Old Buck Finnish Whisky – Private Bottling for the Finnish Fellowship

Viskin Ystävien Seura is Finnish for Friends of Whisky Society, in English referred to as Fellowship of Whisky, but mainly just VYS. Now this is a club that knows how to put on events. They have this series of utterly CRAZY tastings, like the one my friend and Society member Henrik reported on last week, called “The Rare and Old” – the 14th of which was held last week with whiskys distilled in the 1930s. The series is all sold out in advance, and this club, with some 700 members, really has a lot going on. To celebrate the club’s second birthday, they had a private bottling of Old Buck, a Finnish microdistillery from Pori, and have now declared “Finnish Whisky Day” to honor the Club’s birthday with an event and a tasting of whisky from all six distilleries in Finland (Beer Hunter’s-Old Buck, Koulu, Kyrö Distillery Company, Teerenpeli, The Helsinki Distilling Company and Valamon Luostarin). The tasting will host 180 people, and if you’re going to be around Helsinki on May 23rd, you might want to attend this event.

2015 Board of the VYS

Old Buck is distilled in the micro-distillery run by the Panimoravintola Beer Hunter’s Inn restaurant in Pori. The first distillation was done in 2001 and the first whisky was relaesed in 2004 under the Old Buck label. I have, sadly, not tasted it. To honor VYS’s second anniversary last year, a bottling of  a single cask of Old Buck was made available. This is a peated four year old whisky matured in an ex bourbon cask from Jack Daniel’s. Unique and very interesting!

Photo Credit: VYS

Old Buck Bottled for Viskin Ystävien Seura, 150 Bottles (53.7% ABV)

Appearance: Bronze, tiny thin legs running very slowly.

Nose: There’s peat in the background, not overly assertive, sweet lemon, orange, pickles in brine, smokiness drifts back in with notes of limoncello and honey.
Water brings out malt and a wood fire, with orange peel and some floral notes

Palate: Orange, peat and honey, with a sour/vinegar note creeping in with spices and sweet notes.

Linger: The peat comes through with sour notes, wood smoke, some spice and a lingering sweetness. The spice notes remain on the tongue for a long time.

Conclusion

This is a very special whisky, both fun and complex. This was a great choice to bottle for the celebration of VYS’s second birthday. Shockingly, this bottle is still available, almost a year later, for purchase at the Finnish Alco shop. You must be asking yourself, being such a one off and of such high quality, how could that possibly be right?
Well, it costs €283.60 per bottle….

Thank you Henrik for sharing this fabulous dram with me!