Valamo 3YO Monastery Peated Single Malt

This is the first peated single malt whisky release for retail market by Valamo Monastery Distillery from Finland. Their story is interesting as they are a monastery distillery producing peated and unpeated single malt whiskies.

For example they’re making peated whisky matured in old church wine casks. I always like it when whisky makers combine smoke and sweetness. Given that church wine is usually quite sweet.

This batch 1 of Valamo Peated has been aged for 3 years, matured in small 30-40 liter new oak casks (Blood-tub).

Valamo Monastery Peated Single Malt Batch 1

The label looks cool when you put it against sunlight because of its transparent fonts

Not as promising as their first unpeated version

Unfortunately I have say that this Valamo expression was a disappointment. Overall I gave it a score of 78 points. I did score it 80 points at first but felt a bit biased. After all I’m a Finn reviewing a Finnish made whisky from an interesting brand.

I did find the first ever Valamo for retail market to be very promising but it was their unpeated single malt. I really hope that future expressions of peated Valamo can deliver a more suitable palate. And that I can manage to get my hands on peated whisky finished in church wine casks!

Matured in:

New Oak Blood Tub

ABV: 58.5%

Colour: Deep amber

Nose: Rubber strikes strong! Turns into marzipan and freshly cut wood. Hints of warming spices. For me, marzipan and rubber are major turnoffs, so the aromas are really not my cup of tea.

Taste: Veeery sweet. Sugar and malt, along with wee spices and rubber. Drops of water brings little bit of peat.

Finish: Spices try to overpower the sweetness. Balancing between sweet and spicy notes. Acid white wine notes with little bit of ginger.

Balance: Sweetness is just too much. Bit too one-sided and lacks in peat and smoke (couldn’t detect smoke at all). Finish is definitely the best part but it just won’t salvage the overall scoring.