Stauning Whisky

Why it is renowned

Its Rye Winter Edition won the rye category at the World Whiskies Awards in 2022, and Stauning ryes had won category prizes there in each year from 2018.¹ At Noma in Copenhagen, René Redzepi took every other whisky off the list in favour of Stauning.²

The story

Nine friends founded Stauning in 2005 in an old butchery in the village of Stauning, near Skjern in West Jutland; it is the oldest whisky distillery in Denmark.²³ They malted local barley on the floor of the cold room and dried it over peat from a nearby museum, and the first spirit ran in August 2006.² After a tasting with the whisky writer Jim Murray in 2006, the founders moved to a farm south of the village and restarted production there in 2009.³ In 2018 Stauning opened a purpose-built distillery with 24 small copper pot stills heated by direct flame.⁴ The rye and barley are grown within a few kilometres, malted on the floor and smoked over local peat.⁴

What to know it by

• Peated 1st Edition³discontinuedSmoky single malt
• Stauning Rye³Whisky made on malted rye