The Danish actress Connie Inge-Lise Nielsen once mused that if Copenhagen was to be imagined as a person, it would be beautiful, elderly, but with flair, filled with imagination and with an appetite for the new while harbouring respect for the old.
Interestingly, the same qualities could be attributed to Copenhagen Distillery, which was first established in 2014 as one of the Danish capital’s first craft distilleries.
Informed by traditional methods, Copenhagen Distillery has set out to reimagine the tested and tried to infuse what contemporary spirits can be with a modern twist in a sustainable and environmentally responsible way, centred around the usage of organically-certified wheat and barley and a small batch approach to production.
Specifically when it comes to Copenhagen Distillery’s organic seasonal small batch craft spirits, they manage to create an idiosyncratic melange which is informed by both the local community, e.g. collaborations with local restaurants, and the DNA of Danish culture as well as the local climate and the resulting locally sourced ingredients to craft unique fine spirits.
An example par excellence for how Copenhagen Distillery channels its alchemy is its Black Cask Gin: Having matured in a century-old, charred oak cask, the name could not be more befitting.
Limited to a devilish 666 bottles and locking in at an ABV of 45%, the Black Cask Gin expression lives up to its name in that its creation was inspired by ancient burial rituals, centred around the usage of juniper, angelica and bay leaf to fortify one for when the ferryman Charon transitions one via the river Styx towards the afterlife in the underworld.
Apart from Copenhagen Distillery’s highly commended gold-medal-winning gins and its unique Copenhagen Coffee Laboratory collaboration, which distils Guatemalan Arabica into pure coffee spirit, we hope to be able to soon be covering its idiosyncratic Danish whisky, where the Raw Edition expresses the character of the local barley grains, while Rare serves as a forum for experimental endeavours.
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Words by AW.
Photo courtesy of Copenhagen Distillery.