We discovered the vacuum-distilled whisky from Agitator distillery in Sweden through the bottlings from The Whisky Jury. The whisky was fairly convincing, although the wave stave cask influence may have been an important factor. Today we’re trying two official releases that are somehow related to beer.
The Evidens range aims to prove that a lower cask strength of 55% can produce a deeper and more complex whisky. We’ll look at Agitator Svartvete first, for which 15% black wheat is used, along with 85% barley malt.
Agitator Evidens: Svartvete 2018 (55%, OB 2023, first-fill Oloroso quarter casks, 972 btl.)
Nose: a brooding nose, with a lot of dark elements. Dark chocolate, earthy molasses and Belgian abbey beers. Then plenty of blackberries, figs and raisins. Toasted bread and some dusty attic aroma. Also a brighter raspberry hint and red grapes.
Mouth: a lot of coffee flavours, Kahlua or Starbucks coffee with chocolate syrup. More brown sugar, liquorice and hints of burnt toast. Dried figs and blackcurrants, along with walnut cake, black peppercorns and treacle. Along the way the woody side grows stronger (cedar wood), with a bittersweet herbal theme. Underneath there’s a roasted, smoky and savoury theme.
Finish: long, the counterpart of a Stout beer. Dark caramelized notes and burnt herbs with lingering smokiness.
Big whisky, with the punchy wheat and the Oloroso dialed up to eleven. Even though it’s clearly young, I rather like this. It’s a heavyweight dram with a unique touch.
Then we have another Evidens bottling, matured in Imperial stout casks previously used for the Stormakt Porter from Närke Kulturbryggeri.
Agitator Evidens: Porter Cask (55%, OB 2024, Imperial Stout cask, 1293 btl.)
Nose: quite dark again, with ashy notes. More roasted coffee beans and dark chocolate, but without the dried fruits of the Oloroso. Instead a little vanilla, toffee and more oaky notes than I detected in Svartvete.
Mouth: a salty / sour fingerprint comes out first. Sour in a way that coffee can be sour. Then a drying leathery note, dark chocolate and toasted oak. Subtle citrus before it moves back to treacle and a lightly meaty note. Some mildly bitter elements in the background.
Finish: long and warming, still fairly savoury.
This is a similar concept to Svartvete, in a way, but far less convincing in my opinion. The beer cask doesn’t stand up to the complexity of the sherry cask. Score: 81/100