Smogen 10 Year Old Aqvavitae Askeim Small Batch 55% 50cl

In the online world of Aqvavitae, you’ll often hear Roy declaring things to be ‘bidirectional’. That is, he is just as easily influenced by his community as they are by him. A few years back, members of his community - occasionally referred to as ‘Barflies’ - began making noises about a Swedish lawyer who was making his own whisky by hand in tiny quantities. Unable to find this mystical ‘Smögen’ Single Malt, he asked what else tasted similar. The reply was jarring: “Nothing. There’s nothing like it”. Intrigued, Roy built a small collection of bottles and samples from travelling around his community and became fascinated with one of the most densely-flavoured malts he’d ever happened across.

While it was the robust, super-smoky and character-laden Smögen that drew him in, it was the less-peated, heritage grain variant known as ‘Askeim’ that hooked him. It would transpire that this part-time distiller, Pär Caldenby, was also a silent Barfly and they quickly became friends.

In 2025 Roy, together with a small team of afore-mentioned Barflies, headed to the tiny distillery in Sweden and boldly asked if they might be able to bottle something for the community. However, an initially positive response was met with incredulity when Roy asked for Askeim; the lightly peated, floor-malted, Golden Promise stock in particular. To demonstrate the weight of the request, they headed to a tiny warehouse. Inside, Pär pointed to eight small quarter casks, with white-painted ends. “Golden promise, almost ten years old.” Upon asking how much of it there was, the response was telling: “That’s it. All of it.” Still, in an ad-hoc blending session they sampled all eight casks that day and discovered three casks that worked particularly well together. An idea was hatched. All they needed was a partner to ship to Smogen-curious Barflies located globally. [We stepped in to support the project as we have with the Barfly bottlings of the past. It marks the first official bottling of many to be sold exclusively through Royal Mile Whiskies. Now, when whisky fans are looking for ‘something similar to Smögen’, they’ll actually be able to try Smögen!

Here are the details from Pär and tasting notes from Roy. Pär: Indeed, the three cask numbers were 2, 5 and 8, all from January 2016 and thus 10 years old. The spirit was made from lightly (8-10 ppm phenols) peated Golden Promise barley, floor malted, fermented with distiller’s yeast for 6-7 days and then double distilled. Cut points higher than for our heavily peated spirit. Filled into specially tailored ex-Bourbon quarter casks, all first fill and all ex Four Roses in this case, coopered by Johan Thorslund, the very well reputed Swedish cooper. Matured on site until taken hostage by a bunch of thirsty Barflies and bottled at a particularly enjoyable 55% ABV.