Nordisk Brænderi

Why it is renowned

The Berlin International Spirits Competition named Nordisk Brænderi Denmark Distillery of the Year in 2015,¹² and the New York International Spirits Competition named it Aquavit Distillery of the Year in 2016.³ Its Nordisk Gin Edition Northstar won a double gold medal at The Fifty Best gin competition in New York in 2015,⁴⁵ and its first whisky, Special Edition No. 1, a gold medal at the San Francisco World Spirits Competition.⁶⁷

The story

The polar explorer Anders Bilgram, who led the Polar Passage 2000 expedition 26,000 kilometres around the Arctic in an open boat, opened the distillery in March 2009 beside his home and his wife Githa's glassworks at the Hødal valley near Hjortdal.⁸⁶ It distils on two copper stills; barley from the slopes of Hødal goes into the whisky, and herbs from the surrounding woods into the gin and aquavit.⁸ Nordisk Gin Edition Northstar, which Nordisk Brænderi calls the first wholly Danish-made gin of the new gin wave, carries Greenlandic qajaasat picked near Narsaq, Swedish cloudberries, Icelandic angelica seed and Danish rose hips and elderflower picked by hand in June.⁶⁵ The distillery also makes spirits under other brands' labels, among them Skotlander rum.⁶

What to know it by

• Nordisk Gin Edition Northstar⁵Gin with Greenlandic, Swedish, Icelandic and Danish botanicals
• Special Edition No. 1⁶Its first whisky
• Nordic Aquavit Monastery⁷Aquavit from the distillery named Aquavit Distillery of the Year