Region & History

For centuries, Sweden had no whisky tradition of its own. This wasn't due to a lack of talent, but to a strict law. Until 1955, alcohol could only be purchased against an entry in the rationing booklet, the Motbok. Private distilleries were practically impossible during this period. That same year, the state alcohol monopoly Systembolaget was established, making access to spirits somewhat easier. Still, it would take another forty years before the first dedicated whisky distillery appeared.

1999 was the year: in Valbo near Gävle, in the old mill building Mackmyra Bruk, the first still began operating. Mackmyra thus became Sweden's very first whisky distillery. At first it was only a pilot project, with full production starting in 2002, and other distilleries soon followed. In 2008, Anja and Henric Molin opened the Spirit of Hven distillery on the small island of Hven in the Öresund. To this day it's considered the smallest copper pot still distillery in the world. In 2010, the Box distillery began operating in the old power plant of a disused wooden crate factory in Bjärtrå on the Ångermanälven. In 2018 it renamed itself High Coast due to confusion with the British Compass Box. In the same decade, the small Smögen distillery started up on the west coast, near Hunnebostrand.

Sweden has no whisky regulation of its own, unlike Scotland. Instead, the distilleries follow the general EU rules for whisky. What truly defines the country is pace: within just twelve years, four independent houses emerged. Each gives a different answer to the question of what Swedish whisky can be.

Today it's clear how quickly this young country has caught up. Mackmyra released a twenty-year-old single malt, Sweden's oldest whisky to date. It's proof that the first generation of casks has by now matured in its own right.