Notes and Reviews for Whiskey Ring Podcast Episode 203: Kyrö Distillery with Co-Founder Kalle Valkonen

“Like so many brilliant Finnish ideas and half of its population, the concept for this all-rye distillery was conceived in a sauna.”

Tell me you don’t take yourselves too seriously without telling me you don’t take yourselves too seriously. Oh, and throw in a decade-old photo of bare asses running away from the camera into a field.

Ladies and gentleman, Kyrö Distillery.

Born in a sauna where five guys were drinking Rittenhouse Rye, Kyrö Distillery in Isokyrö, Finland is taking rye to somewhere new. I’ve been eating rye my whole life and drinking it for about a decade. Between the revelations that have come with Old Potrero from Hotaling & Co., Stork Club Rye, and now Kyrö, I’m ready to say that I’m fully on a rye kick.

It’s a good thing I asked Kalle (one of the five co-founders) what rye they were drinking; I hadn’t heard the actual bottle named in any of the interviews I listened to, for one, and for another, I never would have guessed that Rittenhouse was an inspiration for the absolute game-changer I feel Kyrö’s rye is. I enjoy Rittenhouse, don’t get me wrong, but I consider it a spicier rye, unmalted, and with a nice proof kick for bottled in bond. Check out my notes below for my thoughts on Kyrö’s malted rye. Mind-blowing, totally new flavor, but aside from some mild cinnamon, spice isn’t among the predominant flavors I got. Not to say there is any connection, I just thought it was an interesting inspiration-to-final-product difference.

Kyrö is also based on “honest hedonism”, the idea that enjoying great things in great company with honest intentions and appreciation for where something came from is an end in itself. With an 8.8/10 - exceptional - clearly I enjoyed this pour with honest hedonism. The Kyrö Wood Smoke, their alder-smoked malted rye, was more experiential if less balanced (alder is a strong flavor!), but both are more than worth trying, both under $50.

It’s strange to think that at one point, Kyrö was on the brink of bankruptcy, putting out some gin and whatever whisky they could, selling barrels to keep cash flowing. Then, the IWSC called - their gin had won best Gin & Tonic. In two days, they sold out what had been distributed for a 1.5 month supply. Their production increased tenfold. By the end of 2016, they were near 100,000 bottles sold, became the gin of James Bond, and were at 430,000 bottles by the end of 2017.

All while the gin kept the lights on, their whisky kept aging. Malted rye aged on site, where they can get up to 20 hours of. sunlight per day in the summer. The rye is food grade, the same they’d use to make the Finnish rye bread every Fin misses when away from home. The ferments reached six days long using a yeast similar to kveik with inspiration from long Japanese ferments producing fruity esters.

The whisky is now widespread and well-known, the packaging updated with bold black lettering. The big push into the US was a little delayed due to costs, tariffs, and the like, but it can still be found relatively easily in the States and Europe. We’ll dive more into the details in the episode (hope you’ll listen and subscribe!), so the TL;DR version is this: I loved this rye. It’s new, it’s different, it’s fantastic, and at just under $43/bottle, is low-risk. This is in my top 3 ryes of the year and is bumping against the #1 spot…maybe by the end of the year, that’s exactly where it’ll be.

Thank you to Kalle for entering the whiskey ring!

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Kyrö Distillery

Thank you to Kyrö Distillery for providing samples at no charge for the purposes of this interview. All opinions are my own.

Kyrö Malt Rye Whisky: Specs

Classification: Finnish Malted Rye Whisky

Producer: Kyrö Distillery

Mashbill: 100% Malted Rye

Proof: 94.4º (47.2% ABV)

Age: NAS

Location: Isokyrö, Finland

Kyrö Malt Rye Whisky Price: $42.90

Official Website

Kyrö Malt Rye Whisky: Tasting Notes

Eye: Orange blossom honey. Solid, medium rims, thin syrupy legs and small drops.

Nose: Maple forests…feels fantasy-esque. Cinnamon and vanilla being dried, intensely flavorful yet not floral. The red grape fruitiness is unexpected. Apples dipped in honey, flowery and late summer. Fresh sweet rye bread with raisins.

Palate: Perfect continuation of the nose, bright crunchy apples fresh off the tree and drizzled with a citrus honey (orange notes, but more varied). Very little proof, a touch of hay funk, front and mid-palate viscosity. Oily and astringent as it sits (initially no oak), light vanilla and lemon butter or lemon balm. Builds on the chew to be quite filling. Orange flowers.

Finish: The casks’ astringency builds to a peak before the honey and apple catch up. Fruity grain, plump and dense with flavor. Medium length, coating on the mid and back tongue, bready at the end.

Overall: I’ve been eating rye my whole life and drinking it for over a decade. I’ve never had a rye flavor like this. Holy shit. The flavor is spectacular, apples and honey and raisin-studded bread. Rosh Hashanah with the challah already cut and giving off bready scents. The proof is negligible and the cask influence is just right. Wow.

Final Rating: 8.8

Kyrö Wood Smoke Alder-Smoked Malt Rye Whisky: Specs

Classification: Finnish Malted Rye Whisky

Producer: Kyrö Distillery

Mashbill: 100% Malted Rye

Proof: 94.4º (47.2% ABV)

Age: NAS

Location: Isokyrö, Finland

Kyrö Wood Smoke Alder-Smoked Malt Rye Whisky Price: $47.90

Official Website

Kyrö Wood Smoke Alder-Smoked Malt Rye Whisky: Tasting Notes

Eye: Orange blossom honey. Medium syrupy rims, thin legs and tiny droplets.

Nose: Wood planks on a grill, savory and intensely fragrant. Smoked salmon on a toasted bagel. There’s a unique scent here…pine cones? Not the needles, just the earthiness. A touch of proof. Starting a fire with mossy, wet wood.

Palate: Drier and more wood-forward, like drinking from an aspen-made cup or with fresh smoke around you. Texture is kind of like creamed honey. Medium-bodied, smoke suffuses the palate and settles mid-tongue. Pickling spices, no liquid or sourness. The wet woodsmoke is crystal clear once it’s identified. Coffee grounds, roasted and a little bitter.

Finish: Slightly more bitter, the coffee lingering on the back palate, the mossy element also clarifying. I don’t get much of a sense of the rye on the finish, though the pour is delicious.

Overall: Experiential - I had to call on a friend to help me identify a note (the moss-covered wood) that was so close to my memory yet just out of reach. I enjoy the alder as an alternative wood and a flavor, but I think it’s so strong it overpowers the rye. No proof anywhere.